Vivre les enchères

What goes on at an auction? How can one item be sold for up to eighteen times its estimated price whilst others fail to find a buyer? Oscillating between pleasure and disappointment, desire and reason, the participants in ‘Art and Collectables’ auctions occupy a scene as thrilling as it is gruelling, where they engage in unique exchanges. But how are the roles allocated, what are the stages involved, and what is the schedule to be followed? What are the trajectories of the participants—buyers, sellers and professionals—whose roles are interchangeable?

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Pia Torregrossa, who holds a PhD in ethnology, is an associate researcher at the Centre for Cultural Anthropology (Canthel) at Paris Cité University. At the intersection of economic anthropology, heritage, art and memory, her research focuses on the practices of valuation, circulation and consumption of goods.

Jean-Marie Durand is a journalist and author, a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (class of 1990) and holder of a postgraduate diploma in political studies (1992). Head of the ‘Arts-Scènes’ and ‘Idées’ sections at Les Inrockuptibles since 1997, he has contributed to various media outlets (Philosophie Magazine, France Culture, Zadig, Trois couleurs, Ravages, The Art NewsPaper, La Revue du Crieur, Légende, C Ce Soir…). He hosts discussions with social science researchers on the Cairn platform. Between 2019 and 2022, he also hosted a monthly series of lectures on the life of ideas at the Pernod Ricard Foundation (“S’inspirer, respirer”) and debates at the Mk2 Institut. Jean-Marie Durand has also published several essays: Homo Intellectus, enquête hexagonale sur une espèce en voie de réinvention (La Découverte, 2019); 1977, année électrique (Robert Laffont, 2017); Le cool dans nos veines, histoire d’une sensibilité (Robert Laffont, 2015).