Ramon E.S. Lerma
CEO, Salcedo Auctions
Ramon E. S. Lerma, the CEO and chief specialist of the pioneering and premier Salcedo Auctions, notes the emergence of younger buyers and collectors of Philippine art. He confirms what has been quite evident in the Philippine art landscape—more and more millennials and the next generation are attending art fairs, their attendance, in fact, giving these events a packed-club vibe. While not all are set to buy in these events, these fairs are the introduction of today’s generation to Philippine art. More important, they are where germinates a younger community for Philippine art.
However, more than a market trend, the younger demographic, Lerma notes, is into the development of art appreciation. It consists, Lerma specifies, of “senior-level management and entrepreneurs”—apparently a high-income segment that wants to invest its earning while cultivating a taste and knowledge of culture and art.
It is a continuously growing market, not just of the upwardly mobile segment, that has sustained Salcedo Auctions even through the pandemic, and the post-pandemic of revenge-back-to-living.
TheDiarist.ph’s interview with Lerma:
Do you think the demographic for art appreciation and art as an industry, visual arts as industry, is expanding in the Philippines?
I’d like to think so, at least here at Salcedo Auctions. And a lot of people really enjoy coming here because they find it as a confluence of different segments of society. You have the hard-core art collectors, and the aficionados, you have the society and the lifestyle and the fashion crowds coming here. They’re all comfortable coming here, being with like-minded people. A lot of people have come to me and have expressed that enjoyment of such a convivial atmosphere. I think because of that—that appreciation that has been confined to smaller circle…. is expanding. The education continues in an atmosphere that is really….how should we say….that embraces everyone.
So you think there are more and more collectors who are younger?
Oh, yes. We’ve seen that. And I think I’m very happy to say that each auction, there are always new faces.
Where do they come from? What is their background?
I would say that they are largely the ones who come, at least to the major auctions, are either senior-level management or entrepreneurs. You’re looking at people in their 30s to their 40s, early 50s, perhaps.
You’d be surprised that there are all these financially successful people out there who have never really been looking at art. They were indulging themselves in other things, but (they now say) I’ve only started to look at art now. And that continues to expand.
You’ve spent so much on that gorgeous house, you can’t be hanging posters
So why are they turning to art? This is not sudden.
No, it’s not. I think the auctions at Salcedo have been able to help bring that about. We have been quite present in media, also in social media, etc. People do know that it’s all part of a certain lifestyle that people enjoy living. That whole idea of having a well-appointed life is what we epitomize. So they see that art is an important part of that. People do come and say, my friends have been telling me my house that I’ve newly built needs good art. Of course, with the growth in the economy and construction, and people moving into these beautiful homes, I always say, well, you’ve spent so much on that gorgeous house, you can’t be hanging posters. You should also invest in quality art.
Salcedo didn’t skip a beat during the pandemic and in the post-pandemic. How do you explain that?
I think that we were one of the first, if not the first, I think, in this field to have been able to make that shift. During the pandemic, as we were able to quickly pivot, that was the operative word back then, from live to online auctions. The good thing is that we had the prescient vision that this was something that was happening, especially with people’s continued reliance on, or continued pathways of communication—it was all happening online, on social media, etc. So we were able to quickly shift our operation at the time to that.
Because people’s leisurely activities and options were quite limited back then, people turned to our auctions to, well, entertain themselves. The people who had the means were doing some spring cleaning at home. They were spending so much time at home. They knew that they needed perhaps to enhance their interiors or maybe let go certain pieces they felt didn’t belong anymore.
So did the post-pandemic sustain the market and activity, or did it even increase?
I think for us at Salcedo Auctions, it did increase in the sense that I think people were just raring to go out at that point when things started opening up. They were really hankering for that physical contact. People were revenge-spending. Art was certainly one of the commodities that benefited from that.
How has Salcedo distinguished itself in the art auction landscape all these years? What do you think has been its defining factor?
I think it’s really ultimately two things—one, we always subscribe to the idea that a Philippine auction house should be world-class. Therefore, there is that idea of being sure that we adhere to world-class standards, world-class presentation, and also presenting the very best of everything, and that we believe is very important.
Second, we value in Salcedo the fact that we are the pioneer, and we continue to pioneer in the Philippine auction landscape, introducing various categories.
In our sales programs and events. I think that the definition of what an auction company is in the Philippines remains at Sacedo, and being able to expand beyond the visual arts, looking at other collectibles, from jewelry, furniture, and beyond that, even to fashion, as we had just done recently with the collaboration between Michael Cinco and Bing Taojo. I think that Salcedo Auctions, as a homegrown brand, has already been well recognized as a luxury brand as well, simply because of what it represents.
I think it’s by presenting these events, these interfaces between art and fashion. It really is deeply enmeshed now in the lifestyle sphere, being the venue of choice for these creative collaborations. So we’re quite excited about that, the pioneering move that we continue to make as we mark our 15th year.
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