So, my wood restoration teachers invited me to an art auction held in Rome. No reason for me not to go, so it was in the car and off to Rome on a Monday evening. Typically Italian, the auction started at 9PM. There were about 60 people and 200 items were auctioned off. Roberto and Alessandro, being furniture guys, were only interested in bureaus, side tables, etc. Things moved at a fast clip. The auctioneer would start bidding and the piece would be sold or returned to the store room in 30 seconds or less. The item that sold for the largest amount? Two small paintings for 5,500 Euro. It was a bidding war between a person in the room and a guy bidding by proxy through a guy on the phone. Very artsy!
I know that Roberto, the more "sane" of the two purchased one table for 650 Euro. But, I'm not sure how many pink purchase slips Alessandro had at the end of the night. I've been to Alessandro's house and asked him where he was going to put all the stuff. His typically Italian response? "I don't worry about that now, live in the moment!"