The Pandolfini auction house has been an active player on both the national and international art and antiques market for almost ninety years. Over this period the auction house has established and consolidated its position in the art market, adjusting to the ever-changing tastes and demands of clients by constantly updating its methods of assessment.
The Pandolfini auction house has enjoyed outstanding success over recent years, its volume of sales exceeding eleven million Euros per annum: an increase of over 300% against the previous decade. It has therefore established itself as one of the leaders in this field in Italy and among the top three auction houses in the country.
In addition to the traditional fields - antiques, nineteenth-century, modern, contemporary and Old Master paintings, furniture and furnishings, jewellery and silverware - the Pandolfini auction house has taken on a leading role in areas more usually found on the international, rather than Italian, market in order to enlarge the range it offers and satisfy the needs of ever more demanding clients. It therefore now successfully deals in fine and rare wines, antiquities, oriental art and design.
"Small companies are now challenging the leading ones. The Florentine Pandolfini auction house after its great auction successes, has decided to launch into fields that are new to the Italian market, such as rare wines and classical and Egyptian antiquities." Debora Amaru', La Stampa, 1st November, 2004
The departments that have been attracting the most attention are currently works of art, Modern and Contemporary art, Oriental art, silverware and jewellery. These sectors now represent 40% of total turnover. Despite this shift, the historically more important departments, such as Old Master, nineteenth and twentieth-century paintings and some period antiques, which have always been the Pandolfini core business, have not been neglected. Although there has been a dip in interest and changes in taste over recent years, the sales of antiques have been managed in such a way as to suit the new requirements with approximately 9,000 lots, in both the head office and other branches, put under the hammer last year.
In order to support this success and move logistically closer to clients, an office in Milan was opened in April 2011, in the center in via Manzoni, in addition to the historical head office in Florence, located in the prestigious Palazzo Ramirez Montalvo, and to the branch in Via di Poggio Bracciolini.
Two directions now mark the future of the Pandolfini auction house: the opening of new offices in Italy, in addition to those in Florence and Milan, and the carrying out of 'themed' auctions, with the aim of stimulating clients' curiosity and developing a new approach to the art market.