Interview of M Georges Franck, art dealer in Paris


-Have you always worked in the art business? For how long have you been a dealer?

I have always worked in the art business. After some economics studies and an art market related business school, I worked in a gallery specialized in antique drawings of which I than became the director. I left the gallery for two years to focus on the 18th century furniture, but my taste for drawings was stronger and I got back in the business with my wife at the Puces de Clignancourt for three years. Since 2003 I have a gallery in Paris, 40 Verneuil street in the center of the Carre Rive Gauche.



-Have you always worked with a personal website ?

To be visible on the Web has occurred to be necessary, but we wanted more than a simple website. I believe that nowourdays to be visible on search engines such as Google is an obligation. It’s the first reflex that would have someone who hears about you. Than you may have a simple “info page” or a real busniness plateform. We are lucky to work with a webmaster who could create the exact tool we needed.



-Today your website is a rich catalogue, do you consider to mabye tomorow make online sales ?

On www.artesepia.com we present the biggest part of our stock and we answer to the questions regarding the price and conditions reports via email or telephone. Nevertheless, I may one day propose online secure payment for those who would like to by online. On the art market, you can’t by a lot without seeing it, we are talking about unique pieces Worthing lots of money: it’s Art, not computers or jeans on which you may do an objective description. Art produces feelings, and I would be pretty unable to describe on a website the emotion felt through the antique drawings I sell.



-Have you already sold a drawing through Internet, without the byer seeing the artwork?

Indeed, despite of my last answer I sometimes sell some antique drawings to clients who didn’t see the lot “in real”. But those are rare examples and are for clients who know the gallery and its ethic. If the drawing is not what they thought it was, they know they can return it without condition.



-Some galleries won’t have a website, they are afraid to « burn » the item ; if it’s on Internet, nobody would by it. Does this fact really exists?

Yes it does, but only for exceptional pieces. I don’t post those artworks on my website. Priority is always given to the gallery and we post our antique drawings on the Web only after exposing them during the galleys’ exhibition.



-Internet isn’t much implicated in the business art. How would you explain this?

Emotion is the key: it’s impossible to describe the singularity of a unique feeling on a web page or through a picture on a computer screen.



-All the Web experts agree to say that the Internet Revolution is still to come. Do you think that this could be the end of the galleries; that a dealer could work with a simple webpage and sell exclusively online?

I believe that over a certain budget, for unique and original pieces, the direct contact with the artwork before buying it will always be necessary!
Internet may help by thousands other way, like finding new clients.



-What are the motivations that brought you on ARTFINDING?

My first motivation is the ten languages application, this I can’t do with my own website. It gives me a visibly and an automatic and reliable translation in Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Japanese… The second one because I believe the art lovers do find their interest by visiting this kind of online fair, before focusing on the galleries in particular.


Georges FRANCK is an art dealer specialized in antique drawings in the prestigious Carré Rive Gauche in Paris. You may visit him rue de Verneuil and/or at www.artesepia.com.