excerpt
A couple of days after the exhibition, Ken jumped into his new Austin
Healey and boarded the Victoria ferry to attend his first art auction. He
returned with every painting Fraser had wanted.
“I have an idea,” he said to the beaming Fraser who was examining one
of the paintings.
“I hope so,” he replied distractedly.
“I would like to get into the auction business with you.”
“Is that so? And how do you propose to do that?”
“I propose a fifty/fifty deal. I’ll put up half the money and I’ll do all the
running around – going to the auctions and so on.”
“And who does the choosing of the works to be acquired?”
“You do, of course.”
“It’s a deal,” he said, holding out his hand, his eyes still concentrated on
the painting. “When do you want to start?”
“Right now.”
“Good. I think you’ll find that you just made a very wise decision and I
think you will find that I’m a very nice fellow to let you make it.”
Fraser kept Ken working day and night. He also taught him the art
business and passed on his unique understanding of human nature. He
explained old money versus new money and how it worked – how, generally,
you didn’t sell paintings to old money because those families had
their walls full of paintings. The exception was the nobility who were
always acquiring art that would eventually find its way into museums and
national galleries.
New money bought art – new money thought it could buy anything,
including happiness. When people with new money met people like he
and Ken, they would hear the word “no”, and that word was like a finger
untying the bow of their big, shiny, packaged perfect life. If they thought
they couldn’t have something, they wanted it and would stop at nothing
to get it. “And that,” Fraser said, “is why we have exhibits where you can’t
buy anything. Other galleries don’t seem to understand this but it’s very
simple. All you have to do is invite the right people and drive them out of
their minds. You can have all the money you want.”
Libros Libertad 