Drouot, l’art et les enchères 2010
The hôtel Drouot has heard more than too often that it has not been capable to adapt nor to follow the rhythm of Anglo-Saxon auction houses set up a decade ago on French soil … Indeed the average bid is modest but the variety of the goods put up for sale cannot be equaled: that is the basic argument of the Parisian auctioneers. This book in a way illustrates that belief. It is a census of the most beautiful sales of the past year, whether the records or exceptional collections. To reach the 413 million € the house made over twelve months, we can see side by side, the hand written copy of an Arab grammar book from 1120 (2 million €), a Joseph dresser (1.6 million €), a book of hours to be used by the diocese of Amiens (100 000 €) and an articulated Jean Dunand bracelet (17 000 €). From Russia to Africa, from the Antiquity to our day, from the minute (tact watch by Bréguet, 78 000 €) to the very large (a glass window with fourteen panels in cathedral glass, 69 000 €, or a piece of the staircase of the Eiffel tower, 105 000 €), one cannot help thinking of the slogan of the former Samaritaine department store: one can find anything at Drouot…
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Review published in the newsletter #206 - from 3 March 2011 to 9 March 2011
