I love auctions. I first fell in love with them in Paris, but it was more because I was 24 and the auctioneer holding the hammer was a famous top model. But giving it time, I fell in love with the process: A rare item of value presented, open to debate in the most Darwinian fashion: the most substantial bidder takes it home!
My declared passion for exemplary creations from the watchmaking industry inevitably redirected me to the auctions world in recent years, especially after the Paul Newmann Rolex Daytona auction. Around 14 million was this one…From watches to auctions, and from auctions to what could be auctioned in the future: Money!
Auctions need items with two qualities: rarity and popularity. An intricate combination! The item must be rare enough to provide the future owner with the satisfaction of acquiring something special and the auction house with the ability to repeat a similar event. In other words, every event must look like a one-off but guarantee a comeback.
From paintings, sculptures, and antiques to personal jewelry, letters, and other items of legendary figures, the auctions world has seen it all. And it has expanded as New York, London, and Paris got dynamic rivalry from Switzerland, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, and (Ooops) Moscow.
What could be next?
As I said, Money. And I do not mean your debit card. Money bills are more likely. They fit the bill! Money circulates everywhere, therefore, any critical event has some bills involved to facilitate its function. And money being the blood circulation of our current civilization (much to my dismay), one could claim that X amount of bills played a significant role in a such and such historical moment, collective or individual.
Crazy? Only when auctions are about authentic quality and rarity and not about the vanity game, which they currently tend to be. Unlike diamonds, money bills are worthless, redundant, and boring until somebody does something special with them. Find that moment, and the bills become special too.
The important lesson here is none other than realizing that money bills in themselves are worthless. Auctions as a business model naturally aim at money, but they celebrate something else: rare instances of human greatness.
And money bills could be the next hot auction item, provided they finally acquire meaning.