Dear Colleagues:
For those of you that collect auction catalogs, some interesting news from today's NYTimes--
"For next week's spring sales, 10,000 of Sotheby's top clients received a USB stick no bigger than a credit card, an e-version of the catalog, which they can plug into their computers to read without being online. (They got the print version as well.) This tiny device is only one way that the auction houses are downsizing their catalogs. Christie's has cut back on color photographs and essays to make its catalogs thinner. And in addition to its USB stick, when Sotheby's mailed the print versions of its Latin American art sale catalogs earlier this week, it had shrunk them from the traditional 8 ˝-by-11-inch format to 6 ˝ inches square."
On the other hand (from the same article)--
"While it is likely that online catalogs are the future for both companies, bibliophiles may miss the collectible aspect of some past sales publications. Christie's recent sale of art and objects belonging to Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé, in Paris this winter, was promoted with a boxed set of five catalogs, totaling 1,800 pages. The set weighed 22 pounds and cost $290; its edition of 7,000 sold out weeks before the sale. Copies are now for sale on eBay for $1,900. And despite its innovations, Sotheby's doesn't rule out lavish printed publications. 'If we get a $100 million collection,' Ms. Middleton was quick to say, 'then we will print whatever catalog we need to.' "
Obviously, print still has its privileges. Here's the link to the full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/arts/design/02cata.html
Joan Benedetti
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