Works of art: a Parisian company offers the first “fully integrated” transport
Audio 02:30
(illustration) A Drouot auction: the Drouot house is associated with this fully integrated transport project for works of art.
© AFP / Anne-Christine Poujoula
By: Marina Mielczarek
6 min
It's a world first, it's in France that it's happening.
The Parisian company ESI Fine Art has joined forces with the famous Drouot house to offer the “1st integrated transport”.
A formula that will revolutionize the online auction market.
Until now, it was up to the buyer to find the company himself to pack and transport his acquisitions.
Publicity
This "packaged-sent items" formula will be valid for bottles of wine as well as for paintings, jewelry, porcelain, etc.
The most difficult part of transporting works of art is the packaging
And above all, says Amaury Chaumet, boss of ESI Fine Art, creator of this world first called
Packengers
, as simple as it is revolutionary: “
It was Drouot, the famous auction house in Paris, who trusted us first. .
We started testing Packengers in the United States this fall, and the success was immediate.
The idea came to us when we noticed the enormous lack of transport and packaging offerings.
Before
Packengers
, buyers had to find the carrier and packer on their own.
Now, with a single click, they can join these two stages.
We are therefore officially launching our offer in France at Drouot with the certainty of establishing ourselves in Europe and the United States.
"
Paris-Moscow: 200,000 euros of objects in a vehicle under escort
All the auctioneers will tell you, the most complicated is not the transport but the customs certifications and the packaging.
You have to imagine the puzzle of some buyers of enormous statues or gigantic furniture.
This new
Packengers
offer
has no limits, neither size, nor geographical destination, nor the fragility of the objects transported.
From now on, and of course, if the heart tells him, the buyer will forget the general carrier for a personal and more professional service, entirely dedicated to works of art.
Covid crisis, online auctions do not know the crisis
Six months of planetary containment and auction houses are already seeing the difference.
Forced to stay at home, in 2020 the French discovered online auctions even if for five years, attendance at auction rooms and the practice of auctions has been steadily increasing.
Packaged transport knows no borders
So how can we not be surprised that such an idea of a combined transport-packaging offer is only appearing today?
“
Our online sales have a bright future ahead of them,
” explains Alexandre Million, auctioneer of the house of the same name, Million auctions
.
Since confinement, we have recorded 30% more activity.
The art objects market is exported to all regions of the world.
One of our biggest transportation successes has been to have entire pieces of a space rocket travel through Paris!
"
The adage says that the French, for want of being rich, have ideas, this is true since in Los Angeles and New York auction houses have just bought the concept for 2021. The adventure is only just happening. start and at ESI Fine ART, it is rumored that the Swiss, Russians, British and Chinese are also interested.
► To go further:
Major maneuvers in the art logistics market
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