Jul 5, 2021
A few weeks ago I mentioned that Roger Federer had decided to put up 20 lots of his match-worn clothing and racquets from his Grand Slam wins for auction to raise money for his foundation.
Now I’m pleased to report that so far the timed auction has raised £1.3 million and counting. Bidding will remain open until July 14.
Of course it helps that Fed is still in the running at Wimbledon, as I speak, having made it into the fourth round – and the second week – for the umpteenth time. And this illustrates one of the most important things about auctions: timing.
I’m sure Federer’s kit would make a great deal of money at any time, but I’m equally sure that more and higher bids will result from the auction being run alongside his favourite Grand Slam tournament, when many more minds are focused on all things tennis.
Such synchronicity is commonplace and for good reason.
In recent years, landmark exhibitions of largely forgotten or overlooked talent among Modern British artists have taken place at some of the most influential public galleries, including Pallant House Gallery in Chichester and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. As these exhibitions spark new interest in the likes of Cedric Morris, John Minton, Christopher Wood and Keith Vaughan, so collectors who have held their works for many a year decide that now might be the time to sell them at auction. Prices rise along with demand and the artist enjoys a greater profile. Depending on how much work of the first quality becomes available ongoing, this surge in popularity and value can last into the medium to long term.
It’s all about getting the timing right.
Jun 28, 2021
When an iconic red phone box due to be offered at auction sold before bidding started at £15,000 last month, it reminded me of how seemingly mundane items can take on a new life when their original purpose has been fulfilled.
In this case the phone box had been a feature of the streetscape for decades close to Lincoln Cathedral. The price achieved was a full £9,000 above the anticipated auction estimate.
So why do such things make this sort of money? In short, design and nostalgia, twin qualities that can turn what has been a workaday object into folk art.
Think about it: the cliché views of London in Hollywood films have always been the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, Bobbies on the beat, Beafeaters, Buckingham Palace, London taxis, red pillar boxes and the old red phones boxes – all classic images of supposedly more innocent and better days gone by.
The unique design of the phone box was the brainchild of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1880-1960), a well-known architect whose two most celebrated buildings were Battersea Power Station and Livepool Cathedral. He was also the grandson of Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-78), who designed both the Albert Memorial and, most famously, St Pancras Station.
Taking care with design so that it appeals to our aesthetic sense as well as being supremely fitted for its function gives objects the sort of longevity that less well thought out things lack.
In turn, this transition from functional object to folk art brings new life to things long past their sell-by date and creates whole new collecting fields such as street furniture, which can encompass everything from road signs and phone boxes to the long redundant fire stamps issued to clients by insurance companies. It’s a good lesson that good design is not simply a luxury.
Jun 21, 2021
A few weeks ago I happened to mention the world’s rarest and most desirable stamp, the 1856 British Guiana One-Cent Magenta, which was coming up for auction, estimated at $10 million to $15 million.
In the end it made $7.9 million hammer – still a substantial sum – with the buyer revealed as Stanley Gibbons, the world-renowned stamp specialists.
Now I learn that Gibbons has unique plans for the stamp, planning to treat it rather as others have been handling the new craze of Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) by selling shares in it.
To that end, the company has launched a new website called 1c-magenta.com via which it plans to “democratise” the stamp. “For the first time ever, you will be able to own your very own piece of the British Guiana 1c Magenta,” the website promises.
At this stage, the website simply allows you to register your interest in becoming a part-owner. Presumably, Gibbons needs to gauge the level of interest to see how viable this approach is to capitalising on its acquisition.
It’s a canny approach, and if it works could provide a template for future business when it comes to the best of the best.
This sort of arrangement is almost purely for the investment collector rather than the fan, although serious philatelists may well jump at the opportunity to own a share in the world’s rarest stamp, however small that share may be.
Similar in that it creates an otherwise inaccessible opportunity is the trend in recent years to raffle houses. However small the chance, the purchaser of a £5 or £25 ticket might – just might – be the one who name comes out of the hat for the £1 million prize home. As they say with the National Lottery: You’ve got to be in it to win it.
Jun 15, 2021
The younger generation are said to value experiences more than possessions these days, which isn’t the best news for people like me who spend their time disposing of chattels at auction.
Having said that, Generation Z also seem rather taken with the latest fashions and footwear – the global market in trainers is now worth around £5 billion, I understand, so all is not lost on that front when it comes to acquiring material items.
However, the past week has been notable for what must surely be the record price for an ‘experience’ sold at auction: $28 million for a single ticket to join Amazon entrepreneur Jeff Bezos for his maiden flight on the Blue Origin capsule as it leaves Earth’s atmosphere. That means that the unnamed buyer will be paying out around $9 million for each of the three to four minutes of the ten-minute trip that will be at zero gravity.
If we are genuinely at the beginning of what may later become mass space travel, then this exclusive experience may well prove a bargain. After all, to be one of just four passengers, including Bezos and his brother, on the trip will surely seal their position for posterity – once they are named, of course.
The statistics from the live auction are interesting too: 7,000 bidders took part, with pre-sale bids from 159 countries reaching $4.8 million before the live auction began took place on June 12. It’s yet another example of how impossible this process would have been without the internet – a facility without which Mr Bezos would not now be the world’s richest person.
Jun 6, 2021
I thought I’d seen it all until last week when I read a report about an Italian artist who had auctioned off an ‘invisible’ sculpture for $18,300.
How do you make a sculpture invisible? Er, you don’t. You simply pretend that you have made one, produce a plinth, say that although you can’t see it, it is certainly there, and then attract bids.
If this seems like lunacy, you may not be far wrong. However, Salvatore Garau explained away this exercise in conceptual art by saying: “It is a work that asks you to activate the power of the imagination.”
In doing so, he titled the work Io Sono (I am), arguing that the vacuum in which the ‘artwork’ sat was “nothing more than a space full of energy” – although I would counter that if it is a vacuum, then it wouldn’t have any energy, even if, as Garau continued, the Heisenberg Principle states that even ‘nothing’ has weight.
Nonetheless, if you can conjure no more than an idea from nothing, what was it that the successful bidder got for their money? A certificate of authenticity accompanied by a set of instructions on how to exhibit the invisible sculpture. These stipulated that it must be displayed in a five foot square space unencumbered by any obstruction.
Confident in his logic, Garau justifies his creation and its sale by arguing: “After all, don’t we shape a God we’ve never seen?”
I’ll leave you with that thought.
May 30, 2021
When you buy and sell art, it’s important to remember that although an artwork itself may change hands, the rights to reproduce it or exploit it commercially through copying it remain with the artist and their heirs right up to seventy years after they have died.
Likewise, just because you have bought a photograph doesn’t mean that you can set up a business selling copies of it if the photographer’s rights are still active.
I was reminded of this by news of an attempt to sell an NFT (Non Fungible Token) of a Jean-Michel Basquiat drawing coming unstuck recently.
Basquiat, a prodigy mentored by Andy Warhol, succumbed to heroin addiction at the tender age of 27 in the late 1980s. Today, he is just about the hottest artist on the market, with top works selling in the tens of millions of dollars. Understandably, his estate guards his rights jealously and took exception to a digital version (in NFT format) of one of his drawings being offered for sale without permission.
As well as the question of copyright, the sale raised a slightly more obscure but no less important issue: that of moral rights. This is because the seller, who also owned the original drawing, offered the winning bidder of the NFT the option of destroying the original drawing. It is thought that the destruction of the original would vest more value in the NFT. However, while someone may acquire a work of art, it is not in their gift to damage or wilfully destroy it, or to exploit it in any other way that might damage the artist’s reputation while the artist’s rights remain active.
This is the area of artist’s rights that is often overlooked yet has just as valid a call on control of artworks as copyright.
Technology may make all sorts of new things possible, but it does not remove longstanding rights to allow them to happen.
May 24, 2021
To be fair, it was a mangled wreck, yet someone decided to pay nine times its lower estimate of £10,000 to secure it at auction. Why?
The remains of the 1960 Jaguar XK150 S.38 Drophead Coupe look ready for no more than the scrapheap, but a mixture of faith and hope – and possibly a little charity – mean that it will now rise again to wow petrolheads in what must be the ultimate recycling exercise.
This vintage Jag was a very limited edition originally: just 69 of the right-hand drive models were made. It also played a massive role in the development of sports cars; quite an eyeful on its own terms, it also proved to be the stepping stone to the iconic E-Type, arguably the most important British sports car of the 1960s.
This model has been with the vendor since 1969, and they remained the proud owner until it had a serious argument with a tree in 1996, since when it has languished in its current state.
Now though, someone with enough vision and money to make the difference has snapped it up at auction with a view to restoring it to its former glory. I just hope that they film the entire process as they could make a mint out of the rights.
When fully restored, it is thought that it might be worth up to £250,000, so the new owner will have a chance of getting their money back and more if they ever decide to sell.
There has been a lot of talk about antiques being green as they are recycled through the secondhand market at auction or via dealers. But I can’t think of any better illustration of that argument than this XK150.
May 17, 2021
News that the late great Tommy Cooper’s trademark fez is up for auction with an estimate of £3,000 reminds me of my favourite joke of his: “I’m on a whisky diet; I’ve lost three days already.”
And if the fez is as closely associated with Cooper as the large corona cigar is with Churchill, then nowhere in Scotland – the spiritual home of whisky in more ways than one – is the single malt more closely associated than the island of Islay.
Its various forms include Bowmore (named after the island’s capital), the oily, peaty Lagavulin and Ardbeg, sublime Caol Ila and perhaps the smoothest of all single malts, Bunnahabhain. Port Ellen, Laphroaig and Bruichladdich are other leading brands.
Between them they are thought to provide Islay with one of the highest value exports per capital of any community in the world. With around 3,000 inhabitants and a whisky export industry worth close to £300 million a year, that figure comes out at around £100,000 a head. That beats the leading country per capita export value (Liechtenstein) of around $100,000.
No surprise, then, that dedication to the ‘water of life’ is so strong and widespread, not just on the island itself but among wealthy collectors.
Now there is news that the most extensive and complete collection from Islay is going under the hammer as part of Fèis Ìle, the annual festival of music and malt, on May 24.
The consignment comes from Pat’s Whisky Collection, the largest private collection of whisky ever to come to auction. Those Pat has selected from his 9,000 “bottle library” includes the legendary single cask 1982 Port Ellen, of which only 220 bottles are thought to exist, and a limited issue Bowmore 25-year-old, produced in only 100 bottles.
It’s a collector’s dream.
May 10, 2021
The fine art market is home to a concept known as “wall power”. This advocates a notion of the-bigger-the-better, particularly when it comes to contemporary art. Partially this is because a larger work of art on your wall – or a larger sculpture in your hallway or garden – is likely to have a bigger impact. However, wall power can have its drawbacks at auction. In order for substantially sized paintings or sculpture to do well (assuming they’re any good, of course), an auction house must be able to attract buyers not just with enough money to raise the level of bidding, but also with homes and gardens large enough to accommodate such purchases to scale.
So works like these can also be status symbols, because they tell everyone that the buyer is of sufficient means both to buy the work at a significant price and also must have a big enough wall to hang it on.
Never underestimate status as a strong driver of demand when it comes to buying art among the wealthy.
Fortunately, not all art is priced by the inch. In fact, some of the world’s most expensive pieces are very small indeed. The world’s rarest and most desirable stamp, for instance, the 1856 British Guiana One-Cent Magenta, has been valued at around $15 million for auction in New York soon, while Leonardo da Vinci’s beautiful signed drawing of the head of a bear is expected to fetch up to £12 million at auction this summer. However, for my money, the most desirable work per inch sold at auction must be an ancient carving known as the Guennol Lioness. Around 5,000 years old and from Mesopotamia, the limestone sculpture has a remarkably modern Art Deco air about it. Its chiselled features stand out strongly along it 8cm high frame. When it came to auction in 2007, it sold for $57.2 million.
May 4, 2021
“I am the greatest,” shouted Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) in 1963 on his comedy album that is now seen as a precursor of rap and hip hop. It may have been a semi-serious claim at the time, but the world sat up and took notice when he became World Heavyweight Champion six months later, beating the heavily favoured title holder Sonny Liston.
Many consider Ali the greatest sportsman of the 20th century – an amazing claim but one sustained by the strength and individual nature of his character and his ability to tap into the public mood.
In the world of rock and pop memorabilia, for all their worship at the altars of Elvis and Buddy Holly, auction records and the fans have made it very clear that there is no one to touch The Beatles, the most iconic band of all time – a status that they are unlikely ever to cede to anyone else.
Now Roger Federer has announced that he is to auction 20 lots of his match-worn clothing and racquets from his Grand Slam wins on June 23 to raise money for his foundation.
Nadal may have matched his men’s Grand Slam record of 20 titles, and Djokovic may even pass that to set a new record in the next year or so. But the frustrating thing for Djokovic, to whom this means so much, is that the number of titles doesn’t matter because we all know – and he knows – that what makes Federer the GOAT is something that surpasses the results board: that untouchable mix of grace, athleticism and perfectionism leavened by a healthy dose of self-deprecation and the seemingly effortless ability to charm the fans.
So far, Federer is a shoo-in for the greatest sportsman of the 21st century, proving that, in the end, being the greatest is about character. This auction should be a landmark sale in every way.
