David Nash & Amie Siegel 
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.

Table of Content

Cover
Table of Content
A Cultural History of the Art Auction in 14 Portraits
London 1766
James Christie The 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 Antihero Theodor 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 of American 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