John: At first, it was a book company. In the past 230 years, the scale of the company has gradually expanded, including China pottery products and famous wines.
Reporter: Some people call you an empire.
John: I agree.
Reporter: What kind of empire are you?
John: I tend to call it the charity empire.
Reporter: Is Sotheby's auction house a pure intermediary that connects collectors and buyers, or does it collect itself?
John: In principle, we only act as an intermediary, that is to say, we accept the entrustment of collectors, auction items for them, get commissions from collectors and get bonuses from buyers.
Reporter: Why doesn't Sotheby's collect it and auction it out? Isn't that easier?
John: The original intention of our company is an auction house, not a commodity distributor, but in recent years, we sometimes buy some goods that we think are suitable.
Reporter: What is the source of your artwork?
John: There are many ways. Most works of art come from Europe and America. Many people there have a large collection, including silverware, furniture, paintings and porcelain.
Reporter: Will you hold an auction for any commodity supplier, or will you choose them?
John: We will only auction those goods that we think have auction value, so we will appraise them.
Reporter: We know that auctions generally have a starting price. Who set the starting price?
John: Let's start from the beginning. For example, if you have a famous painting, our valuation is between100000 and120000 dollars.
Reporter: Unfortunately, I didn't.
John: You will have it one day. We will put the valuation of this painting on the auction list, and then we will set a lowest price under this valuation, which is the starting price. Below this price, we won't shoot this painting. When an auctioneer organizes an auction, he will start bidding at a price lower than 50% of the starting price.
Reporter: The lot has a starting price and a reserve price. Is this reserve price requested by the seller or decided by Sotheby's auction house?
John: It depends on both. Reporter: There will be negotiations between you? John: Of course. Reporter: According to what?
John: We have our own evaluation of the value of the lot, and the owner of the lot also has his own psychological price. If we think the price demanded by the owner of the lot is too high, we will refuse the auction, so we must reach an agreement.
Reporter: So this means that Sotheby's only makes a profit by taking commission.
John: Our income comes from two sources, one is the commission paid by the seller of the lot, and the other is the bonus paid by the buyer. Usually, the commission ratio is inversely proportional to the auction price. The higher the auction price, the lower the commission ratio.
Reporter: Many people laugh that an auctioneer just knocks on the gavel, so can anyone be an auctioneer?
John: Just as not everyone can be a good TV host, it really needs talent. There are more than 2000 employees in our company, but the auctioneer is only a part of them. You must have a unique vision, strong expressive ability, a loud voice and a brain sensitive to numbers. These are all talents that even I don't have.
Reporter: Is there any risk in the auction industry? What is the biggest risk of an auction house like Sotheby's?
John: The biggest risk for a collector is that his collection fails in the auction for some reason. For auction houses, the biggest risk lies in economic changes. If we can't clearly judge the economic situation and adjust the price of auction items, then more items will not be auctioned smoothly. Sotheby's auction house was established in Britain on 1744. In 1983,/kloc-0 was in trouble because of poor management, and it was acquired by American real estate agent taubman. After becoming an American company, the auction house was divided into two headquarters, one in London and the other in new york. After two and a half centuries of pioneering and diversified development, auction has become more and more specialized. The Geneva branch mainly sells jewelry, while new york mainly sells artworks. Auctions of China's ancient cultural relics and precious porcelain were held in London and Hongkong respectively. The prosperity of Sotheby's proves the prosperity of the auction industry, and hundreds of years of ups and downs have witnessed its difficulties and twists and turns. However, even this high-risk industry has created a historical miracle of high returns in the first half of this year. On May 5th, 2004, at a spring auction of Sotheby's, Picasso's famous painting "The Boy with a Pipe" was sold by the hammer of the famous auctioneer tobias Mayer at a sky-high price of $65.438 +0.04 billion. The most expensive artwork in auction history was born in this famous auction house which has been established for 260 years.
Reporter: People say this figure is incredible. How did you get this painting?
John: This famous painting by Picasso belongs to the Whitney family, which is a very prominent family in America. Mr Whitney used to be the ambassador to Britain, and his mother was a famous collector. Their collection history is as long as 50 years. The Whitney family bought Picasso's painting in the 1950s, when he spent $28,000. They bought this painting only to decorate the family. After Mrs Whitney died, her family auctioned it off. The highest price of Picasso's painting was more than 50 million dollars before, but this intuition tells us that this painting will exceed the value of any other painting. This is definitely a masterpiece. Because this painting was painted by Picasso in the golden age of creation, it is worthy of everyone's envy and the conditions are very favorable, so we think this painting is worth at least 70 million US dollars. But this price is only our initial rough estimate.
Reporter: This painting is not as legendary as other works. If it was either stolen or changed hands many times, why did so many people pay so much attention to this painting and sell it at such a high price? What do you think is the reason?
John: If you have seen it with your own eyes, you will feel a magical power, as if telling people.
Reporter: Please give us a detailed introduction.
John: It's not like those works on the market. This is a private collection that has been carefully preserved for half a century. It attracts people's attention because it is not only a famous painting, but also difficult to understand. According to Picasso's own statement, this painting was created during a period when his creative style changed greatly. It is regarded as a symbol of the twentieth century, and its image is copied on postcards and other commodities, so it is sold like this.