Each month in The Hammer, art industry veteran Simon de Pury lifts the curtain on his life as the ultimate art world insider, his brushes with fame and his invaluable insight into the workings internal art market.
When at the start of the pandemic the whole world went into lockdown and even the works of art themselves could not be shipped anywhere, the auction market was fast enough to adapt to the completely new situation. . In two and a half years, auction houses have made more technological advances than in the previous two decades. The main salesrooms started to look like television studios filled with lots of equipment but without a physical audience. It has been successfully demonstrated that the vast majority of works of art are acquired by people who did not have the chance to see the works physically before the auction. Condition reports prepared by professional restorers and premium images on iPhone, iPad or computer gave buyers the convenience. It was no longer necessary for auction house specialists to travel endlessly around the world and wine and dine their customers in the best restaurants. There was no longer a need for super heavy vanity catalogs to be produced and mailed to each customer’s three primary residences at enormous cost not only to the environment but also to the auction companies themselves.
As we enter the summer season, Covid seems like a distant memory, a blast from the past. Just as we do as individuals when we have survived a very stormy and difficult time in our own lives, we want to forget about it as quickly as possible and return to the behavior we had before. Auction rooms are even more filled with collectors, dealers, advisors and socialites than before Corona. Art fairs that couldn’t take place during the pandemic are drawing record crowds.
The pandemic has posed much greater challenges to institutions whether medical, academic or cultural which largely depend on their ability to raise funds at charity auctions and galas. I vividly remember my first commercial auction which I conducted fifty years ago at Sotheby’s in their main saleroom on New Bond Street in London. It was a few years later that I was asked to do my first charity auction.
Alex Pettyfer, Heidi Klum and Simon de Pury speak during the amfAR Cannes 2023 Gala at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc on May 25, 2023 in Cap d’Antibes, France. Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/amfAR/Getty Images for amfAR.
I quickly realized that the skills required of an auctioneer at a philanthropic event are very different from those required at a “regular” auction. In both cases, the task of the person conducting the auction is to obtain the highest possible price at the time of the sale. People who attend commercial auctions generally do so with the clear intention of acquiring one or more works offered. Guests at a charity gala have usually already paid for a table or two and are essentially coming to have a good time. The more fun they have at night, the more they will want to impress some of the sometimes very attractive and elegant other guests and the more generous they will be at the auction.
The annual budget of an institution will depend on the result of the charity auction, which means that it is of crucial importance. However, the seriousness of all this must in no way interrupt or harm the general animation of the event. This allows you as an auctioneer to be more theatrical and flamboyant and hopefully use a healthy dose of humor. Perhaps for this reason, the chief and principal auctioneers of major auction companies are often not their principal charity auctioneers.
When I resigned over a decade ago from Phillips de Pury & Company, I thought that meant the end of my hammering at auctions. It didn’t bother me too much because dealing and working with art has always been my main motivation. Little did I know that far from putting away my gavel, I would be asked to conduct charity auctions around the world. So much so that in 2019 I made 36 such sales. In 2020 when Covid hit I only wielded the gavel four times. This year I’m back to or even beyond pre-pandemic levels and hardly a week goes by that I don’t have to go somewhere to sing for my supper.
Kennedy Yanko, Samuel Kareem, Simon de Pury and Tinie Tempah attend the Ukrainian People and Culture Charity Gala at Scuola Grande Di San Rocco on April 21, 2022 in Venice, Italy. Photo by Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images.
Most of the charities I support have faced serious shortcomings in their fundraising efforts during Corona. Three or four times virtual galas were planned where everyone would have attended an entertainment program from home, they could have dressed up for the occasion and alcohol and food sponsors were ready to provide them with a special menu sent to their homes. Each time, the organizers had to cancel shortly before the planned events, probably because too few potential buyers had shown interest. The technology was not advanced enough to translate the excitement of a live gala event into living rooms. Online sales couldn’t quite replicate the fun and sexiness of the real thing.
This is one of the reasons that pushed me during the pandemic to try to develop a system where an avatar, a caricature of myself, would lead an auction. Instead of just seeing the numbers go up on a screen, you would hear my voice which hopefully could convey tremendous excitement and see my avatar gesticulating, hammer in hand, as bidders type their bids on their iPhones. I naively assumed that meant I could lay somewhere on a beach under coconut trees while my avatar did my thing. After all, when driving my car I listen to the pretty female voice of my GPS telling me when to go left or right, there isn’t a lady lying in my car doing it in real time. Despite the ubiquitous talk of Artificial Intelligence and its light-speed progress, I actually have to ride in some kind of spacesuit, put on a very uncomfortable helmet with a camera filming my every move so my avatar can reproduce my gestures and strike the gavel.
The digital avatar of Simon de Pury realizing a primary market auction on de-PURY.com. Image courtesy of Simon de Pury.
At de PURY, we currently have four online auctions led by my avatar in the works: CREATE – 21st century architecture and design on July 26, FIRE – Contemporary Glass & Ceramic on August 22, PARADISE LOST – Nature in contemporary art on September 20 and KAWAII – Kindness in contemporary art on October 4…I will, or rather my avatar will, lead them in the manner described above. However, I hope that for the many themes that I have in mind for subsequent sales, you and other buyers will be able to choose from a selection of avatars. It can either be mine (which for me has the advantage that I don’t have to worry about extra wrinkles or less hair) or three or four other avatars of different genders, colors and ages.
While the four sales mentioned above are for-profit commercial initiatives, three percent of the total hammer price of each auction will be donated to the Design Department of MoMA, the V&A, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and the Save the Children Fund. respectively. None of us know what the future holds, but the pandemic and the many other challenges we’re facing right now have shown us that any business selling non-essential survival items should include a charitable component.
Simon de Pury is the former President and Chief Auctioneer of Phillips de Pury & Company, former European President and Chief Auctioneer of Sotheby’s and former Curator of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. He is now an auctioneer, curator, private dealer, artistic advisor, photographer and DJ. Instagram: @simondepury
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