France’s leading independent auction house for fine arts has been creating new models for auctions and exhibitions for 10 years. The search for performance under the hammer is just beginning.
At the helm of the nearly century-old desk (1928) that he transformed into a collection, auctioneer Alexander Mellon managed to carry out a vision foreseen by his father, then Drew’s boss in the 1980s: “Thanks to innovations, we encourage sellers to meet as many potential buyers as possible.” But first we had to develop: in 15 years, build up a network of 4 auction houses, go from 70 auctions to over 300 and from 5 technical departments to 28 – all encouraged by the presence of nearly 60 employees, 35 experts and 14 auctioneers. – They made it possible to distribute a brand, competence and a niche sales rhythm absolutely unprecedented in Europe. “Double strategy: getting closer physically and digitally to our customers”
Disciplines (Asian arts, Oriental arts, modern art, contemporary art, watches, etc.) . More than 700 days of experience spread across France but also in Barcelona, Brussels, spa, Lausanne and even Luxembourg – and beyond, such as Marrakech and soon Italy. Everyone claims to be tailor-made, but the hand-sewn must-have is the very unique concept! “It is our role to fully feature the work and artist of it, even if it is more expensive.”
Dual strategy: be closer, both physically and digitally, to our customers
And the records have been going down for 3 years. An excellent example of the 2021 European Registry in Contemporary Art. “It was no longer Milon who sold Domenico Gnoli, among others, for more than 8 million euros, it was Gnoli’s sale. Quite simply.” The same a few months ago by the American artist Sheila Hicks for €680,000 or the series of cuts on Pierre Solage Gravure (gravure). More clarity, more references, and more simplicity. Auction humility is a sister to performance. “Buyers and sellers have opposite mainstream ideas by definition: The magic of a hammer strike is to make them complete! I have never seen a world record-breaking collector disappointed.”
Challenges…online
Online estimates are a new challenge. “Today is a bit of a jungle. There is no security and experts are rarely on the keyboard end.” The takeover of France Estimations, the leading French company with 6,000 estimates per month, has confronted our network of experts with an exciting goal: faster and more reliable estimates for everyone! Alexandre Mellon, the first independent to surpass the €100m record at auctions in 2022, concluded with a “nice feeling that we were only at the beginning of our history”.
https://millon.com
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