Cruise Auctions
Sold! - to the man in the shorts and sun hat. Art auctions at sea are a casual way to gain some quality art.
Rembrandt ... Picasso ... Warhol - this is no "starving artists" sale. In fact, cruise-ship sponsored art auctions feature a gallery of highly desirable artwork, ranging from original cartoon cels to lithographs that are signed and numbered.
Shipboard auctions began a few years ago as part of the overall trend toward personal enrichment. Princess/ P&O Cruises became the first line to bring its art auctions in-house in 1998. "We had concessionaires come on for a couple of years," recalls Mark Bronson, a US-based gallery owner who founded and still runs the auction programme for Princess/P&O. "I thought it could be done better."
That same year, according to Bronson, Princess became the first cruise line to build an art gallery on one of its ships, Grand Princess. "It was revolutionary - way ahead of its time," Bronson says. "By comparison, this year Miracle is the first Carnival ship to have a dedicated gallery six years later." The gallery is a key component to the overall auction process, Bronson notes. "It gives passengers the chance to peruse the artwork and for the auctioneer to have gallery hours. It's also a place to meet and greet the passengers and have cocktails," he says.
The auctions have been a real hit, which is why they've spread throughout the industry (see cruise line list page 33). Participating cruise lines include virtually every major brand and span every segment of the industry. As Bronson points out, an increasing number of ships come equipped with auction facilities built especially for this purpose. Some are like miniature museums: the gallery aboard Cunard Line's Queen Mary 2 houses 600 works of art, including a Marc Chagall original valued at US$180,000 (about $258,467).
Auctions are typically held several times each cruise and attract a sizable crowd. "Attending our first auction every week you have between 300 and 400 people," Bronson reports. "Free champagne is served, so that augments the numbers. After that, you have a core group of 75 to 150 passengers, sometimes more."
Buying art at sea provides several advantages for the collector - and for artists. While many auctions offer master painters who are no longer with us, contemporary artists are available as well. These may include famous names like American painter Peter Max or up-and-coming names that are less well known. "One of the things we represent to the artist is exposure," Bronson notes. "On the Princess fleet of ships, about 30,000 people week in and week out get to see an artist's work."
Cruise lines wield purchasing power due to the volume of art they acquire, and the savings are passed on to passengers. In fact, art purchased at sea typically costs 50 percent less and ranges from 25 percent to 85 percent off prices normally found in land-based galleries, according to Bronson. "We'll spend hundreds of thousands - sometimes millions - of dollars on inventory. So they [the artists] are willing to give us a deep discount, which we can pass on to the passenger." And since art tends to appreciate with time - especially for living artists - such a purchase could be considered an investment as well as an acquisition. What's more, buying fine art at sea is duty free, Bronson says. "Australian passengers don't pay any VAT."
Nor is shipboard artwork just for the well-to-do. There's usually a piece to fit every budget. "Princess sells artwork that ranges in price from US$80 (about $115) up to US$100,000 (about $143,622)," Bronson explains. Holland America's pieces typically sell from under US$100 (about $144) to over US$50,000 (about $71,821), according to a company official, and Carnival reports its bidding range at US$50 (about $71) to US$100,000, although a collection of works by Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali recently sold for US$750,000 (about $1,076,792) according to a spokesperson.
Inventory may be tailored to the tastes of the passengers, depending on where they originate. For example, on P&O Australia's ships "we would have sports memorabilia and local artists geared toward an Australian market", Bronson says.
Auctions usually take place in one of the cruise ship's show lounges. Before the sale art is normally on view in a public area, such as the atrium or in a dedicated gallery space on newer ships, where passengers may examine the art at their leisure and decide in advance what they will bid on. In addition, a full-scale presentation is usually held before the auctions commence.
The exact time and place of the auction will be posted in the ship's daily schedule of events and unlike auctions held landside, which tend to be serious and formal, shipboard events are designed to be fun. "Most of our auctioneers are entertainers who've been trained to auction artwork. For example, just before selling a guitar signed by Eric Clapton, one of our auctioneers might plug it in and play it."
Once the auctioneer brings his gavel down, the price of the purchase is added to the passenger's shipboard account or, for more expensive pieces, a separate line of credit may be arranged. Afterwards, the winning artwork is professionally packed and shipped to the passenger's home address, and arrives framed, matted and ready to hang on the wall. It's as simple as going once, going twice, sold to the passengers on the following cruise lines:
Carnival Cruise Lines: has an auction programme aboard every Fun Ship and a dedicated gallery aboard its new Carnival Miracle.
Celebrity Cruises: augments its onboard collection of contemporary art with auctions as part of a fleet-wide emphasis on cultural enrichment.
Costa Cruises: presents art auctions aboard its Italian-style ships, which sail primarily in Europe, South America and the Caribbean.
Cunard Line: serves up art for sale on Caronia, QE2 and QM2. The latter features Cunard's first onboard gallery, stretching over 35 metres.
Holland America Line: has art auctions fleet-wide and art galleries aboard its Vista-class ships (Zuiderdam, Oosterdam and Westerdam) as well as the globetrotting Prinsendam.
Norwegian Cruise Line: was one of the originators of onboard auctions and now includes art sales aboard all its Freestyle Cruising ships.
Orient Lines: brings art auctions to Antarctica and other exotic cruise destinations.
P&O Cruises: features auctions with collections that add a British twist to the artwork presented for bidding.
P&O Australia: includes sports collectables and works by Australian artists during its onboard art auctions.
Princess Cruises: has art auctions fleet-wide and special 'Connoisseur Cruises' with guest artists on board.
Radisson Seven Seas Cruises: considers its ships to be art galleries, which makes for an ever-changing display. Auctions are held fleet-wide except on Paul Gauguin.
Royal Caribbean International: has auctions, photo and art galleries for browsing, and guided tours of each ship's permanent collection led by the onboard auctioneer.
Sotheby's at Sea
This year, Crystal Cruises has teamed up with world-famous auction house Sotheby's for its Crystal Visions Enrichment Programme and Lecture Series. Sotheby's Institute at Sea is a series of educational onboard lectures on art and antiques, which takes place on board Crystal Symphony, Harmony and the newly launched Serenity.
Sotheby experts highlight the history and culture of destinations visited, such as the palaces of Russia and the ceramics of Japan and China, as well as lecture on such topics such as Russian and Baltic jewellery; 15th- to 17th-century Italian and Flemish paintings; Venetian Glass; and Greek and Roman art.
Written by MT Schwartzman - 16 Winter 2004