As the art world enters its busiest season, we sat down with Karl Green, marketing director at Koller Auctions. For over sixty years, Koller has stood as one of Switzerland’s leading auction houses, spanning categories from Old Masters to fine furniture.

MADINA TULAKOVA: What need do you believe collecting satisfies, based on your experience at the auction house? After all, it is widely considered a fundamental human disposition.

KARL GREEN: For many collectors, buying at auction is a very satisfying experience. Because it is a public sale, they have the assurance that the price is, at the moment of sale, a fair market price, because others were willing to spend the same amount.

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TULAKOVA: How much of collecting involves rational calculation, and at what point does it trigger primal instincts of desire, fear or loss? We often see individuals go well beyond their ceiling when it comes to competitive bidding at auction.

GREEN: There are different kinds of collectors at an auction, of course. Some are impulsive: they see what they like and want to own it immediately. This type of collector will often bid far above the estimate in order to secure the work they desire. If the collector has a competitive streak, that will encourage them to keep bidding as well, in order not to let the other bidder have it.

Others are more philosophical about it, whether by nature or circumstance. They fix a price and do not go above it. They often reason that there are other works out there, or perhaps that they will get another chance when the work comes back on the market years later.

TULAKOVA: A large part of the business remains emotional. In estate auctions, what feelings are commonly expressed by family members or others? And what does it mean for the buyer to purchase a piece that must once have been precious to someone else?

GREEN: When we catalogue an estate before auction, we often get a privileged and detailed look into the life of a person, as seen through their possessions. It’s a special feeling. By the end of the auction process, I sometimes feel as if I knew the person in a way, even if I never met them.

The family generally wants to honour the collector, which we make a sincere effort to do by cataloguing each item in the collection with great respect and often producing a dedicated catalogue of the collection. The buyers, if they knew the person either by reputation or personally, want to take home a piece of that person’s history. Very often, items in a collection sell for significantly more than they would if sold anonymously and individually. There is a story behind them: a lifetime of searching that produced this unique ensemble.

TULAKOVA: When it comes to collectors, do you believe they are born or made? Have you seen taste be inherently possessed or fine-tuned over time? What sort of emotions or personal journeys have you observed that triggered an interest in collecting?

GREEN: Collectors can certainly be made; I have seen this on many occasions. Sometimes the process begins with a first visit to an auction house, when the person realises that there is an entire universe of objects and works of art that exists outside museums and that anyone can access.

I think, however, that curiosity is a prerequisite for enjoying collecting. Objects can teach us so much and, if one has a curious nature, make us want to learn and discover more.

TULAKOVA: With a broad range of items, from Old Master drawings to pocket watches, you have offices around the world, including Geneva, Zurich, Florence, Munich, Düsseldorf and Beijing. What are the key motivators for collectors across these regions, and how do they differ?

GREEN: The motivations for collecting are probably the same around the world: the satisfaction of a need, whether it be a sense of accomplishment, a symbol of status or the pure love of the objects collected. There are, of course, regional differences. Often, art from a specific country is more highly valued by that nation’s inhabitants, for example. But what is interesting to note as a worldwide phenomenon is that art is perhaps the only commodity that has absolutely no intrinsic value. It is very often collected for the sheer pleasure it brings.

TULAKOVA: Are there items that you have seen time and again that simply do not generate interest among Swiss or Chinese collectors, for example? Why do you think that is?

GREEN: The art and antiques market is subject to trends and fashion. In the first half of the twentieth century, collecting pewter tankards and plates was all the rage, to the point where some pieces sold for more than an equivalent piece in silver. Today, very few people are interested in pewter. But beyond the cycle of trends, works of poor quality have always been difficult to sell. No discerning collector is interested in such works.

TULAKOVA: We are being ushered into an era of widespread digitalisation. With emotions hidden by anonymous online bidding, how much has the auction landscape changed?

GREEN: As an auctioneer, it is immensely more interesting to have an auction room full of bidders. You can interact with them on a personal level, feel the energy in the room, and the experience is generally more enjoyable for all concerned. Conversely, the possibility of bidding online has enabled many more bidders to participate, no matter where they are in the world. That is a very positive development that outweighs those drawbacks. I can’t imagine an auction nowadays being cancelled because of a snowstorm, for example—something that happened quite regularly in the days before the internet.