Michel Strauss - Pictures, Passions and Eye: A Life at Sotheby’s

Writing a memoir is something I never conceived of tackling, but then, as so often happened when relating anecdotes concerning Sothebys to others, it was suggested I should put pen to paper. About four years ago, I began to take the idea seriously and started on the lengthy task. Although I have an excellent visual memory for the pictures I have seen and the prices they have sold for, my recollection of events and conversations was much vaguer. Yet, as I started writing, more and more memories began to surface and, to help me further, I recorded numerous conversations, mainly with my mother, Aline Berlin, my son Andrew, other family members, friends and former colleagues.

Having fallen in love with art at the age of six when living in New York, I was to discover my grandfathers identical passion when I returned to Paris after the Second World War. Since that time I have been conscious both of the genes I inherited from him and how my life has been inextricably linked with his, in spite of the fact that he died when I was still very young.

It was not only my grandfathers passion for works of art that I inherited, but also his quest to hunt them down. A constant search for something new and unusual, something to excite the senses, the thrill of chasing after a rare object or painting, the pursuit of the finest quality and for fascinating historical associations, are what marked out Jules Strauss as a very special and much admired collector. All these elements have been passed on to his descendants: my father Andr, who also died when I was very young, me and my son Andrew. Four successive generations have nurtured identical passions and deep feelings for paintings and works of art. What we all share is a highly tuned, intuitive eye, an instinctive notion of excellence in art, fostered by learning and experience. We all strive to test that eye and knowledge, to keep on learning and discover new information, artists, movements and cultures.

There is one difference between Jules and myself: whereas he loved buying, selling and swapping, I find it difficult to part with anything, loving the buying but not the selling, unless I am trading up. For me, an acquisition becomes part of the fabric of the house or, as I have always said, one of the family. From early beginnings in my teens, this predilection has evolved in me, as it did in Jules, and will continue to do so to the last of my days.

Having realised quite early on that the academic life wasnt for me, once my studies were sufficiently complete I determined to follow the dream I had had since childhood of working in a museum. When a position became available at the National Gallery in London I applied, but was unsuccessful and then, perhaps in what might be called a twist of fate, I fell almost by chance into Sothebys. There I soon realised that what I really loved was the physical presence of paintings, the ability to look and touch them in the most direct manner. It was this synergy between art history and collecting and organising sales that became the perfect life for me, and in doing so I found in myself a previously inert ambition to succeed in all my endeavours.

These memoirs are not a history of the Impressionist and Modern Art market during the last fifty years, nor an expos of any doubtful deeds in the world of auction houses, but much more a recollection of events that have touched me the most: the colleagues, the pictures, the collectors, the dealers and the sales, and how the guiding light of my eye and my passions have been inspired by my parentage.

Art and commerce have forever been inextricably linked: no artist can live without a market for his works and people have always had a very high regard and love for art which can transcend all boundaries and somehow raises their spirit to higher levels. Art is the expression of mans soul, emotions and beliefs and since pre-historic times has realised its potency, whether it be by means of cave paintings, Medieval altarpieces or the beauty of Impressionist paintings. In todays market such large sums of money are tied up with art, but as my step-father Isaiah Berlin once said to my mother when she complained that its not proper to talk about money, he, the consummate intellectual, replied that money is the most interesting subject in the world: I believe art is the second.