Guest Lecture by Alexandra Jaffre and Visit to the Drouot Auction House
On February 20, MA Fashion Studies students of the class ‘Fashion, Memory, and Heritage’, taught by Antoine Bucher, had an opportunity to learn about the art world, auction houses and the business surrounding the sale of historic objects, through a guest lecture by Alexandra Jaffre. Jaffre is an expert in 20th century decorative arts, and currently works for the Drouot Auction House in Paris, one of the most historic auction houses in Paris.
During the lecture, Jaffre explained several key elements of work in an auction house. One of the most notable was ‘preemptive right’: whereby state museums in France have the right to bid on and win an item for their collections, therefore usurping any other bidder. Moreover, she said the auction houses are accessible to the public, free to anyone who wants to see the items for auction as well as bid. The class concluded with a tour by Jaffre of her workplace, the Drouot Auction House.
The Drouot Auction House is truly a crossroads in art and history, holding anything imaginable. During the tour by Alexandra Jaffre, students had the opportunity to see a book of fashion illustrations by Paul Iribe for the famous couturier Paul Poiret, as well as other fashion illustrations from the early 1900s. In the Pierre Bergé auction room on the same floor, there were Greek and Egyptian antiquities available for bidding, and in the lower levels of the auction house there was a room dedicated specifically to fashion: old photographs, garments, and sewing notions were available for sale.
The lecture and the tour by Alexandra Jaffre gave the students a hands-on experience of the inner workings of the art world, and an insight into the auction houses specifically, providing an invaluable opportunity. Professor Antoine Bucher informed the students that one of the antiquities they had seen, a Greek vase, was actually bought by the Musée du Louvre, giving a tangible example to the lecture presented by Jaffre.
Written by Amanda Stedman
Photographs by Olivia Johnston and Amanda Stedman