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Article: Meet the hyenas of the art market
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- June 22, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Parked outside Christie's, Sotheby's and the big dealers in
Bond Street, you can see dusty Volvo hatchbacks from which piles of
grubby oil paintings are being unloaded by men in tweed jackets and
jeans. They are "runners", the hyenas of the art-market.
Bleary-eyed, they have been on the road from the country since
dawn. The paintings have been snapped up from country auctions in
the hope that they are "sleepers" - artworks whose real value has
been missed by the auctioneer and rival bidders.
Now the runners are in for the kill. Among their finds might be
a heavily varnished picture of horses, modestly catalogued as "18th
century English school" at a country auction. The runner has laid
out ...