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30/07/2003The art of the auction

A day at the auction can be an invigorating — and reasonably priced — way to build up your art collection, says Marius Benson.

Self-portrait with easel
by Otto Dix
If you have a lazy few million in your kick you can take your bidding paddle to the great halls of Sotheby's and Christies. But if you are long on enthusiasm but short on cash you can still be a player in the sometimes frightening but often invigorating world of art auctions. Buying anything at auction can be hard on the blood pressure. But if you follow Rudyard Kipling's advice to keep your head while all about are losing their's, you can walk away facing not financial ruin, but a very nice little something for the lounge room wall. The first step in the bidder's road to purchase is to go to the auction houses when they have their lots on display. They'll be on display for a week or more before the auction and catalogues are for sale for around DM20 to help you in your consideration Each work is normally listed with an expected price. This is a good guide to what the final successful bid will be. You can take it that about two thirds of the price will be the reserve, the minimum price the seller will accept. And remember that on top of the final bid price you must add 15 percent as the auction house's commission and seven percent tax. Even so you will find very good works by interesting German artists, and if you are interested in prints, you can find works by major artists, German and others, for only a few hundred marks. Flipping through some current catalogues I can choose between a signed lithograph from Spain's Joan Miro (estimate: DM 2000) a Salvador Dali for DM 600 and the German master Otto Dix, again a signed lithograph for DM 900. The range offered by the auction houses is wide and if you enjoy the hunt for that something special it can be a very pleasant way to spend a quiet Saturday afternoon. So you have spent time in galleries and museums, you know what you are after and you are vividly aware of how much you can pay You have checked out what the auctions are offering this spring, the time has come to enter the initially frightening world of the auction itself. You will be reassured by the unpressured world that you find. You give your details at the door and are given a number which you will hold aloft when you want to bid. You will probably find only a scattering of people in the auction room itself The auction goes on for hours and bidders only come when they think their objective is coming up. Also many buyers prefer to bid by phone. The auction process, at the cheaper end of proceedings, is fast - 30 seconds per lot, unless a bidding war develops. There are many schools of thought on how to bid at auctions - bid first…wait to last…be loud…be quiet…sit at the front…the back - many theories not much science. If you are bidding for a fairly cheap item you have to be fast or the auctioneer will move on.
 
 
 
 
 
Basically hold up your number, if someone tops you and you are not yet out of your financial depth, hold it up again. You keep doing that until you, or the other people run out of money. It is a simple process, but you will amazed how fast your heart is beating by the end of bidding. With luck you will then have the Beckmann or Pechstein or George Grosz of your dreams. One thing is almost certain, you will have paid far less for the work than you would have in a commercial gallery. Galleries themselves do a lot of their buying at auction, and it's an invigorating way to build your own art collection. A couple of good Berlin auction houses for lower priced works are: Jeschke, Greve and Hauff Hasburgerstr. 14 Tel: 216 1584, email: info@auktionshaus-jgh.de Dr Irene Lehr Kunstauktionen Gmbh Sybelstr. 68 Tel: 881 8979, URL: www.lehr-kunstauktionen.de


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