Sarah Thornton’s detailed report on a Christie’s evening auction paints a vivid picture of the event. It reveals not only the players in this auction game and their attitudes but also their behaviors inside and outside of the auction room.Thornton recites the saying, “art is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it” (Thornton 11). Although now almost cliché, it nevertheless carries a considerable degree of relevance to how art is viewed and even made in today’s art world. And many factors, an example of which is provenance, can affect how much people are willing to pay for a work of art (Thornton 9-10). Who owned the work in the past is completely irrelevant to its aesthetic value, but it plays a part in pricing, which, to me, is utterly insane.
This ceremony that is auction reminds me of the culture of lavish spectacle in 19th century France. The wealthy in the 19th century France went to the theatres not to see but to be seen, and the same seems to apply to the ritual of auction-going today. Thornton hints that people care considerable amount about what they wear to the auction (Thornton 16). As vain as these auctions have become, where they sit in the auction room is terribly important to the bidders because the location of their seats is a “mark of status and a point of pride” (Thornton 16). For buyers, buying is “winning” and the prize won acts as a testament to their wealth and status. For consultants and dealers, buying is an “advertisement for their services” (Thornton 26). There are understood rules in the auction room that are to be followed closely if one did not want to suffer from public embarrassment. This NY Times article spells out these rules: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/arts/design/05alle.html?pagewanted=all.
http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/vsh0341l.jpg
Another thing I learned is how big of a role an auctioneer plays in the game. Thornton’s account of Christopher Burge was fascinating. I always saw this job as one of the most boring (to which he agrees) and unimportant because all that I ever saw auctioneers do was yell out numbers and banging their gavels. To my great surprise, Thornton reveals that the auctioneer has the “book” that contains all kinds of useful information like the seating chart of all bidders and their bidding behaviors (Thornton 4). I had no idea that the auctioneer knew so much about the bidders beforehand. Using the knowledge he has, an auctioneer can also influence the final price of an object being auctioned off. He is also responsible for picking up signs from the discreet bidders who bid with the slightest gestures (see cartoon). Christopher Burge’s charming, lively disposition, direct eye contact, and calling bidders by their names, all of which can push the bidders to bid higher, can be shown in the YouTube video clip of the auction for Andy Warhol ‘s Soup Can with Can Opener.
According to the Economist, Warhol’s Soup Can with Can Opener was the first of Warhol’s works that were ever shown in a museum and was once owned by the Tremaines (The Economist). So this work has historical significance and desirable provenance. However, another Warhol that had been mostly neglected beat it with a much higher price tag. This hidden card was Warhols 1962 work Men in Her Life, which dealt with “celebrity, wealth, scandal, sex, death, Hollywood, icons of American life” (Artdaily). Its estimate was only available on request, which, according to Thornton, is the case for extremely expensive works. Whereas the Soup Can with Can Opener was sold at $23.8 million, Men in Her Life went as high as $63.4 million. The latter lacks color and was passed from one dealer to another for decades. How can a work like this fetch such a high price? The answer lies with Philippe Ségalot.
Philippe Ségalot, a co-owner of a powerful art consultancy, is an art advisor to some of the richest collectors. When an auction house Phillips de Pury opened a new space on Park Avenue and 57th Street in 2010, Ségalot organized Carte Blanche, a curated auction for which he put together 33 works, including works by Cindy Sherman, Maurizio Cattelan, Robert Morris, Takashi Murakami, and Andy Warhol (Vogel). Ségalot bid against his own assistant and business partner among others and bought the work for the staggering $63.4 million (The Economist). This auction is interesting because one can look at this concept of "curated sales" as either a strategy of an auction house to outshine its rivals or an attempt to select artworks "not for their market value but for their artistic quality," as Ségalot claimed (Artdaily). Whether the fact that Warhol's Men in Her Life beat the Soup Can supports or undermines Ségalot's statement is debatable.
Andy Warhol. Men in Her Life. 1962.http://media.economist.com/images/images-magazine/2010/11/13/BK/20101113_BKP504.jpg
Andy Warhol. Soup Can with Can Opener. 1962.https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS6CUfwb5BsG__-Izop6VV_Lpjl_6tvomwYckvdM1HoTnnu-k9t
Works Cited
"A Passion That Knows No Bounds." The Economist - World News, Politics, Economics, Business & Finance. 19 Nov. 2010. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. <http://www.economist.com/node/17551930>.
"Phillips De Pury & Co. to Launch Carte Blanche Auction at New Space on Park Avenue." Artdaily.org - The First Art Newspaper on the Net. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. <http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=41369>.
Thornton, Sarah. "Auction." Seven Days in the Art World. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008. 3-39.
Vogel, Carol. "Phillips De Pury Wants to Make a Big Splash." Rev. of The New York Times. The New York Times. 27 May 2010. Web. 10 Jan. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/arts/design/28vogel.html>.