Worlds oldest auction house to celebrate 300th birthday
Published April 29th, 2007
Austria’s Dorotheum, is determined to maintain its individuality as it celebrates its 300th birthday this year.
An auction house, pawn office and retail service rolled into one, the Dorotheum, founded in April 1707 by Emperor Joseph I, still closes sales with a bell rather than a hammer, unlike its more famous competitors with their multi-million sales.
“We want to maintain our character. We don’t need to copy the Anglo-Saxon auction houses,” said Dorotheum managing director Martin Boehm.
“We simply have other goals and a much larger audience,” he added with a smile. Every year, the Dorotheum holds some 600 sales, from small-scale ones to major auctions. Over 80 percent of buyers are foreigners.
“You can take part (in an auction) with a few hundred euros, we don’t want to be a temple,” Boehm said.
That is proving a successful recipe. The auctions branch has seen growing sales since the Dorotheum was privatised in 2002, bringing in 89.1 million euros (121.6 million US dollars) last year.
The retail and pawn sections, with numerous branches around the country, make up a little over 40 percent of business.
Since it was bought by Austrian online auctioneer onetwosold, the Dorotheum, the oldest major auction house in the world, has also sought to expand further afield with branches in Prag, Brussels, Duesseldorf, Muenich, Milan and Zagreb.
“We would like to be present in Paris and London,” Boehm said, “but that takes a lot of time. When you’re 300 years old, one or two years don’t make such a difference.”
