Daunts book festival/ Rogues Gallery and East West Street
Yesterday with Melanie Gay, Bob Tickler, Stefan Ursolini and Ken Howard I attended a book event at Daunts showcasing the above books both of which I enjoyed.
Philip Mould, the fluent charming art dealer who appears in both the Antiques Road Show and Fake or Fortune, interviewed Philip Hook the author of Rogues Gallery. Though they come from different sectors of the art world, one might almost say rival, there was a good chemistry between them and the format was more interactive dialogue than q & a. Obviously and understandably the idea is to promote the book and Hook was given a relatively easy ride though Mould did ask whether the title was controversial given Hook is still a director of Sotheby’s. He is writing a book after his retirement which might be more critical of the auction house.
In reality there is now not much difference between an auction house and dealer. Typically you can add to the hammer price, buyer’s premium, (25%) , VAT, carriage, insurance, catalogue contribution and framing which will take you to a dealer’s price. Dealers have the advantage of more flexibility on viewing and negotiation on price. Hook observed that in his experience buyers had 4 drivers: aestheticism, spiritualism, status and investment. I am not sure of the difference between the first two and most collectors I know look for some connection between them and their art. Bob, ever the businessman, asked whether the two were too hard on Joseph Duveen less connoisseur more market maker in identifying the decaying wealth of Europe and the new wealth of USA resulting in the movement of art. After all art dealing is about sourcing wealth cheaply and knocking it out to rich people however much you gloss this over with smooth talking, bespoke suits and prestige institutions. I am sure both Mould wants a rich clientele as much as Sotheby’s.
After the talk, we repaired to Fischers the Austrian konditorei owned by Corbin and King the Wolseley Boys and ate some delicious herrings and wiener schnitzels. Ken was in sparkling form, gossiping about painters but offering some interesting views on art too.
One of these was at height of the Cold War Russia had the traditions and work of writers like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, composers like Rimsky Korsakov and to culture counter this the USA came up with abstract expressionism.
Alice and Melanie and I returned to the talk with Philippe Sands interviewed by the authority on the Treaty of Versailles Margaret Macmillan. Sands was interesting on the genesis of his book. There were 4 characters – Lauterpacht, Lemkin, both eminent jurists , his grandfather Leon and the Gauleiter of Poland Hans Frank. His editor recommended the first draft be rewritten to bring the characters up to Nuremberg and then interweave them. I found this more interesting than his robust views on Brexit of which he was fearful for the loss of respect of law and judges and the difficulty in negotiations terms within the two year frame of article 50. I am not sure if the packed audience really wanted to hear this and more about the Book. Added to this the packed seating created an uncomfortably crowded venue. Before the event began I was looking at the France travel section for some inspiration as I am curating an art tour to the museums of Chagall, Matisse and Picasso in the South Of France only to encounter an irascible woman whose passage I blocked. A small incident like that puts you in a bad frame of mind and I have to say that I would have preferred to tarry over my apple strudel with the boys.
