The majority of France’s auction firms will be open over the weekend to welcome new visitors, explain the auction system, and stage exhibitions, lectures, valuations and sales.
Providing a youthful face to the French auction business, SYMEV have orchestrated a nationwide advertising campaign for the event using as its mascot an attractive young girl and the slogan Chéri, j’ai renchéri! – darling, I just bid.
Significantly, perhaps, in the advert there is not an antique in sight.
Just as in the United Kingdom, the French auction scene is in something of a state of flux as it struggles to make itself relevant to the new generation.
SYMEV President Jean-Pierre Osenat says the aim is to prompt “in-depth reflection” on the future of auctions in France and explode their “elitist” reputation.
“Auctioneers in both Paris and the provinces need to renew and rejuvenate their clientele – whether vendors or buyers,” he says. “We must appeal to a public attracted to new consumer habits through the internet.”
Research suggests that 87 per cent of the French have never bought at auction and nearly 70 per cent of potential vendors prefer to sell to a dealer or over the internet.
Government backing
Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres has promised to visit a number of salerooms over the Auction Weekend and given his official backing to what he terms “SYMEV’s pertinent initiative to boost the French art market”.
SYMEV aim to make the National Auction Weekend an annual event.
Youthful face for French auctioneers SYMEV launch auction weekend
France’s Auctioneers’ Association SYMEV is to stage the first-ever Journées Nationales des Ventes aux Enchères (National Auction Weekend) on November 19-20.
