Clients don’t do the rounds of the galleries any more,” says Konrad Bernheimer, an art dealer based in Munich and London. “We live in an event society and people need an event – just that little bit more – to be tempted in.”
Four years ago, along with London colleagues Johnny Van Haeften and Jonathan Green, Bernheimer launched Master Paintings Week (June 29-July 6). It continues a tradition of dealer initiatives presenting “open house” gallery shows to coincide with the big auction seasons – its sister event, Master Drawings London (June 27-July 5), for instance, is in its 12th year.
Such events rely on critical mass. They work well in London because of the concentration of world-class galleries and auction houses within a short walking distance from one another, in and around Bond Street and St James’s. The fact that Christie’s Old Master & British Paintings evening sale on July 3 is its most promising in years will help to focus the minds of serious private and institutional collectors.