Details
CHRISTIAN JANKOWSKI (B. 1968)
Strip the auctioneer
suit jacket
Executed in 2009, this work is accompanied by ten digital images of the performance
Provenance
Anon. sale, Christie's Amsterdam, 20 May 2009, lot 132.
Private Collection, Belgium (acquired at the above sale).
Thence by descent to the present owner.
Literature
C. Jankowski, Strip the auctioneer at Christie's, Cologne 2009 (illustrated, unpaged)
Special notice
This lot is offered without reserve.
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.
Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.
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Lot Essay

Jankowski convinced an auctioneer at the auction house Christie’s to sell the clothes off his own back: his jacket, his tie, his shoes, his socks, his shirt. One after another, his possessions (turned artworks by Jankowski) are sold to the highest bidder. In the end, the auctioneer is deprived not only of his clothes, but also of the symbol of his position: his hammer. The various stages of the performance were documented by an official photographer from Christie’s, and the live webcast served as the basis for the video Strip the Auctioneer. The artwork highlights the overlap between art’s symbolic value and its economic value through its burlesque, theatrical sales process.

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