Associate Vice President and Director General, Piasa, Paris Since rejoining the house in 2013 after a stint at Pierre Bergé and Associates, Chambre has been charged with business development, particularly in the realm of postwar design. In 2014, Piasa inaugurated a new space on Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, where they hold some 60 sales annually. Art+Auction spoke with Chambre about the growth in postwar design, a category in which his house has become a major market player in the international auction arena, notching more than €20 million ($22.3 million) annually.Can you tell us about the changes in the design market category in recent years and how your house has been able to capitalize on those changes? Over the past decade, the design market has continued to evolve and, as a result, prices have continued to climb. Yet the market is still quite young and its story is only beginning to be written. Clearly, the market is on the rise for such notable designers as Axel Saalto, Jean Prové, and George Nakashima, but there are many others still to be discovered. Our job is to aid in that discovery.Since the opening of the new venue on the Rive Gauche, Piasa has gained a significant market share in design sales. Might you tell us about your strategy As you may know, since 2002, foreign auction houses have been able to operate in France, which has created a far more competitive environment for us in recent years, so we have an imperative to set ourselves apart from our competitors. Our greatest challenge in today’s auction sector is to create new and enticing types of sales. To this end, we have staged themed sales, sales devoted to specific art scenes and movements, historic trends, individual artists, and even more offbeat, atypical auctions that offer a blend of lots from our design, photography, and modern and contemporary art departments.Are your buyers primarily French ? No, actually. More than 75 percent of them happen to be foreign collectors in search of rare or clever objects and works of art
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