What I’ve learned: Arno Verkade, Managing Director of Christie’s Netherlands
As Christie’s Amsterdam office celebrates its 50th anniversary, Verkade reflects on highlights from across his three decades with the business, from selling shipwrecks to negotiating with ghosts — and even stripping at the rostrum in the name of art
Arno Verkade with Karel Appel’s Huilend meisje (Crying Girl), 1953, at the view for Made in Holland: Celebrating 50 Years of Christie’s Amsterdam in October 2023. In the background is Kees van Dongen’s Souvenir de Dordrecht, 1907. Photo: Iris Duvekot. Artworks: © Karel Appel, DACS 2023; © Kees van Dongen, DACS 2023
The best way to learn about art is by looking at it, not Googling it. I’ve had various roles during my time at Christie’s, from Southeast Asian art specialist to head of the Post-War and Contemporary Art department. My job has taken me to many different countries, and I am surrounded by interesting people. What more could anyone ask for?
The role of Managing Director of Christie’s in the Netherlands involves a combination of managing people, figures and business. Lots of meetings and events, hosting charity auctions and, of course, trying to find great art, then sell it.
The Amsterdam office deals with everything from wine and jewels to Old Masters and contemporary painting. You name it, we do it. It used to be like a mini version of Christie’s in London, and we would hold up to 40 auctions a year, but now we’re part of a much more integrated global network. That said, we still have auctions, ranging from niche regional offerings to two international Post-War and Contemporary Art sales each year.
Artworks on view for Made in Holland: Celebrating 50 Years of Christie’s Amsterdam, until 10 October 2023. Clockwise, from top left: Still life, Dutch School, circa 1700; Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp (1594-1652), Portrait of a lady, 1645; Jan Sluijters (1881-1957), Standing nude near red jug, circa 1920; (on the table) Jonas Zeuner (1727-1814), Amsterdam, a view of the Munttoren; and Simon Luttichuys (1610-1661), Still life with peaches, 1648
I was surrounded by art as a child. My father was the sculptor Kees Verkade. I grew up in studios, galleries and bronze foundries. My real passion for art, however, developed when I was an art history student and got an internship at Christie’s aged 19.
My job interview lasted one minute — I was asked, ‘Do you have a driving licence and can you start tomorrow?’ I began by polishing silver and setting up furniture. I’ve now worked for Christie’s for 30 years.
I don’t want to sound like a grandpa, but when I started, everything was in books in the library and photos in the archives. Clients would send us a letter with some Polaroids of a work, and they understood that a response would take a while — not like in today’s world of emails and mobile phones.
Yves Klein (1928-1962), Le Rose du bleu (RE 22), 1960. Dry pigment in synthetic resin, natural sponges and pebbles on board. 78⅜ x 60 x 6⅜ in (199 x 153 x 16 cm). Sold for £23,561,250 on 27 June 2012 at Christie’s in London. © Succession Yves Klein / ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2023
The Post-War and Contemporary Art evening sale is the Champions League of auctions. The highlight of my career was overseeing one in London. It was 2012 and I was covering for a colleague on maternity leave. We achieved £132.8 million, a new world record for the category. The top lot was Yves Klein’s Le Rose du bleu (RE 22), 1960, which is a huge pink painting with sponges and pebbles attached.
Christie’s Amsterdam has a rather peculiar reputation for selling the contents of shipwrecks. It started in 1986, when we sold the Nanking Cargo, salvaged from the Geldermalsen, a Dutch East India ship that sank in the South China Sea in 1752. The haul included 125 gold ingots and more than 150,000 pieces of blue-and-white export porcelain.
There were queues around the block to see it. We grouped it into around 3,000 lots, which combined made more than $15 million.
The pre-sale view of the Nanking Cargo at Christie’s Amsterdam in 1986. The porcelain in the sale was divided into 3,000 lots of varying sizes, making it possible for buyers to acquire a small memento of the find. Photo: BNA Photographic / Alamy
The Nanking Cargo kicked off something of a trend. In 1992 we sold the Vung Tau cargo, discovered on an Asian trading vessel that had sunk off the coast of Vietnam in around 1690. Then, in 1995, the Diana cargo, which was salvaged from a Calcutta-based merchant ship that had been wrecked in the Strait of Malacca in 1817.
In 2004 we also sold the cargo of the Fort San Sebastian, a Portuguese galleon that was wrecked near Mozambique in the 16th century. I like to think Amsterdam was trusted with these sales because we tend to think outside of the box here.
I once negotiated the sale of an artwork with a widow — and her deceased husband. It took me a while to realise it, but she was attempting to communicate with him from beyond the grave. She then told me he disagreed with my estimate and wanted it higher. Strangely enough, he was right, and it ended up selling for the amount he suggested.
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I was once asked to strip at the rostrum. It was 2009 — back in my ‘good’ years — and we were hosting a charity auction to raise funds for two contemporary art institutes in the Netherlands. They consigned works donated by artists.
One of the artists, Christian Jankowski, came up with the idea of a performance piece called Strip the Auctioneer, in which I would take my clothes off and auction them one by one, ending with my gavel. I agreed. Amazingly, my left sock alone raised more than €2,000.
The online auction Made in Holland: Celebrating 50 Years of Christie’s Amsterdam continues until 10 October 2023