Culture
The 436.8 million yuan auctioneer
By Qin Zhongwei (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-30 10:15
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For Lan Chen, it was a moment he would never forget. It happened at 10:49 pm on June 3. The 30-year-old auctioneer from Beijing Poly Auction Company had just sold an 8.24-m-long calligraphy by Huang Tingjian, a prestigious poet and artist in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), for 436.8 million yuan (about $64 million), setting a new world record in Chinese art auction history. The sale made headlines worldwide. Lan recently sat down with METRO to share the moments before he stepped onto the podium and how it felt to auction off the most expensive Chinese artwork ever.
7 am: The day begins
Many people asked me if I started that day feeling excited or nervous. I did not.
I began that day as usual. The only difference was I had been living in a hotel rather than at home during the five-day spring auction because the schedule was so tight.
An auctioneer's work starts long before the sale. We spend a lot of time with the specialist department involved, searching for potential interest in each lot and so on.
I was indeed very excited when first informed several weeks before that I would be in charge of auctioning off the piece - after all, I had only been in the industry for five years. Yet the excitement waned as the sense of responsibility grew and as I became more involved in the preparation.
9 am: Sale preparation
The auction was going to be held that night.
I was not in charge of the auction during the day, so I mainly stayed in my room, looking through notes I had recorded in my auction catalog, which has stickers of different sizes and colors attached to it.
Aside from Huang's piece, I had about 100 lots to sell that night. I reviewed each of them.
1 pm: Final rehearsal
After lunch, I did the last round of preparation and then rehearsed in my room all the possible bidding outcomes.
A good auctioneer is required to be numerically quick as many things can happen in a matter of seconds.
During the rehearsal, the expectation of how much money Huang's piece would sell for became stronger.
It is a really rare piece. We believed it would make history. But then, no one knew how much it would go for.
4 pm: Dinner
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When I conduct auctions, my dinnertime will usually be moved ahead. It is one of my habits so that I will not feel too full and have stamina during the auction.
6 pm: Waiting in the sale room (2nd floor, Asia Hotel)
Another habit of mine is to go to the venue before the evening auction begins. I like to sit near the rostrum and watch the first people enter until all of the seats are full.
During that time, I can judge what the situation will be like: How many people will be there, where the potential bidders will sit - most bidders don't want to be very visible. It is important to visualize the situation before the sales start, and it's also a way to get you somewhat relaxed.
6:30 pm: The evening sales begin
That night had a total of five sessions. I was in charge of the last three, so I watched first when the evening auctions began.
10 pm: Prelude before the climax
I started the third session with 12 works of Chinese calligraphy and paintings from Guy Ullens, a collector from Belgium. The outcomes were very impressive. Four of them sold for 10 million yuan.
10:49 pm: Heart races for 30 minutes
The room was still packed, and people chose to stand if they could not find a seat. My heart started racing when I saw several bidders in the room and some telephone bidders instantly showed me their paddles immediately after I announced the starting price of 80 million yuan.
The mood in the room became very intense as the bidding surpassed 100 million yuan, much faster than I expected.
Once a sale begins, an auctioneer is working instinctively. When the price was going to reach 230 million, I remembered I was a little nervous as I knew it was a record price that had been set by a piece of porcelain sold at Christie's spring auction in 2005. Soon that record was broken. Then I heard the crowds applaud each time the price reached a new level.
I just tried to maintain the pace and keep close eye contact with the bidders. Until the price rose to more than 350 million yuan, there were still three bidders going for it.
11:15 pm: The hammer falls
After nearly half an hour and almost 70 rounds of bidding, the price went to 390 million yuan and stayed there. As I said, "The last time for 390 million," my eye contacted all of the previous bidders for the last time, and one of the last two bidders showed the sign that she was out. I then finally banged my hammer.
It was a big relief as I felt my mission was completed! Including the commission, the final price was over 430 million, a record-breaking piece!
2 am: Forget the excitement
The auction was over after I finished the fifth session. I tried to forget the excitement and go to bed as early as I could because there was still another auction the next morning.
It was not until several days after the auction had ended that I began to reminisce on the scene. I felt it was just like a drama, and I began to feel the excitement again: "Wow, 436.8 million yuan. It was not bad, huh?"
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