Kate Taylor, in yesterday’s NY Sun, quotes CultureGrrl’s praise of Christie’s auctioneer Christopher Burge. Then she adds some admiration of her own: Burge is “charmingly down-to-earth,” compared to Sotheby’s Tobias Meyer, who has “knowledge of and passion for contemporary art” but “is cool and unflappable, to the point of being inexpressive.”
Back off, Kate. I saw the Brit first—back when he was the new kid in town and New York’s master gaveler was Sotheby’s legendary John Marion.
I do have to give Taylor credit for doing things right when it comes to comparing apples to apples: In today’s report on last night’s contemporary sale at Sotheby’s, Taylor consistently reports the hammer prices (uninflated by buyer’s premium) and (unlike the NY Times) correctly notes that “the sale came in at the low end of its estimate.”
If three auction scribes do this, we’ll have a movement!