Art auctions: A seaworthy enterprise

[Jason]

How about a landscape to go with that sunset? Cruise lines seal the deal

Sunday, June 27, 2004

Daniel Grant, Special to The Plain Dealer

For some passengers, cruise ships have become floating art galleries. These days, nearly every cruise ship visiting the United States has art auctions so vacationers can take home something to hang on the wall.

Hallways, lounges and dining and recreation rooms at sea contain an assortment of original paintings and prints. These artworks are the subject of free art walks and lectures that cruise lines arrange during the course of a voyage.

On the 15 ships of Royal Caribbean International, for instance, all the artwork is for sale during art auctions four of them on a typical seven-day cruise.

"We do it because it's a way of getting cultural enrichment for our passengers, as well as some profit for us," said David Stanley, vice president for shipboard revenue for Royal Caribbean.

Cruise lines get a percentage of each sale. Stanley declined to disclose the amount but said, "It's a profit center that makes everyone happy."

The market for art on cruise ships is enormous. Approximately half a million works of art are sold through onboard auctions annually. On Royal Caribbean cruises, approximately 22,500 works of art are sold each year.

Prices for the art start as low as $100 (posters, for instance) and might reach tens of thousands of dollars for limited-edition prints or paintings by artists such as Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Peter Max, Joan Miro, Leroy Neiman and Pablo Picasso.

The average auction price for artwork sold during cruises tends to be more on the lower end, although the actual amounts differ from one cruise line to another and from one ship to the next, reflecting the demographics of the passengers. The average price of artwork sold on Carnival Cruises, a line that aims for the budget-conscious vacationer, is in the $250-$300 range, while the more luxury-minded passengers of Cunard spend an average of $500. (Prices might be higher if the work is framed.)

Cruise lines usually hire an outside company to operate auctions. The largest of these is Park West Gallery of Southfield, Mich., which has contracts with eight cruise lines (Carnival, Celebrity, Crystal, Holland America, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Silver Sea and Windstar) through which 300,000 artworks are sold annually.

Park West has been in the art-selling business since 1969, said Albert Scaglione, the company's founder and chief executive officer.

A different form of entertainment

Cruise-ship art auctions can be attractive for passengers, cruise lines and companies staging the art sales.

For passengers, "It's a great activity, very different from an off-shore excursion or gambling or bingo, and the cruise lines get good compliments for it," Scaglione said.

The events offer passengers entertainment and excitement, said Gabriel Hacman, auction manager of Richmond Fine Arts, a division of the art publisher London Contemporary Art in England. The company operates art sales on Radisson Seven Seas Cruises.

"People like to bid against each other, and win," he said.

The auctions usually start with an art talk by the auctioneer (sometimes called the "art director" by the cruise lines). The atmosphere is relaxed, Scaglione said.

"People are favorably disposed to spending money," he said.

And unlike a land-based gallery where someone might come in, look around and leave without buying anything, a ship has its passengers for an extended period, and the art director has time to work with potential buyers, he said.

"A lot of people are intimidated by art galleries," said Richard Scriven, director of ships operations for Fine Art Wholesalers, which runs auctions on Cunard, Orient and Princess cruise lines. "They don't know what a lithograph is, what a giclee is, if something that is signed and numbered means it's a print."

During the course of the voyage, the Fine Art Wholesalers' art director meets with individuals and groups, describing the work of particular artists, explaining the differences among various art media and generally leading art-appreciation tours around the ship, where 400 to 500 works of art are placed. Approximately 25 percent of the works are one-of-a-kind pieces, such as oil, acrylic and watercolor paintings, and the rest are prints.

What happens if something goes wrong?

Passengers rarely take their art purchases home with them but have the works shipped by the company that arranged the auction, usually receiving the art in six to eight weeks.

Works on paper, such as prints, can be damaged by saltwater air. So the buyer of a print gets his copy from the gallery that sold it. If the print happens to be out of stock, the collector is given the choice of selecting another work or being reimbursed.

The buyer of an original artwork gets the actual piece that he sees onboard. If the work is damaged after purchase by vandalism or an accident caused by carelessness it will be repaired. A damaged frame will be replaced. If the work cannot be repaired to the buyer's satisfaction, he is under no obligation to complete the purchase.

There is no one type or style of art that cruise-ship collectors purchase, although Hossam Antar, president of the cruise ship division of West End Gallery, said the largest area of sales is in "Realism and Impressionism," especially figurative works.

He said the itinerary of the cruise sometimes influences the subject matter.

Scaglione said that on cruises to Alaska, buyers purchase a high percentage of Alaskan and Canadian artists doing scenes of wildlife and the Alaskan landscape.

A chief selling point for the art directors is that the pieces cost less on board than they would at a land-based gallery, where overhead costs of rent, promotion and a 50 percent or more commission to the dealer keep prices high. (Onboard purchases are also duty-free.) Testing that claim is not easily done, because the art-auction companies are often the principal sources of buying the same artwork.

Not every cruise passenger enjoys art auctions ship loudspeakers regularly announce when the next one will take place, which tends to be every other day, but no one is required to attend, and no one is required to buy.

Some people just go for the free champagne. :wink:

[DaCruzNut]

As far as I am concerned, the Art Auctions are just another annoying, non-cruise related, practice offered solely to increase onboard revenue. In addition, if you check the prices ashore, you will find that there are very few "bargains," and, in many cases, the shipboard price is higher than 'back home.' The frequent announcements are more than just a little annoying, and the push to get passengers to the auctions is invasive.

[TheSkipper]

Jeff,

I can't remember ever disagreeing with one of your posts. But, without getting into a big thing I like the art auctions on board and over the years have made some great buys (which means I sold for a tidy profit). Have over 80 pieces hanging in our house, so I enjoy stopping by to see what is new.

Personally, I hate bingo on board! But, I also realize that lots of folks really enjoy it so to each his own!!

Both are profit centers for the cruise lines which is true of most everything that goes on.

Remember what cruise prices were like twenty years ago. Back then we even paid "brochure prices"!! Now with all the ships and the price cutting, the lines have to try to make it up somewhere, or should I say everywhere?? Remember when the Photos taken on board were $4.00 each??

Anyway, count me in for the art auctions.

[DaCruzNut]

Skipper-

I guess I harbor some negative prejudice against the Art Auctions because I am personally acquainted with someone who conducts them on one of the cruise lines. I have been privy to certain information, that is not generally available to the general public, that has "turned me off" to them.

I'm not saying that the cruise lines should drop the auctions, since so many of the passengers enjoy them, only that they are not my cup of tea. I just wish there were fewer announcements.

I'm not much of a bingo player, but believe that bingo is an integral part of cruising.

There are many activities on a cruise that I have no interest in, but wwould miss them if they were not in the daily program....