A staff member checks the Charles Darwin family microscope for auction during a media preview of the Christie's London Classic Week auction in London on Dec 3. (LI YING / XINHUA)
LONDON－It's an industry that has not only survived the pandemic, but undergone a positive revolution thanks to COVID-19.
When James Christie opened his London auction room in December 1776, he invited a room full of buyers to outbid each other for treasures and works of art. Fast-forward more than 250 years. Since the coronavirus pandemic began, such sales have become a far cry from those traditional crowded auction rooms.
"I think the new normal for us is more taking, or keeping what was really special about Christie's before, and expanding it into what is a sort of online revolution that the pandemic has pushed forward," says auctioneer Olivia Ghosh.
It is something, adds Ghosh, for which the art industry has been waiting for almost the last 20 years.
Ghosh, who joined the company four years ago, works at Christie's in London as a specialist in the old master paintings department. Her tasks include doing due diligence, conducting detective work, studying paintings and their artists, the subject, even checking labels as pieces of evidence on the back of a painting.
"We take all of the clues and then we go and fact-check. We search libraries and archives to pull together the history of a painting," she explains.
All that information goes into the auction catalog, explaining why the artwork is important and what is so special about it.
When coronavirus struck two years ago, there were fears, admits Ghosh, about the possible impact the pandemic would have on the auction industry.
She and her colleagues managed to continue their detailed research work while following COVID-19 guidelines in Britain. But in the auction room, the internet has been added as a new element.
"Pre-pandemic, our auctions were very much focused on being in the room, with all the clients in attendance. We had rows and rows of people, and it was about you and those people being there together. However, in the post-pandemic world, they have opened up much more to a global audience. What we've really pushed forward is the online experience," she says.
"We have screens at the back of the sale room, so you're not just looking at the people present, you've got to pay attention to the screens to make sure you're taking bids from clients dialing in via the internet as well," adds Ghosh, who held a live auction as part of Christie's most recent "old masters evening sale".
Knowing that she was being filmed the whole time when she was at the podium, she had to smile at the camera. "As you smile into the camera you're talking, or projecting yourself onto that person's computer screen in order to try and maintain the relationship between the two of you. Even though I can't see the other person, I know they're out there somewhere in the world."
According to Ghosh, the new normal has had a surprisingly positive impact on art auctions.
"For instance, it used to be (that) we had about 800 people in the room, but in our auctions in May in New York, we had 1.4 million people who followed live online. People from 62 different countries watched the auction live, rather than it just being a set of people in one room, in one country. So that's an amazing global expansion for the company," she says.
According to Christie's, its art sales number kept increasing, rather than dropping, during the pandemic. With auction houses across the world, from Asia to North America, Christie's has found that the market is incredibly resilient.
"People still want to buy, collectors want to collect, people still have a continued desire and urge to keep everything going, which has been very, very positive," Ghosh says.
With the help of digital technology and tools working 24/7, Ghosh is optimistic about the growth of the art auction industry, despite the huge lingering shadow of COVID-19.
"The pandemic has proved to be the catalyst that sent us into the digital stratosphere," she says.
