The evening was a festive red that illuminated the enthusiastic bidding by the 300-plus attendees at Japan's first ever university-run contemporary art auction. At the Kyoto University of Art and Design (KUAD) last Saturday, 18 students and three teachers, dressed in student-designed fire-red outfits, skillfully staffed the A-CTION auction.
"Since it's the first of its kind in Japan," said Testuji Shibayama, a visiting professor at the university and the event's auctioneer, "we're really pleased with how successful it was."
Shibayama came up with the idea for the auction from his years with Rockefeller and Company, where he helped manage the Rockefeller family's philanthropic fortune, and from his former position as head of Sotheby's Japan, where he sharpened his bilingual auctioneering skills. Now, as president of the art consulting company AG Holdings, he understands well the challenges facing Japanese artists.