What a feeling of sadness came over me yesterday as I toured the nearly-empty Ritchies showroom in advance of tonight’s back-from-the-brink auction. After a two-month closure and the dismissal of its entire staff, Ritchies owner and CEO Ira Hopmeyer is endeavouring to resuscitate the business with a two-day sale, tonight and tomorrow.
There’s precious little to be had. Cabinets of jewellery and smalls and a few sticks of furniture — that’s it for tonight’s so-called “Select Sale.” The art sale, scheduled for Wednesday evening, looks slightly more promising.
The Ritchies website goes to great lengths to assure potential consignors that they will indeed be paid if they’re bold enough to put forward goods. But really, why not just go to Waddington’s or Empire and avoid the mess?
To those unlucky individuals who consigned items to the June sale, the Ritchies website says it is “in the process of attempting to determine a go forward plan. As such, a decision on the monies owed to you will be made on or before October 15, 2009 at which time we will let each consignor know by letter sent to you by that date.”
At the auction house yesterday, things felt dire. There was a police officer behind the front desk, no doubt stationed to keep the peace should any scenes arise. The sale “catalogue” was a photocopied, black and white effort that came with a $5 price tag.
I used to love the Ritchies sales; I covered them here on styleNorth and looked forward to each one with a sense of excitement. I’m afraid those days are gone.
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Thanks for your article. As a June seller who has not been paid I wondered what the auctions today and yesterday would be like. I did not go as I didn’t think I’d be able to keep quiet about the situation and didn’t want to get further upset. The part about waiting for a decision on payment is just infuriating.
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Good evening, many of us looked forward to those auctions Chris, and it is a shame that it has to come to this. If I may offer a word of advice to Richie’s *pay your consignors * they are whom kept Ritchie’s great
October 16th, 2009 at 12:09 am
the 15th has come and gone…as a consignor of June I have received nothing in the mail. I came across this sight while trying to look at the Ritchies website for any updates, which is not running as of 11pm onwards.