The Art Angle
The Art Angle Podcast: Legendary Auctioneer Simon de Pury on Monaco, Hip Hop, and the Art Market’s New Reality
This week, the auction veteran joins Andrew Goldstein to discuss his illustrious career in the art world.
Welcome to the Art Angle, a podcast from Artnet News that delves into the places where the art world meets the real world, bringing each week’s biggest story down to earth. Join host Andrew Goldstein every week for an in-depth look at what matters most in museums, the art market, and much more with input from our own writers and editors as well as artists, curators, and other top experts in the field.
This week, the subject of our show is less a story and more of a phenomenon, and his name is Simon de Pury.
A legendary auctioneer who has actually been called the “Mick Jagger of auctions,” de Pury has led a storied career. A baron by heredity who was born in the Swiss art capital of Basel, de Pury entered the art business with the help of the legendary dealer Ernst Beyeler, and swiftly blazed a trail of glory.
He rose through the ranks of Sotheby’s to stage the first-ever contemporary art auction in the Soviet Union in 1988, and ultimately became the house’s Chief Worldwide Auctioneer before going on to forge the Phillips de Pury auction house (now known as Phillips), injecting the stale auction world with a shot of night club-esque vitality, and then moving on to a string of illustrious businesses bearing the de Pury name.
Along the way, he starred in Bravo’s reality show, “Work of Art, The Next Great Artist”; was the subject of a four-part BBC documentary; wrote a juicy tell-all memoir; and recently made a memorable cameo in the Netflix series Emily in Paris.
De Pury is also a columnist for Artnet News Pro, writing a monthly dispatch (aptly called “The Hammer“) that’s full of invaluable perspective on how the art market really operates, along with intimate play-by-plays from the ultimate art-world insider.
This week, the art world mainstay joins Andrew Goldstein to discuss his career past and present, why hip hop jewelry is an undervalued market, and what he’s looking forward to on the horizon.
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