The New Auction Catalogs

Carol Vogel has an interesting article in the NY Times about auction houses and their catalogs. In past, when times were good these catalogs were on heavy glossy stock, with page after page of images and descriptions. Vogel mentions Sotheby's is now promoting USB flash devices and online or E-catalogs or reduced size print catalogs. Christie's is currently reassessing its catalog procedures, but the recent YSL 5 section catalog sold new for $290.00 and recently sold on eBay for $1,900.00. So there is demand for the print versions, especially on unique and rare auctions.

Vogel states And in addition to its USB stick, when Sotheby’s mailed the print versions of its Latin American art sale catalogs earlier this week, it had shrunk them from the traditional 8 ½-by-11-inch format to 6 ½ inches square. The change would mean considerable savings in printing and postage.

“When we started mailing those huge catalogs, they would invariably arrive at the wrong house on the wrong day,” said Amy Todd Middleton, Sotheby’s worldwide director of marketing. “Not only was postage expensive, but they were too big to take on airplanes. We’ve spent the last few months studying the way our clients live and the way we want to promote ourselves.”

Traffic to the Web version of Sotheby’s catalogs (sothebys.com), which the company makes available 10 to 14 days before the printed ones arrive in the mail, has doubled in the last two years to about 1.7 million visitors. Online readers can organize works by estimate, search by artist or medium and magnify an image by as much as 400 times. Viewers can also customize these catalogs, selecting individual works from a sale and assembling and printing them along with the full scholarly entries.

Vogel continues Sotheby’s archrival, Christie’s, also offers its clients the ability to read catalogs online about a week before print versions arrive in the mail, but it does not offer any of the innovations that Sotheby’s has recently introduced. Marc Porter, Christie’s president in America, said the company was “currently reassessing its print and online catalogs and hopes to provide enhancements in the near future.” While it is likely that online catalogs are the future for both companies, bibliophiles may miss the collectible aspect of some past sales publications. Christie’s recent sale of art and objects belonging to Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé, in Paris this winter, was promoted with a boxed set of five catalogs, totaling 1,800 pages. The set weighed 22 pounds and cost $290; its edition of 7,000 sold out weeks before the sale. Copies are now for sale on eBay for $1,900.

To read the full NY Times article click HERE.