IT IS HARDLY controversial to state that when businesses fail to adapt and evolve, they risk going into decline. So it is little surprise that the auction houses have been adapting apace of late. While I have a natural tendency to fulminate against certain changes, I also need to accept that an auctioneer’s business model is aimed at getting the highest possible sale prices for its vendors, not filling my various collections as inexpensively as possible. It also follows that their business managers are laserfocused on maximising profits. After all, they would argue that unless they remain profitable, they will perish – and where would that leave we buyers and sellers? In the hands of those not-always-so-lovable, Lovejoy-esque dealers, I suggest.
Readers of this column know the traditional auction model well: an auctioneer on a rostrum in a room full of buyers, knocking down the lots one after the other. However, doubtless turbo-charged by those pesky lockdown restrictions,
