My first visit to an art auction

In: Art
Published on 2025-06-30
Written from the perspective of a machine learning engineer and business owner.

This is an English translation of my Dutch post Eerste kennismaking met een kunstveiling.

After reading Onschatbare waarde ("Priceless Value") (2004) by Bert Bakker and Johan Bosch van Rosenthal, I wanted to experience an art and antiques auction in real life. The nearest major auction house is Veilinghuis Derksen in Arnhem, so last May I marked the viewing days of their next auction in my calendar.

Viewing day in Arnhem

A week before the auction days, it turned out I actually had some time to visit. Great! I could already view the entire auction catalog on the website. With an account, I could create a shortlist of interesting objects.

I saw many appealing items. I'm primarily interested in 2D art, so my shortlist mainly consisted of art on paper, from serious oil paintings to modern art prints.

On Sunday, the last day of viewing, I called Christiaan last-minute to ask if he wanted to come with me. We enjoy going to thrift stores together. He had time for the viewing, so we could carpool in his car to Arnhem. We spent two entertaining hours looking at more than 3000 lots displayed in Derksen's building. Three floors with paintings, ceramics, glassware, antique furniture, prints, Asian art such as Chinese porcelain and Japanese netsuke, jewelry and watches, old Leica cameras, and some "oddities" that don't fit into a category.

Christiaan collects glass and loves photography, and I collect graphics. We also both absolutely love Japanese art. We had an excellent time in Arnhem. ;)

I wondered beforehand how they would display the hundreds of framed works listed in the auction catalog -- it wasn't possible to hang them all in the auction house, there were just too many. Downstairs most oil paintings hung on display, and on the first floor stood large shelves with the less expensive framed prints neatly arranged in rows, as in a library. If you wanted to see certain prints, you only had to give the lot number to the friendly gentleman behind the counter, who would then retrieve the works from the shelves.

Both Christiaan and I saw lots of things that we liked, so after making some notes and taking photos, we headed back home.

Preparation

Throughout the week after the viewing days, there was a live auction every evening at 7:00 PM via the internet. Derksen livestreams all auctions through their website, from an auction room without in-person bidders. Bidding takes place entirely via the internet. Derksen employees do sit in the room and represent the online audience's bids in real-time via their laptops.

Additionally, the less special lots were sold via a "timed online auction," which is roughly comparable to an eBay auction: the lots have a clear countdown timer, all bids are public, and you have plenty of time (for example, a week) to place a bid.

I wanted to bid on several works I had seen in person at the auction house, so I watched the live auctions for two evenings. On Monday, only antique furniture was auctioned, something I had no direct interest in, so I watched that auction to learn the structure of an auction, and how bidding works on the online platform.

To prevent myself from bidding too much or too little, I did some preliminary research on the works I was Seriously Interested in. What does a comparable work by this maker typically cost? Is it framed or not? What condition is the work in? What is the edition size? With this information, I could determine how much I was willing to pay for it.

I also made an Excel sheet with all bidding steps excluding and including the 30% auction costs. This allowed me to quickly see what I would pay net for a certain bid. A bid of 100 euros means paying 130 euros to the auction house. Because it's a percentage, the net price can quickly increase at higher bid amounts.

I already saw during Monday's furniture auction that bidding happened really fast. There seemed to be about ~1 second latency in my video connection to the auction room, which meant you had to react quickly as a bidder. Otherwise, there's too much time between when the auctioneer actually hammers down and when you see this happen on your screen, and it could easily happen that you're too late with your bid. With all my preparation, I had a clear plan, so I needed to think as little as possible during the auction itself.

Participation in live and timed online auctions

The paintings and graphic works in the live auction ultimately went over my budget, after which I very sensibly stuck to my plan the campagne and stopped bidding. But the hilarious glass tiger that stood in the display case, next to the glass art that Christiaan had extensively examined during the viewing day, stayed neatly within my budget. I'll be picking it up in Arnhem next Wednesday.

Oops, besides some prints and ceramics, I now also have my first glass object.

I also had mixed experiences with the timed auctions. I liked the lack of time pressure here. Some nicer prints rose very quickly in price, so I dropped out at some point. Other works really appealed to me, while there was very little interest from other bidders. Eventually, I bought 4 more framed works for 5, 5, 15, and 15 euros in the timed auctions. Two watercolors by Henri Herman L. Tieland, a Chinese/Japanese ink drawing of plum blossoms, and a colorful work by Dirkjan Ribbeling.

Conclusions

I don't know if I'll want to participate in live auctions often more in the future. I find the concept of spending money under time pressure very unpleasant. Live auction seem to involve a lot of waiting around until the lot number come up that you find interesting. It was impossible to estimate exactly when lots from my shortlist would come up in the live auction. The first time I tried to join the auction just in time for a specific lot number, I was immediately too late. The time the auctioneer spends on each lot varies significantly. With some lots, it quickly becomes clear that no one is interested, and the auction is over after 30 seconds. With other lots, the bidding goes on for a long time. For instance, the bidding on a beautiful art nouveau cabinet went up to 1400 euros.

I also noticed that I couldn't estimate at all what the final auction price would be for the lots. A lithograph by M.C. Escher with serious water damage was sold for 650 euros. An elaborately decorated Indonesian kris (a type of short sword) with sheath was sold for only 45 euros.

It probably has to do with supply and demand, absence/presence of specialist knowledge among auction participants, the state of the economy, the desirability of certain artists, time periods or styles in the current art market, and all sorts of other aspects.

This "randomness" is also what fascinates me so much about auctions and (the economics of) the art world.

Fortunately, I am in a very straightforward situation. When buying art, I only need to answer 3 questions: do I like it, does it fit in my house, and is it within budget?

In any case, I've found that there is no correlation whatsoever between how beautiful or interesting I find something and how expensive it is. :)