One of Sonal Singh’s treasured possessions is a book in which she jots down the tail numbers of every aircraft she has been on. “I’ve always had an obsession with planes,” laughs the managing director of Christie’s India, whose job requires her to frequently fly in and out of her base in Mumbai to connect with collectors and build relationships with the art community.
For instance, at the end of February, she was in Chennai for the Rotary Club of Madras’ annual charity art auction (supported by Christie’s). A few weeks later, she was set to fly to New York for two modern and contemporary Indian art sales — but the auctions and her trip were put on hold due to Covid-19. “I don’t think I will be going back to that pace of life anytime soon,” says Singh, adding that now “all our interactions with clients, colleagues and the broader art community are through our phones”.
Virtual is real
With much of the world struck by the pandemic, the screen has become the foremost way to experience art — museums and art fairs are relying on online viewing rooms, and curators are hosting exhibition walk-throughs on Instagram. Auction houses are also adapting. While online auctions have been attracting buyers, especially new collectors, for a few years, the houses are now looking at the medium with renewed vigour — enhancing their digital presence by upgrading websites to make them more interactive, designing digital catalogues and announcing a wider roster of online-only sales.
An untitled Tyeb Mehta painting
After consolidating its London and New York sales into a compact affair in June, and postponing its Spring auction calendar to July, Christie’s recently announced 40 online-only sales for April and May. “We’ve more than tripled the schedule,” says Singh, sharing that the themed sales include Andy Warhol’s Polaroid prints, furniture from the 18th century, jewellery, watches and handbags. “The luxury departments have also been enhancing their sales calendar, converting a number of live sales to online. And we are exploring the possibility of an online sale for Indian art as well,” she says.
Pushing the market
If the recent auction results of Christie’s and Sotheby’s are anything to go by, collectors haven’t lost their appetite for art. Last month, Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art sale in New York totalled $4.8 million with 91.1% of lots sold. Christie’s online auction of rare wines and spirits (March 24 to April 7) brought in $1.1 million, while its sales in London — like the ‘Chieveley House, Berkshire and Five Private Collections’ auction — were also well-received, selling 95% by value. “These results indicate that our collectors’ passions are very much alive,” observes Singh.
A painting from Dutch collectors Jane and Kito de Boer’s collection
To continue engaging with their audiences, Christie’s has now enhanced its Private Sales offerings. The online viewing rooms have been upgraded to make them “visually more interesting and help clients have a better insight of the objects on sale”, alongside other aids such as “our online consignment tool and enhanced preview capability for catalogued property”.
The team is also working on ‘Zoominars’ (webinars on Zoom) to be offered by specialists, and efforts are “going into all social media opportunities such as the Mini-Program on WeChat” — Christie’s endeavour on the mobile app where its 1 billion users can browse its sales calendar, get real-time results and learn more about the lots through online catalogues, condition reports and editorial stories. “We are looking at the positives and opportunities, as a chance to re-centre our business and accelerate innovation,” concludes Singh.
Details: christies.com
Ganesh Pyne’s self portrait
How the others are coping
The catalogue goes digital: Having shifted select March and April sales from on-ground to online — the iconic Cartier art deco bracelet will go under the hammer between April 24 and 28 — Sotheby’s has launched immersive digital catalogues on its website. Featuring video and interactive media formats, they present objects in a more modern setting. Details: sothebys.com
Big masters, small formats: AstaGuru plans to present a lineup of auctions immediately after the lockdown, starting with a modern art sale of smaller format works by Indian masters. Tushar Sethi, CEO of the Mumbai-based online auction house, believes that the current situation is far from making live auctions irrelevant. He adds that auction rooms will fill up as soon as there’s a vaccine for Covid-19 because “both live and online auctions have their own charm”. Details: astaguru.com
No reservations: Minal Vazirani, president and co-founder of Saffronart, says that the auction house’s calendar will be dominated by smaller, more frequent online auctions. The lineup includes a Covid-19 relief fundraiser sale (April 29-30) and a weekly No Reserve auctions, titled ‘Absolute Tuesdays’, featuring art and jewellery editions, on its sister platform StoryLTD. They’re also rolling out webinars with experts in these fields “to address the changing need of collectors, buyers and sellers, but equally to frame a discussion around what the art and collectibles ecosystem will begin to look like for galleries, collectors and museums”. Details: saffronart.com, storyltd.com
