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COLLECTOR:
SIMON DE PURY
First piece: Ne Prislonyatsa –
Do Not Lean by Erik Bulatov, 1987
wiss-born auctioneer Simon
de Pury began his career at
Kornfeld & Klipstein in Bern
before joining Sotheby’s in London.
After a fi ve-year spell as curator of
the Th yssen-Bornemisza Collection
in Switzerland, he returned to
Sotheby’s as its principal auctioneer
and presided over some of the most
high-profi le art sales of the 1990s,
including the $29m sale of Picasso’s
Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto.
He was appointed chairman of
Sotheby’s Europe but left to found
Phillips de Pury & Company, an
international auction house that
specialises in contemporary art,
design and photography. He is both
its chairman and chief auctioneer.
Until I was in my mid-thirties, I
didn’t feel the need to own any
pieces. It was my privilege to work
with outstanding art and to be
surrounded by it on a daily basis –
and I think perhaps I felt that
whatever I’d be interested in buying
was out of my reach.
Th en, in the early 1980s, I
became fascinated by a group of
highly talented artists producing
work in Russia. Th ey were ‘unoffi cial’
artists, who didn’t work in the style
that was encouraged by the
communist system, and as a result
had trouble getting studios or even
materials. In 1988, I organised the
fi rst international art auction in
Moscow for Sotheby’s. It was the
early days of glasnost and a time of
huge change; after the auction those
artists began to be allowed to show
their works publicly and to travel.
One of the artists was Erik
Bulatov, and I attended an exhibition
of his works in Zurich. It included a
Sixty-Seven
piece called Do Not Lean, which
showed a beautiful Russian
landscape with those words written
across the canvas. I was so struck by
it, I bought it. At the time I was an
employee at Sotheby’s and had a very
modest salary, so it was quite a
fi nancial sacrifi ce to acquire it.
I’ve seen it with my clients, and
it’s always the same. Once you’ve
taken the fi rst step, the second
follows automatically. My focus is
mostly contemporary art and
design, but I buy what appeals to
me, from skateboards and Godzilla
fi gures to ceramic mugs shaped like
cartoon characters and superheroes…
When you have a whole group of
them they’re quite funny together.
To collect is not an issue of money.
I’ve seen great collectors who have
put together remarkable collections
with very limited means. And vice
versa as well, of course.
Collecting is a kind of artistic
process in itself. After a while, the
works that you have bought show
your handwriting; a collection
becomes the self-portrait of the
person that put it together.