Starting a Contemporary Design Collection? Check Out This New Online Auction Series

An online auction launched this week by Sothebys features only 23 pieces, from a Colorado gallery called Maker + Place, but it represents something bigger — the start of a new series of no-buyer's-reserve, online-only design sales that the art-auction giant plans to repeat regularly with different curators and assortments. Because they'll focus solely on contemporary pieces, with diverse price points and a super-straightforward bidding process, they're perfect for anyone starting a collection.
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This Norwegian Auction Just Made Us Excited for the Fall Design Season

Today we got word of a new auction launching in Oslo next month, which we hope will be the first of many: Called Unika, the event — held at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts from September 9-10 and online from September 1-10 — is a collaboration between the biennial event Designer’s Saturday, Oslo's oldest auction house Blomqvist, and Klubben, the Norwegian designers organization.
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20th Century Carpets at Wright

At the modern design auction house Wright, rugs have long suffered that classic rom-com affliction: Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Despite being the key focal point of most interiors and often being as artful as art itself, they've only played supporting roles in larger furniture auctions — a tendency not exclusive to Wright, either. Next week, though, the Chicago- and New York–based dealer is hosting its first sale devoted entirely to the genre: "20th Century Carpets," comprising nearly 150 lots curated by Nader Bolour of Doris Leslie Blau, beginning with a late 19th-century animal-themed Indian tapestry and ending with contemporary kilims. In the middle, there's an incidental emphasis on Swedish rugs, particularly mid-century examples made by the manufacturer Märta Måås-Fjetterström. To jazz up the sale's catalog, Wright shot the images you see here, pairing some of its most beautiful lots with furniture and art by the likes of Jonathan Muecke and Ben Jones. Read more about it after the jump, in our interview with Wright's Senior VP, Michael Jefferson.
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