Cheyenne Westphal: She finds the pictures for Sotheby's
Cheyenne Westphal was born in 1967 in Baden-Baden. After studying art history in Scotland and the USA, she joined Sotheby's in London as a trainee at the age of 22. She has been head of the Department of Contemporary Art since 1999 and has been a member of the Executive Board since 2002.
© Cheyenne WestphalThe price tags. By which one recognizes that one is not in the museum. Even if there are pictures everywhere, big names like Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter and Jeff Koons. "10 to 15 million pounds" is among the "Three Studies for a Self-Portrait" by Bacon, "7 to 9 million pounds" next to a huge cloud image of Richter.
Here, in the showrooms of the auction house Sotheby's on fine New Bond Street in London - opposite Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton a few steps up the street - potential buyers can see the artworks up close for the next auction. Admission is free, you do not have to register. If you're lucky, Madonna bends over the price tag next door. "Yes, she was here," laughs Cheyenne Westphal. "But it's not like I phoned her on the phone the next day to ask how she liked it."
Westphal is Europe's head of contemporary art at the world-famous auction house Sotheby's. Right now she is standing in a black trouser suit, her blond hair pinned up, between works of art, ladders and packaging material, and she is supervising that each picture comes to its intended place. It radiates cordiality and a down-to-earth attitude, which immediately brings the illustrious environment closer to you. The 44-year-old is one of the most important women in the art business. Anyone who has ever thought in Europe about investing their money in a Warhol or Bacon knows the name of the German pharmacist's daughter from Baden-Baden. The exotic "Cheyenne" owes her to the Karl-May enthusiasm of her mother (at that time her father ordered a "Birte" on the Baden-Baden registry office as a precaution).
Around 900 works of art change hands each year at the three contemporaries auctions in the London headquarters. Everything depends on the offer: the more spectacular the works that are auctioned, the more successful the auction. And Cheyenne Westphal is responsible for the replenishment of works. She knows the market like no one else, has an excellent network and manages time and time again to find coveted privately owned pictures whose owners think of selling. Besides, she knows who is interested in buying which pictures.
The art market has experienced an unprecedented boom in the wake of the financial crisis. In a time when nothing seems safe, pictures are considered a perfect investment. But investors do not invest their money in any work. In demand are the big names, whose importance for art history - and thus also their material value - is beyond doubt. The prices for cutting-edge projects have shot up to dizzying heights in recent years, records are constantly being set. Top performer so far: one of the four versions of Munch's "Scream", which was sold for nearly $ 120 million in May 2012 - at a Sotheby's auction in New York. Never before has so much money been paid for a picture. It was issued by American financial manager Leon Black, 61.
Art collections often tell love stories.
Sometimes a customer contacts Westphal and wants to sell. However, she often looks for contact with collectors and recommends herself and her employer, if at some point a sale is due. "You need a psychological sense for that," she says, walking around between works of art as if they were billy shelves. Collections often tell stories of love, behind every picture there is a seller and a buyer, and hopefully, "she laughs," a few more bidders, so it's going to be pretty expensive! " The higher the price that a picture achieves, the higher the profit for the auction house - of course. "But psychology is not everything, you also need business sense, I can talk to a customer for hours about a picture, but at some point I have to know if the customer has a sales wish, if so, I have to be able to trust him, that he can now sell his picture well with me. "
That's the sound of Westphal, the businesswoman. But at least as much as a business, art is a matter of the heart for her. She buys every year exactly one piece of art that makes something sound in her - "and that I can afford!" Her pictures hang in her house in the lively district of Notting Hill, where she lives with her ten-year-old son Jesper. Jesper counted them recently and said, "Mom, you have 20 pictures here, do you really need that many?" - "I think so," she answered.
She roars loudly, "Three million!"
At the three-day auction, Cheyenne Westphal will again be at the front, to the right of the auctioneer. She does not even auction. Regular customers can bid over them by phone, then she pulls her arm up and yells, "Three million!" She makes it so loud that the craftsmen look up. Also in November she stood there, as always in these moments brimming with adrenaline, at the evening auction in New York, one of the top events in the industry. Dress code: "black tie". Cheyenne wore a black tuxedo from Gucci, along with spectacular earrings loaned to her by Sotheby's Diamonds - which she enjoys like a girl masquerading with Mama's jewelry. Highlight of the auction was a large-scale abstract painting by Mark Rothko from 1954. It was estimated at 35 million dollars, it was sold for over 75 million.
How does such an astronomical price come about? "This is simply because there are very few of this class's paintings on the market, the picture was privately owned for 30 years, its appearance a sensation." You hardly find anything like that anymore. "Many collectors wanted this picture. that they will not get that chance again, on such an occasion it's all about the question: what's worth to me personally? "
The expert is sure that prices will continue to rise. On the one hand, the group of buyers is getting bigger as it becomes more global: "Today, we have buyers from Russia, the Middle East and Asia who were not there ten years ago." On the other hand, the images that everyone wants to have remain the same: works by Mark Rothko, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon or Gerhard Richter. "They will not work anymore, the buyers will."
If you want to find your way from the showrooms to Cheyenne Westphal's office, it's better to join someone who knows his way around the winding interior of Sotheby's. After an odyssey through narrow corridors, staircases, elevators and numeric code-secured doors, you enter your study - absurdly tiny for a switchboard in the art market. On the desk is a photo of her son Jesper, whose father she lives separately, but also lives in London.
One of the triumphs in Westphal's career is the 2008 Damien Hirst auction, with the beautiful title "Beautiful Inside My Head Forever". With this, the German has changed the art world. Never before had an artist collaborated directly with an auction house bypassing the galleries and produced over 220 works of art directly for auction. Because artists just did not do auctions - and because Sotheby's had an iron rule: only at least ten years old works by established artists were on sale. Not any longer longer. Cheyenne Westphal had conjured up the auction together with her good friend Hirst, whom she knows about U2's Bono. With unwavering belief in the success of "Beautiful," Westphal persuaded all decision makers at Sotheby's to take the risk. It became a media event beyond compare - and financially a sensation, $ 172 million heavy. "I'm proud of that," she says simply.
How is it actually: Is it still important to her what a buyer with a picture intends? Does she care if he wants to hang it over the sofa or lock it in the vault? She hesitates - after all, she works with both types of clients. Then she decides on an honest answer: "Yes, it does matter to me, I like to work with people who love art, but of course there are works of art that are bought as an investment, and I do not condemn that." Pause. "That's just part of our business."
