Archive for the 'irrevocable bid' Category
The First Place to Go For Industry Change
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010Sometime you have to look at the gift horse and wonder why and where did you come from? For the art and antiques trade, the recently passed American financial reform legislation has many intriguing possibilities. By creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the legislation would allow this government sanctioned agency to oversee some […]
Where Do We Go From Here?
Saturday, July 17th, 2010The (hot) summer of 2010 is upon us in New York City, but telling the temperature in the art and antiques business is a bit more problematic. After the universal effects of “The Great Recession”, are things improving, getting worse, or still evolving from its traumatic consequences? Change in this industry is more than […]
A Legal Indictment Against the Duopoly
Saturday, May 29th, 2010My faith in the legal process may yet be tested. My son, a law student, sent me an article in the New York State Bar Association’s Entertainment, Art, and Sports Journal-Spring 2010 edition titled: The House Always Wins: A Call to Reform Art Auction House Regulations. It was submitted and written by a 3rd […]
Prices and Pricing of Antiques, of Anything
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010I have always been a strong advocate of disclosed prices in the art and antiques industry. The fear of disclosing an asking price is nothing less than a secret reserve price. It creates a setting for being deceived and manipulated before you even make an inquiry about the item. As a method […]
NYS Auction Legislation; Not Good Enough
Monday, March 8th, 2010Presently before the NYS Senate is a bill, passed by the Assembly that is attempting to define how public auctions should operate. This law needs clearer and more direct disclosure of the potentially deceptive and collusive actions presently allowed. Codified with this bill, the new rules will avail auctioneers to continue these abuses.
Below, is […]
Irrevocable Bid Redux
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010As Enron was well versed in the smoke and mirrors of accounting practices, so too has Sotheby’s and of course Christie’s been encouraged with the buyer collusion offered by the irrevocable bid sham. This is now the duopoly’s new form of giving guarantees, and still collecting generous fees. With their intractable buyer’s premium, […]
Comments on the Art Trade by Souren Melikian
Monday, October 5th, 2009I have felt a personal sense of consent after I read Souren Melikian’s article on “Navigating a Shrinking Art Market” in the October issue of Art + Auction Magazine. His commentary has taken on the conventional thinking about the industry and fashioned the reality of how it operates under the overextended auction duopoly.
I decided […]
Where is the Decorative Arts Market Going?
Saturday, September 26th, 2009It depends on what you are looking for. While the antiques market may be fickle, it is still a very viable market, with a definite supply and demand quotient. However, the economic encumbrance of the present worldwide recession in consumer luxuries has had an outsized impact on this industry.
As a fragmented industry, it […]
A New Auctioneer’s Model: No Reserve or Estimates
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009The news in the trade has certainly been anything but robust for the image and financial prospects of the industry. However, there seems to be an evolutionary movement by one new auctioneer, who is willing to try to challenge the current form of that process with a new imaginative approach. Leigh Keno, who […]
Missing the Point, Art + Auction Magazine
Saturday, August 29th, 2009Art + Auction Magazine’s 30th Anniversary Issue was enjoyable to read and reminisce about the great events and personalities that have had an effect on the industry during this period. As someone who has been in the business before the publication came into being, it was entertaining reading. Their review made Wall Street’s […]