Proving the notion that blue-chip art can be sold at a snap, former Christie’s executive Loic Gouzer will use his new app as an auction block for a great drawing by Jean-Michel Basquiat that is estimated to sell for $ 8 million to $ 9 million.
The app, called Fair Warning, started out like a lark, Gouzer said, a way to stay busy under lockdown and see if the art world could pivot online sales significantly. (Since then, auction houses have made their first successful sales, entirely online.)
The first piece he auctioned in the app, 2018 Steven Shearer’s portrait, “Synthist,” was sold to a private European collector for $ 437,000, a high auction for the artist, at an estimated $ 180,000 to $ 250,000.
Gouzer said he has sold two works since then: a body print by David Hammons that sold for around $ 1.3 million (estimated at $ 500,000 to $ 700,000) and a piece by Steven Parrino that sold for $ 977,500 (estimated at $ 650,000 to $ 750,000).
“It really is an experiment,” said Mr. Gouzer, who while at Christie’s earned a reputation for being a bad bugger for coming up with unorthodox sales ideas, as well as acquiring and positioning high-value artwork, the most famous “Salvator by Leonardo da Vinci”. Mundi ”for $ 450.3 million in 2017.
“The idea was to create a guerrilla-type auction system,” he said, “where you could start moving paintings using the cloud instead of physical locations.”
So far, the big auction houses don’t seem to worry that Gouzer has taken a significant chunk of their business. “The availability of a single lot is an easily replicable construction,” said Marc Porter, president of Christie’s Americas, who called the app “smart and inventive.”
“The key factor will be the size of the audience,” added Porter. “In that, it must contend with the global data that large auction houses, art fairs, and mega merchants have been investing in for years.”
Buyers should apply for admission to the app, where their collection severity is assessed. Mr. Gouzer is trying to keep speculators away who would trade the works for higher prices for a quick profit.
I was hoping to avoid collateral by lining up a minimum advance bid, which has become routine among auction houses. But he said sellers sue them these days. (The Basquiat is guaranteed by an undisclosed amount around the low estimate, Mr. Gouzer said.)
The Untitled Basquiat, an acrylic and oil on black paper stick measuring approximately 4 feet by 6 feet, features many of the qualities the artist was best known for, such as “all the obsessive doodles and those words that pop up all over the time like ‘tar’ and ‘asbestos’, ”said Mr. Gouzer.
He transformed his Montauk garage into a climate-controlled observation room where interested buyers can see the Basquiat starting Thursday (he hired security to protect it). The piece will be sold on July 30.
At this point, Mr. Gouzer plans to sell one piece per week, assuming inventory cooperates, with auctions taking place on the app at 5pm sharp on Sundays. Sales are made live with the application registering offers. Mr. Gouzer has a flat commission of 15 percent.
While Mr. Gouzer has already been inundated with possible future lots, he said he is choosing and choosing carefully; If you can’t find parts that meet your standards, you’ll just wait until you do.
“I only put works that I would buy for my invisible collection: my taste is eclectic but very selective,” he said. “I have no pressure, because I have no investors. It is an extension of the healing I did when I was at Christie’s, but with complete freedom. “
