Some businesses are coping by altering there procedures a little. Auctions admit the in person bidding war that erupts now and then helps line their pockets. In the heat of battle people will sometimes lose perspective and instead of he raised my bid do I think it's worth more, it becomes he topped my bid who the hell does he think he is?
One auction house in Germany has continued by putting the catalog online and taking bids by phone or online. I think they may have tapped a pool of frustrated home bound bidders who don't need that item but damn well want it.
Quote:
Press release
Berlin, January 27, 2020
Record surcharges: auction of the Beate Uhse erotic museum at Historia raises over 500,000
The auction of the Beate Uhse Erotic Museum on January 25th at the Historia auction house in Berlin with 545 lots of erotic works of art, collector's items and furniture generated total sales of over 500,000. Here are the highlights:
International record: Three condoms from the 19th century (lots 9477, 9475 and 9476) achieved the highest international prices for historical condoms at an auction of 3,300, 2,800 and 2,400 (each + premium) and all three went into one American Private collection.
Highest increase: A collection of watercolors with erotic motifs from Manchuria (China) was raised from 300 starting price (lot 9515) to a sensational 45,000 - the highest bidder also an American.
Other top surcharges: There was also fierce competition in bid fencing in the hall, on the phone and on the Internet
Watercolors by George Grosz with surcharges of 15,000 (lot 9051), 10,000 (lot 9053) and 9,000 (lot 9052)
a large drawing by Heinrich Zille with 12,000 (lot 9026)
three erotic chairs based on models from the erotic room of Russian Tsarina Catherine II (1729-1762) (lots 9098, 9099 and 9100) with surcharges between 4600 - 5000 .
an unusually large and high-quality doctor's lady from China who fetched 12,000
a historical dildo set For Your Pleasure, England, late 19th century (lot 9182) was worth 6,500 to a collector.
The premium of 27% is added to all the above-mentioned surcharge prices.
More top results at this link .
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Some items at the link may be NSFW