Since the installation of an auctioneer in Bastia, auctions have multiplied on the island. Far from the representations that make them places of speculation for rich bidders, they bring together lovers of works of art and beautiful objects with very diverse profiles.
“Oinanimate objects, do you have a soul? When the auctioneer gives the first blow of the hammer, everyone does not necessarily have in mind the sentence of Lamartine. But in the room everyone knows it: auctions are first and foremost the business of lovers of beautiful things.
On this greyish afternoon, several dozen of them took their places in the salons of the Ostella hotel, in the southern districts of Bastia.
Catalog in hand, they review some 350 paintings, works of art, fashion pieces and leather goods that will be sold at no load for nearly four hours. In reality, few are those who discover the lots at this time. Clinging to their picture rails behind the platform, locked up in their windows, these are not very visible.
“At home, I have no more room”
Since Thursday, the objects promised for sale have been displayed in a room in the hotel and it is there – and on the auction house’s website – that potential buyers have examined them.
READ ALSO: Auction: in Marseille, Tino Rossi could be successful this Wednesday
Here too, everyone was able to target the lots on which to position themselves. “I’m interested in a ring and gold coins, says Marie-Josée, a retiree living in Biguglia. I saw that the watch is estimated at 500 or 600 euros but I am ready to bid higher.” This former finance officer, who knows auctions for having organized several during his career, is also attracted by one of the ten posters listed in the catalog. But she’s not going to settle. “I like it but I have a problem: at home, I have no more room”, she explains.
Carole came for the paintings. This health professional domiciled in Bastia went to the Ostella the day before the sale where she spotted “Corsican” paintings, a diamond ring and three pendants for which she does not rule out bidding. “I am passionate about arts, crafts and haute couture, she admits. When I go to Paris, I happen to go and attend sales at Drouot (prestigious Parisian house, editor’s note)” His favourite: lot 41, a watercolor signed by the painter Fred Witte, probably representing an Ajaccio alley and estimated between 60 and 80 euros. When it is put up for auction, the Bastiaise is positioned but it does not rise high enough to win the bid.
“What I like is the atmosphere”
We are far, in fact, from representations necessarily associating auctions with a wealthy clientele looking for a profitable investment. “What I like is the atmosphere of the auctions, explains Pierre-Joseph, a 39-year-old real estate agent from Bastia. I attended several, here in Corsica but also in Marseille and Paris. I like painting and tableware but I’m not necessarily here to buy.” Me Vincent Bronzini de Caraffa, the auctioneer behind the sale, confirms the wide variety of profiles present. “When we organize a sale in Corsica, there are always a lot of people, that is to say a lot of local buyers, he points out. But each sale is also broadcast live on the Drouot site and attracts art lovers from all over the world. During our previous sale, for example, we had buyers of 20 different nationalities.”
READ ALSO: After buying an anonymous bust at auction, he learns that it is that of the young Napoleon Bonaparte
And then, next to the Internet, there are those bidders who follow the sale remotely and transmit their orders by telephone to a young man and a young girl installed behind the auctioneer. Who are they ? Hard to say. The auction world likes discretion, not to say secrecy. Especially when lots start reaching a certain price. Impossible, for example, to obtain the slightest comment from a thirty-year-old woman who raised the price of a painting by the painter Pierre Bach to 4,200 euros, before being overtaken by a buyer present via the Internet.
Buyers like discretion, and so do sellers. “The sellers also have a very varied profile, continues the auctioneer. There are people who want to part with an object and who come to see us spontaneously because they have heard of us or they have met us during the valuation days that we organise. But there are also a lot of sales after succession. The heirs, rather than dividing the goods, sell them at auction and divide the proceeds of the sale.
But even on the side of the sellers, the love of the works can be a driving force. Among the lots put up for auction, eight paintings belong to Antò, a sexagenarian living in the Ajaccio region. If he does not prefer to say too much about his identity, he is on the other hand inexhaustible when it comes to talking about his passion for art. “The paintings that I put on sale are paintings that I received from family or that I bought during my life as a collector, he explains. If I separate from them today, it is perhaps because I have the feeling of having contemplated them enough to exhaust their substance. It is also no doubt within the framework of a kind of museographic reframing. Over time, the things we like to see change. Moreover, for years I have been faithful to the same method: I always sell a canvas to buy another. When Iintervening in the art market is without any speculative aim, simply out of passion.“
#Auctions #meeting #place #enthusiasts #Bastia
