Art Auctions House Matsa Prepares for Largest Auction In Israel
By
Bonnie Danohe Tel Aviv ---- November 5..... Israel's most successful art auction house is now preparing for what many believe will be the largest Israel, Jewish and international art auction to ever to take place in Israel. The art auction being organized by Matsa is scheduled to take place on January 28, 2007. The art auction will include 350 pieces of Jewish art, Israel art and international art. According to Chen Yeremitzkey, VP of Marketing at Matsa, the international art auction is expected to hold between 4.7 to 5 million dollars in works of art reserve prices. Around the world, the art market is booming with big sales and record prices. Russia oligarchs, India entrepreneurs, China businessmen, and America hedge-fund multimillionaires are spending huge amounts of their new wealth on paintings and sculpture. Matsa for Public Auctions held their last art auction in Israel last June and generated over 3.6 million USD in revenue. That art auction was the largest to date for Jewish art, Israel art and international art in Israel. In announcing that the January 2007 art auction is expected to be the largest art auction to ever take place in Israel, Motti Peled, the general manager of Matsa, also announced that Mr. Lucien Krief, owner of the Lucien Krief Gallery in Jerusalem has entered into a strategic partnership with Matsa. Both Matsa and Krief seek to auction and purchase art for their clients by Israel, Jewish and international artists including Reuven Rubin, Marc Chagall, Moise Kisling, Alexandre Altmann, Nathan Altmann, Ludwig Blum, Yohanan Simon, Yitzhak Danziger, Maurycy Gottlieb, Marcel Janco, Muritzio Minkovsky, Abel Pann, Issachar Ryback, Maurice Utrillo, Nachum Gutman, Mordechai Ardon, Avigdor Arikha, Yehezkel Streichman, Avigdor Stematsky, Joseph Zaritsky, Chana Orloff, Naftali Bezem, Moshe Castel, Max Lieberman, Joseph Israels, Isaac Israels, Mane Katz, Isidor Kauffmann, Lesser Ury, Chaim Soutine, Jankel Adler, Eugene Zak, Henri Epstein, Leopold Gottlieb, Zigmund Menkes, Michael Kikoin, Joseph Presmane, Avraham Mintchine, Henri Hayden and Pinchas Kremegne many more. About twenty years ago, Matsa for Public Auctions was also active in the subjects of Philatelic items (stamps), Zionist Congress items, postal history items (Covers), Turkish period mandate period, Minhelet ha-am, Doar zvaii, and the creation of an Israeli state with collectibles including: Zionist documents, Theodore Herzl, Ben Gurion, Trumpeldor, Chaim Weizman, Albert Einstein, Dreyfus and other special documents related to the Jewish and Israel world. Motti Peled, a former Israel colonel, fought hard to establish Matsa for Public Auctions as a well known, respected auction house in the Israel and international art world. Peled is respected worldwide for his hard work, persistence and honesty in coordinating art auctions. Peled has implemented a policy for Matsa that a public art auctions house must exist on the principals of full and uncompromising trust between the auction house and its clients (buyers or sellers) and the unbreakable honesty of the auction house itself. "If these two principals would not have existed in "Matsa for public auctions", then "Matsa for Public Auctions" and its management could not have established itself as the top Israel public auction house," said Chen. Matsa was established 30 years ago, and after one hundred and five auctions, that started in philatelic, numismatic, Judaica and art objects, has evolved today to handle only paintings and sculptures. Most art buyers today come from outside of Israel, almost 70 percent, from North America and Europe. Matsa for Public Auctions holds vivid and exciting public art auction events that are interesting to each and every art lover. When Motti Peled assembles and collects Jewish, Israel or international art items into a whole auction, he tries to have as many painters, styles and a wide range of art eras as possible. In their Website "Matsa for Public Auctions - Matsa Gallery" invites you to travel in thousands of paintings, painters, and prices, in order to learn, as much as possible about "Matsa", it's ways of commerce (old and new), the past auctions they held, Through their free "InforMatsa" online newsletter you are promised to receive the latest Jewish art and Israel art news in Matsa. "After 30 years in the world of Jewish art, Israel art and international art, I have decided to share with you, my customers, the reason why the move to the new "Matsa House" is such a joy for me," said Motti Peled. "After all not every man can look back with satisfaction on such a long chapter in his life, and know it is only a leap forward to a more exciting and interesting period. In "Informatsa" no. 4, I wanted to open a door to the history of "Matsa for Public Auctions", to tell you briefly about it's renewing image, the progress in Internet commerce and the fields we dealt with in the last 30 years. I find it important to clarify that even after the move to the new "Matsa House" and the new partnership with Lucien Krief almost everything will remain the same." Peled continues: " I mean that "Matsa for Public Auctions - Matsa Gallery" will continue to deal with the same high quality works of Jewish art, we will accept items for our auctions alongside items for "Matsa Gallery" and we will produce public auctions together with interesting artists' exhibitions and the "Matsa Gallery" permanent exhibition. In the future we might deal again with the fields we dealt with in the past. Most important, you ,as a client, will still have a simple, personal and direct connection to me, with devoted service to all buyers, sellers, private collectors and art dealers". Peled tells his story about how he entered the world of Jewish and international art. "This beginning, as usual, was the end of a chapter, 21 years long as a high-ranking officer in the Israel army. I had served in a variety of positions in various units and places and when I left the army on June 1st 1976 and decided that from then on I, Motti Peled, would be independent, that meant refusing many high and mighty management jobs. Instead, I turned to the fields that had always interested me: numismatics, philately, and most important - art." Why Art? "I had always been fascinated with the world of art," said Peled. "As a young child stamps and coins charmed me and I always appreciated the artifacts that I saw. When I grew up I never missed a chance to visit a museum or a gallery both in Israel and abroad. I knew there were great obstacles in my new path, standing against me were veteran and familiar gallery owners who, together with museums treasurers and artists and their families, formed a tight closed group. But my love for art and the economical potential I recognized in this trade convinced me to take my first steps the minute I took off my uniform." Peled continues: "We decided upon opening an auction house. After careful examination of the field, as a former army man will do, I decided together with my wife, Sofia (which also works as an architect), that establishing an auction house in Israel would be the most suitable way for us to start our way in the art world, and that we would start with numismatics, philately and antiques. We turned to experts in public auctions in Israel and abroad. We visited large and small auction houses and got good advice from anyone willing to give us a helping hand in setting up an auction and a catalogue. The main difficulty was in assembling a list of customers interested in numismatics and philately. This list is essential for the success of every public auction. In spite of all the troubles we got along and started the auction house." "In
1977, at 16 Hess Street in Tel Aviv, Israel, we proudly opened the first auction
at "Matsa for Public Auctions"." "The first auction proceeded peacefully with no significant problems," said Peled. "The income was low but it gave us the energy to proceed, I saw that if I followed this path I would accomplish my goals. Numismatics, Philately, Judaic and Antiques. I have known the subject of stamps since I was a young child. I kept it up through my years in the army and even had a collection of my own that gave me pleasure during my vacations from the army. I knew that in order to give the best service on the subjects of numismatics, Judaica and antiques I would have to expand my knowledge in these fields. I started to spend more time in libraries, went to as many public auctions as I could in and outside of Israel and got updates from any source possible. In the antique field I was only the producer of the auction, I arranged the catalogue, exhibition and auction, but hired an outside expert for everything else." "Sometimes I received a painting or a sculpture for my auctions and I proudly put them in with all the others artifacts. Other than that my art auctions were about numismatics, philately, Judaica and antiques. I held the small "exhibitions" in my modest offices on Druyanov Street in Tel-Aviv, something which didn't stop even V.I.P. customers to come in to browse amongst the different lots. At that time the basic need for a professional art library had arisen." "The time we spent in the different art libraries was too costly," says Peled. "We started to buy professional art books for "Matsa's" private library. Every new book that appeared was immediately purchased. Even when coming back from abroad we packed our suitcases with heavy art books, which my wife and I carried all over Europe. We often had the unpleasant surprise of "overweight" problems just before getting on a flight to Israel. Today we have a big and eclectic library in "Matsa's" offices. All beginnings are hard despite one's optimism. I had many problems ahead. As a new and unknown player in the art auction system I had enormous trouble getting items for my auctions of Jewish and international art in Israel ." "Every visit to a private home or meeting with a businessman started with a long lecture on: Who am I, what have I done lately, why hand over the items to my care and not to other auction houses? But from auction to art auction I succeeded in building personal trust between myself, the sellers and the buyers, and my satisfied customers' list got longer and longer. Organizational problems rarely happened as I always worked with a small crew in order to prevent any mistakes. I proved to myself and many others that in order to succeed you need patience, self-confidence and a long breath." "As art auction followed art auction and more and more people attended them, my connection with figures in the art world tightened and "Matsa for Public Auctions" became known as a reliable place you could do business with," said Peled. "The quality of the items we put up for auction improved greatly, now we had the option to select better items for our auctions. We got ahead of other art auction houses and received large and interesting philatelic and numismatic collections for auctioning: special military mail, a Mandatory collection and the collection of the famous graphic artist Valisch. I even had a hard time believing when one of our auctions drew the attention of 34 art collectors from Europe and America who flew in especially for the auction – and that was back then!." "Because of all this many customers and art dealers turned to me and asked to put sculptures and painting in my auctions. After many persuasions and consultations with my wife, I finally decided in 1987 to have an all paintings and sculpture auction, side by side with my other auctions. After the great success of these auctions, in 1991 I turned exclusively to paintings and sculptures auctions. From now on - only paintings and sculptures." Peled recalls how technology entered his art business. "When I started "Matsa for Public Auctions" in Israel, I decided that no matter what, my offices would be on the edge of technology. I knew that in order to give my customers the best service possible I would need to own the best office appliances. So I was one of the first facsimile machine owners while others were running daily to the Telex / teleprompters companies, and one of the first to use computers for more efficient better handling of my customers' list and my office." The first step was to manually insert my large customers' list and define the fields of interest for each and every one. I consulted with experts and hired a programming agency that wrote software to fit my auction house's demands exactly. After all the lists were in I at last had software that gave me perfect "inventory" files, customers' classification and even computerized accounting, that was very rare at that time." Peled reveals how he creates his art shows. "The first art exhibitions were not easy. We held them in "Asia House" in Tel Aviv. Matsa worked with a relatively small crew and we had to teach them how to treat the different items with respect, how to hang a painting correctly and how to organize all the items with a certain logic. In the set-up team there was always circulation between "veterans" who taught the young art auction employees, who came back six months later as "veterans" to teach the young. I had young students working for me who went on to become doctors and young soldiers who became high-ranking officers, a lot of them still come by to say hello at every art auction." "As the art auctions went along, we gained more experience and learned more about what to hang where. What is the intelligent way to distribute the items, how to set the sculptures and how to organize all the lots just before the art auction. All these important lessons brought us to a high standard of minimum mistakes at an exhibition or auction. As the years passed the number of lots per art auction grew enormously and we found ourselves time after time with no room on the walls to hang important items, so we had to move our auction to "Hasharon" hotel in Herzlia, and to "Zionist of America House" in Tel-Aviv. I am proud to announce that nowadays our exhibitions take place in our new facilities in the new "Matsa House" on the twenty first floor on the highest building in the Middle-East – The "Moshe Aviv Tower". The art Auctions are being held on the beautiful "Sheraton city tower" Hotel in Ramat-Gan." Peled discusses how to make a great catalogue. "When I dealt with numismatics and philately there was no need for color catalogues or big pictures," said Peled. "Color reproduction was too expensive to be affordable. When I turned to paintings and sculptures the need for a printed color catalogue arose. Again we investigated and asked for the best professionals. We studied the subject hard and had to regroup. I hired a professional photographer who would produce the best photos for catalogue reproductions." "My policy was, and still is, not to charge the sellers for the high production charges, neither do we sell the art catalogues for profit - we hand our catalogue to art buyers and art lovers for free," says Peled. "From the first art catalogues until today we have improved and modernized our art auction catalogues. With the help of our large library we expanded the information we give on some of the art items in order to give all our clients the best service possible. New elements, such as folding and double pages, have been added and today we keep in touch with our clients by a colorful newsletter called "InforMatsa" that is also available on line in our website www.IsraelJewishArtAuctions.com In "InforMatsa" we tell our customers what's new, what's going on in "Matsa" and what is going to be auctioned at the art auctions and in the Gallery." Peled explains how to create an art auction. "The secret in making an auction is quite simple: get the best items and sell them at the highest prices someone is willing to pay in an auction. This is the recipe. Easy to say - hard to accomplish. In turning to these new fields we started practically from scratch. I had to renew my customers list and change the sources from which I received works of art from. I improved the conditions of sale and decided not to charge the sellers for the "all risk" insurance fees, the photos and catalogue production costs or to charge the buyers for currency exchange rates." "Today, after establishing confidence in "Matsa for Public Auctions", we receive works of art from varied sources: private people, art dealers, galleries and museums, court sentences and inheritances, from Israel, New York, Boston, Brazil, Hungary, Florida, London, Paris, Ireland, Rome and from all over the world," said Peled. "I have also established excellent personal relationships with art and business people all over the world in order to get the best items for my auction and to find them good homes." Peled keeps up with modern international PR, advertising and marketing on the Internet. "As part of the technology advances I mentioned earlier I find it very important to write about the effects of the Internet on the art world," says Peled. "In the black and white world of fax I could not really see pictures of items sent for my examination. Today color images sent by e-mail are common and very helpful. But Internet does not stop here - it provides the opportunity to "travel" into galleries and auction houses from France, England and the US to Japan, Israel and Germany. To be updated quickly on quality of the art works and, most important, the selling prices of each item. These precious art data banks in my offices help me to know how "the wind blows" and is another tool for giving advice to my clients, other than my many years in the trade." As
part of the developing world I initiated three different Internet Websites: matsa.co.il,
artonline.co.il, and israeljewishartauctions.com ; names with a more international
flavor that I invented. In these art auction Websites from Israel, I publish my
auctions and their results. I have just completed a new image and fascinating
contents for "artonline.co.il", with a new "Buyers Gallery" and interesting proposals. "I have many customers who trust my creditability and buy and sell with the help of my "artonline.co.il" website, and they do not need to physically hold the item in order to purchase it," says Peled. "Five years ago my wife and I decided to take another significant step in the history of "Matsa for Public Auctions", a step that would make "Matsa" a more modern art auction house combining all the advantages of a gallery and an auction house: large halls for permanent exhibitions as well as for temporary exhibitions of various artists, while still giving the general public the opportunity to buy and sell works of art at public auctions. As soon as we saw the ad in the newspaper for the new Migdal "Moshe Aviv" the decision was made and we started to plan the move to the new "Matsa house" under the supervision of my architect wife, Sofia. We chose this location because the Ramat- Gan business center is very close to the diamond exchange and the places where businessmen meet. We believe that after the move to the new "Matsa house" and joining forces with the Lucien Krief Gallery we will now be able to give all our clients both in Israel and abroad better personal service. We believe we are more accessible than we were (or even more so)." Peled concludes: "We believe that we will maintain the same high quality public art auctions and the highest quality of items in "Matsa Gallery" and in the "Buyers Gallery" on our Website on the Internet. The Internet is changing how art auctions are marketed and organized. I plan to keep Matsa one step ahead on the Net. And together with the new partnership – one step ahead of our colleagues
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