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The people who bought the old Government Center murals
By adamg on Thu, 11/05/2015 - 9:54pm
Boston Metro interviews the winners of the auctions for the murals that graced the Green Line station at Government Center until the current reconstruction project started.
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And just what would have been
so wrong if the T had put the murals back in the new Government Center station? They claim they will be doing this with the ancient (and now inaccurate) Scollay signs they found during the construction. So why not this mural?
I don't get it either
From the article:
So instead of covering the original murals in something fire resistant or putting them behind glass, etc they are creating a copy of the original to put back in the station? I might understand creating new murals but to replace the originals with copies seems questionable.
Murals aside, it would be nice to see the artwork in T stations change every so often. The history is nice but change is also good. No shortage of good artists in Boston.
minus a cut for the
Translation - the T will net about 30 percent of what they could have gotten had they done this themselves. Yet another money fail.
You know all those rules and specifications you love?
These don't meet them. They are flammable.
Point taken
But, as BostonDog points out, the T likely had other options to address those issues. And using an auction house to get rid of the mural sections is screwy. Paying such commissions only makes sense if your item is of a high enough value to justify it.
Clearly no one that works in
Clearly no one that works in MBTA management has heard of the exotic website "Ebay".
Ebay
isn't free either. And you don't know what the commission was. It's often about 10% but it is negotiable.
It was probably cheaper to have an auction house manage the sale, than to assign people working for the T to manage this.
plus -
- transportation, photography, cataloging, contacting long time clients / buyers, advertising, preview inspection, shipping ( although these were picked up on site ) and so on.
There is also the buyers premium on the auction house end, too. Many houses charge 20% these days but it might also be 15%. This premium has no affect on the seller.
They sold -
- the paintings through Skinner Auctions. Very reputable company and no, their commission rate isn't 70% as one poster stated.
So, what did Skinner receive
in commission? Given that this auction was held FOR A PUBLIC AGENCY, it's a very reasonable question to ask.
I was being mostly sarcastic in my earlier comment about 30% net. But my other point still stands. Were these mural pieces (it was one large mural that was cut up) considered to be valuable enough that they justified bringing in an auction house to get rid of them instead of the MBTA doing it themselves?
Hammer price total -
- a little over $65,000.00 for the 19 paintings. Impressive. Yes, well worth the effort of picking up the phone and having professionals take care of the sale.
Commission rates can vary but usually are negotiable depending on the client, the goods and the prestige of the goods. Not saying there was prestige associated with the MBTA but you get the idea. If there is good publicity for the auction house a commission rate can be greatly reduced or in some cases removed entirely. That is not common but it does happen especially if there is competition between auction houses for a client. The auction house will make its money on the buyers commission.
I can't imagine the MBTA has anyone who's position includes the liquidation of fine art. It can be quite an involved and complicated process.
Calling Skinner's was the right thing to do.
Wow - $65K
Who'd had thunk it. But I'd still like to know what percentage of that Skinners got.