NEW BOOK: THE AUCTIONEER

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V19 2016 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 19, Number 31, July 31, 2016, Article 10

It's not numismatic, but this new book by art auctioneer Simon de Pury seems like a hoot for any collector who's held a paddle in the air at a public sale. here's an excerpt from a July 28, 2016 book review in the Wall Street Journal. -Editor

The auctioneer’s job is an odd one, borrowing elements from the stage and from the circus: It involves an actor’s ability to dominate an audience, moving the proceedings along at a brisk clip and slowing down when he feels that a bidder can be enticed to go beyond his intended limit. A touch of humor and flamboyance is fine—at parties, one Sotheby’s auctioneer would greet his guests with a parrot on his shoulder—but not too much: He is the ringleader, not one of the clowns.

In “The Auctioneer,” Simon de Pury, former chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, provides a comedy-rich account of his exploits in the treacherous art world, along with pen portraits of some of his closest allies and enemies. Known as the Mick Jagger of the auction room, he was painted by Eric Fischl sitting in his Caraceni suit with a girlfriend stark naked in his lap.

Born in Basel in 1951, the son of a baron, the young Mr. de Pury planned to become an artist but after three failed attempts to sell his artwork in New York decided to become an art dealer instead. Having attended a Sotheby’s training program in London—dismissed by his parents as a course for spoiled brats “who couldn’t get into Oxford on a bus tour”—he got an unpaid job at the Sotheby’s reception desk that involved referring customers with quality items to the experts upstairs and politely dashing the dreams of those whose heirlooms belonged in a flea market.

I especially enjoyed this passage about de Pury's mentor, Sotheby’s chairman, Peter Wilson. -Editor

We get a glimpse of him in action in Monaco. According to Monegasque law, only a licensed local auctioneer can perform an auction. Wilson got around this by hiring one to stand next to him. But she brought down the gavel too fast, cramping Wilson’s style, “all foreplay without the pleasure of conclusion,” as he put it. “By the end of the sale,” Mr. de Pury writes, “he was basically holding her arm and bringing it down exactly when he wanted. He had turned her into his robot.”

To read the complete article, see:
Ringmaster With a Gavel (www.wsj.com/articles/ringmaster-with-a-gavel-1469748425)

THE BOOK BAZARRE

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