Paris (AFP)

The Christie's house will organize for eleven days in September an online auction to compensate for the postponement of a year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Paris Biennale, an appointment very popular with major antique dealers.

More than 50 major merchants, including around 50% from abroad, will be invited to participate in these online auctions from September 10 to 21.

The 32nd edition of this four-day meeting of the largest art, antique and design dealers, jewelers and international collectors, had to be postponed for a year, from September 2020 to September 2021. It will be held in the ephemeral Grand Palais designed by the architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte on the Champ de Mars, due to the closure of the Grand Palais for work.

In the meantime, this unprecedented cooperation between the Biennale and Christie's aims to "give a little oxygen and visibility" to a segment which has suffered from the crisis, and to "selected gallery owners who felt bullied" by an unforeseen report, declared to AFP Georges De Jonckheere, president of the Paris Biennale. "It was essential to find innovative proposals" and "Paris remains for collectors an important issue and a source of hope".

For the first time, in an auction, the works will not come to Christie's. Collectors will be invited to physically go to the galleries in Paris or to discover them online, helped by catalogs and videos. "We will offer an itinerary, from gallery to gallery, for collectors who will be invited to push their doors," explained Cécile Verdier, president of Christie's France.

Galleries abroad can send pieces to a merchant in Paris, or exhibit them at home.

From the Parisian gallery Aveline to the international gallery Carpenters Workshop Gallery or even in Neuse in Bremen, many big names have already given their agreement.

Christie's has announced that it will surrender part of its commission to the Stéphane Bern Mission for the preservation of French heritage

In 2011, Christie's was the first auction house to launch its own online sales platform, and is therefore well established in this type of dematerialized sale which particularly attracts younger collectors.

Christie's online sales attracted 41% of new customers in 2019. About 64% of customers bought or bid online that same year.

© 2020 AFP