Auctioneers Who Made Art History

Procurement analysis, sales planning, customer orientation, brand management—the art market is changing more rapidly than ever before. The price that a work of art commands influences its place in the art-historical canon. Auction houses have become dominant avenues of distribution, as have art fairs, galleries, and art dealers. Even today the ritual dra­maturgy of the auction resembles an archaic compe­tition, which can leave participants speechless and captivate bystanders. At the center of the action is the auctioneer, whose performance is increasingly critical to the success of the auction. With portraits of auctioneers, this volume tells the story of the art auction business. Key events that played out in cities such as New York, Paris, Zurich, Berlin, Stuttgart, and Pompeii come alive and show how the auctioneer is emerging from the anonymity of a service provider and stepping into the limelight as the star of the show.



Cover

Table of Content

A Cultural History of the Art Auction in 14 Portraits

London 1766

James ChristieThe Power of Place, Promotion and Personality

Pompeii 1875

Lucius Caecilius Iucundus Messages from the Art Market in Antiquity

London 1882

The Hamilton Palace Sale and a Global Market

Berlin 1916–1932

Paul Cassirer 81 Auctions between 1916 and 1932

Lucerne 1939

The AntiheroTheodor Fischer and the Auctioneerin the Age of Extremes

Stuttgart 1947–1962

Roman Norbert Ketterer, or the Return of Expressionism

Bern 1951

Eberhard Kornfeld Connoisseurship and Tradition

London 1957–58 and 1977

Peter C. Wilson

Basel 1964

Anke Adler-Slottke Stamps and the First Woman Auctioneer

New York 1990

Starry, Starry Night: Dr Gachet, Christopher Burge and Hideto Koyabashi

New York, London, Geneva and Zurich 2000–01

The Dream of a Boutique Auction House Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg

Paris 2001–2009

Meeting Saint Laurent

New York 2004

Tobias Meyer and the Rise ofAmerican Post-War Art

New York 2013

Echoes of a Landmark Sale Jussi Pylkkänen on the Rostrum

The Day-to-day Business of Auctioneering

Circuit: Provenance

A Bid for Love The Heir by Vita Sackville-West

Best Offers The Top 12 Auctioneering Scenes in Feature Films

Endnotes

Appropriation List Auctioneering in Books, Movies, and Popular Culture

About the Contributors

Acknowledgements

Photo Credits

Colophon