He heard, as the Moderator of Horst Lichter since the first hour “Bares für Rares”: The Austrian-born Wolfgang Pauritsch is one of the traders in the ZDF-Show. In his book, “The auctioneer,” says the 46-Year-old and his unusual life as a mechanic, night security guard and store detective to the art. In the Chapter, “Cash for Rares – In the middle of the table,” signs Pauritsch, how he came to be on TV and gives a glimpse behind the Scenes of the show: Why is it a 35.000 Euro purchase brought a sweat, what was his greatest failure, and contrary to solid accusations that the Show was scripted. The star prints a sample reading from “The auctioneer – My life between junk, art, and passion:
Chapter 11
“Bares für Rares” – in the middle of the table.
For many years now, I am a dealer in the TV show “Bares für Rares”, the successful show, for Horst Lichter in February 2018, the Golden camera was awarded. I’m sitting at the dealer table in the middle, and my area of expertise is of valuable jewelry and precious stones. When I think back to when this all started, I noticed the following things:
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“The auctioneer – My life between junk art and passion” by Wolfgang Pauritsch is published by the Gütersloher publishing house. Price: 18 euros
©whurr publishers
My first appearance on television I had in November 1997. After an auction in Cologne, a Director spoke to me directly and wanted me to win for a charity auction in a Harald-Schmidt-Show. For me, a totally unknown, a Live Show also – I was mighty nervous. But it ran for the first Time remarkably well, Jürgen von der Lippe had placed an object, just as Henry Maske and also Hella of senses. The audience was thrilled, and we were able to actually get a good amount for the “Red Nose Day”.
Obviously, I had developed a feel for a charity audience, and when I think of one of my first own charity-events many years ago, everything started relatively unspectacular. It was planned a large Golf tournament of the Lions Clubs in Herzogenaurach, Germany, with a subsequent auction. The proceeds were for the benefit of the children in Herzogenaurach, Germany. The patron of the Golf tournament asked me as auctioneer. He wanted me to pay for definitely, but to me it was more important, along with my friend to participate in the tournament. The auction brought in several Thousand euros.
Since then, I make two to three Times a year a charity auction. 50 it is now. So I was able to help very many people. I think it is important for us, when it comes to ourselves, well some of it. A good memory is also a charity auction of the German children Stroke Hilfe e. V., which should take place in Bremen in the citizen hall on the market square is me. The advertising for this event wanted to take on a Bremen company.
My Job was to auction off 20 artists-graphics. I donate on one such occasion, also still some pieces of jewelry such as a pearl necklace, a pendant or a pocket watch, so the Whole thing is loosened. At 16.00 it should go. I arrived about 12.00 PM, me view in peace and quiet before everything. In front of the house, nothing pointed to the fact that here in four hours of an auction should be held, not a poster, not on the plate. A super location, however, on the first floor. 150 chairs were set up, the pictures were placed, and I had put my pieces.
auction threatened to to be
half An hour before the start we were eight. The Chairman of the children’s stroke help some helpers and the mayor. The Catering staff. But no customers came. I looked out of the window. Sure 1,000 people could be seen on the marketplace, but no one came up. We all were getting a bit nervous. Then a couple came – the musical accompaniment.
The woman played the violin and the man flute. An elderly lady entered the hall and looked around, frightened of something in the empty space. She seemed to be the first customer. Point four came a couple. The Chairman offered me the event to cancel, which I declined, as I was not in vain from Oberstaufen to Northern Germany dangers. I wanted to also be an auction.
TV Show Horror-discovery in the “Cash for Rares”: the Cupping-Schnepper is not for the faint of heart
And this began with the few visitors that had taken space in the room. The mayor spoke at the opening and expressed his hope that more people would come. According to him, the two musicians played a piece. I rose to the lectern, welcomed the small audience and said that it was for me, quite simply, an auction in front of 100 people to hold, but this event was a real challenge – and it is this, we should ask ourselves now, together.
Of the 20 art graphics I was able to sell eleven, bought the house master and a I; the musicians bought a picture, his wife bought a watch, the organizers have as well. The old lady that first came in, bought three pieces and the couple of five. 6,000 euros came together, and it remains an event that I will always be in my memory, when I enter an auction room.
I later received a letter of thanks to the organizers, in the me, a set is particularly proud and happy: “The auction was a sign, as in the case of a stroke. You must never give up.”
So I came to “Bares für Rares”
But now, back to my “TV career”, which began at a charity event. It was in the spring of 2013 in a castle in the vicinity of Freiburg. There, an employee of the ZDF must have been in the audience watching me during my work.
Shortly after the event there is an employee of the company Eyeworks, which “Bares für Rares” produces called me, and offered me, in the show as a dealer to participate. Real Antiques were to be sold, which were offered by the audience. The Plan was to turn the first five episodes. I was curious what would await me, and said.
So I went to Köln, Horst presented lights, got to know my colleagues and the production team know, and we shot the first episode of “Bares für Rares”. Today, there are already well over 500 episodes. The interest of the viewers is large. In 2017, we finally shot the first of the great “Bares für Rares”show, which wanted to broadcast the ZDF Prime time at 20.15, at the castle of the angels of the churches.
Even after the past five years, kto meet any Routine or boredom. The tension for me lies in the new people who come to us with your dealer’s up card in the sales room. Behind the camera, an 80-strong Team, working dealer, my colleagues are great and in order, so that we often work even after the rotation together.
Some of the rarities are a Problem
Sometimes the deals there’s a Problem. Each of the traders in our team is with the things with which he is familiar and which he can judge. And no one can judge, neither my colleagues nor I will. So should be and I must remain so also in the television of the line of our business, true. We are specializing in jewelry, no furniture, no carpets and no stamps. This can be said for all those who call me after the show and to buy or sell anything you want to.
And yet something about the Timing: If we shot a show “Bares für Rares”, pass eight weeks leading up to the broadcast. In this time, the film is cut material from multiple cameras, which record at the same time, together. The most viewers do not know, since the shipment is broadcasting a Live character.
If I buy in the consignment, for example, a Vase and exhibit them, with us in the business, then it is sold after three weeks, probably. Five weeks later, this show will be broadcast, and it requests. I say that the Vase had already been sold, then I come across again and again in astonishment and disbelief. This can’t be; I would have bought the Vase but only just.
After we had to make this experience a few Times, we have learned from it. Purchases from “Bares für Rares” only come once in our warehouse. Forth you are to be taken, if the programme was broadcast. The people who call, will be happy if I can fulfill your desire.
Here follow a few short episodes, the mean me personally, something that amuse me, and thoughtfully made, to the touch me. My most expensive purchase in the shipment was a car.
I knew a car dealer in the area of Bremen, who had an interest in classic cars. Him as a customer in the head, I offered, as a spectator stand with his Borgward in front of us dealers. In the bid of 35,000 euros, the car belonged to me, and exactly in the Moment of the award, I got quite a bit of stomach pain. I don’t know anything about cars really and can’t judge how it looks under the hood. But it all went well. I called the car dealer in Bremen, he caused a lightning transfer of 35,000 Euro to Cologne, and the seller was able to drive home with the money.
another day, an older, very classy lady from Vienna arrived in the Cologne Studio. She brought us a picture of the Hungarian-Austrian painter Rudolf Raimund Ballabene, which showed a Ferris wheel. Ballabene was after the Second world war until his death in 1968 in Vienna, very successful, and his pictures enjoyed a great popularity and demand. The lady told us that she had come to know this artist more than 50 years ago in a gallery at Vienna’s Prater. They had immediately understood so well that Ballabene had given her this picture with the typical Ferris wheel of the Prater.
I asked the lady how this could sell, it was not only beautiful, but certainly also with wonderful memories. She replied to me that this image I have made for many decades with great pleasure. Now that she was old and in the last section of her life arrived, she wanted to give the image and the joy of him to a other people. She would love it, if I would buy, as an Austrian, this image and then use it in my apartment to hang. That’s exactly what I and the wife had promised, and she made me a really good price. The picture hangs today in my apartment, and I am pleased every Time I look at it.
another story: The slim lady in front of our dealer table had brought a painting in the show, the showed the Königssee. Even if the East Prussian landscape-painter, by which it was achieved good prices, even the image and also the dogs, their room graced it last, not liked, her husband showed no interest in it. So you wanted to sell it as well as possible.
Our expert Albert Maier had to disappoint you, but herb: A cheap print, pasted on to canvas; the value is between 25 and 30 euros. The lady wanted to get rid of the image anyway – Horst Lichter gave her the dealer’s up card. In the dealer room, we have checked the image first, only superficial. A corner was damaged, the picture was obviously “doubled”: on paper, painted on canvas glued.
Fabian bot quick 100 Euro; Ludwig increased to 200 Euro and then I leapfrogged both of them with 250 euros. The lady agreed hastily, grabbed the money and disappeared quickly. I kept my purchase in Hand, took the magnifying glass to the eye, and then I saw it: There was not one brush stroke on the sheet. It was a cheaper printer. “Well, Wolfgang.”, blurted out to me. “I would have to take the magnifying glass before!”
The Director asked me later whether we should take the Episode off the air. But I was very to show you. For two reasons: I am always being asked, whether the episodes in the “Bares für Rares” are really real. Of course they are real, and most of our viewers will feel that too. And so, my bug should purchase to confirm this.
My second reason, to show this Episode quite normal, it was even more important: We are human and we make mistakes and from these mistakes we can only learn. You can’t hide, quite the contrary. How was it now for me with the Königssee-image? I wrote on the back “My best purchase” and left it as a piece of memorabilia of Horst lights, my dealer colleague, Susanne and colleagues Fabian, Ludwig and Walter to sign. The picture now hangs in my office in Oberstaufen. But since this incident I have in front of each bid, the magnifying glass first in the Hand.
Also, I would like to say here again that it is always surprising and unexpected things that inspire me. So four bottles with sweet wine, which had already a considerable age, but the content should still be good and safe to drink, we were offered once. I wanted to have, and that’s what I did. Happy about this purchase, I opened then in the evening one of the bottles with my colleagues. The other three bottles I was able to still sell so that a small profit was. There is rarely a good business, at the same timetig tastes so good.
In most of the consignments of “Bares für Rares” are five dealers in the room. It will be exciting in the show, when several of interest to us for the same piece. Especially when there are two or three of us really want to have it. I am – as I said – on jewelry by my colleague, Susanne specialized, also; there’s already the one or other Time a bidding battle between us. We are good colleagues, but we are also competitors, and sometimes wins in the end Susanne, sometimes I win.
it happens once, that we go far beyond the actual value. Viewers will see particularly clearly that in the show, nothing arranged or “fake”. And you will see that we offer for interesting pieces at a good price.
What to pick up? For 25 years, now I am active in the arts and the jewelry trade. I love Russian silver exhibits. Whether they are forging the big silver such as Peter Carl Fabergé, Pavel Bure, Ivan Khlebnikov and Pavel Ovchinnikow or also by lesser-known artists. Russian pieces inspire me because of their craft to perfection again and again.
If the Russian silver will be offered in the program, then I am as a bidder. Most of the time, unfortunately, not always – I manage to bid on the pieces. It is for the Russian silver work of many collectors. In the middle of the last century, there was a strong offer, because Russian families wanted to part with their heirlooms. Now reversed the Trend: There are often more Russian collectors, who will buy this Piece for your collection.
a Very I like to buy pieces that represent Metal workers or metal workers. When I see a picture or a sculpture, which shows a blacksmith or an anvil, then the locksmith is awakening in me again, and I’m in. What interests me also very much, are miners in a picture or sculpture. You remind me of my grandfather who worked until his serious accident at work. So I can say that my family has influenced me in my tastes and personal interests as auctioneer.
Well, of course, idealism. So it occurs to me: most of The shipments “Bares für Rares” are produced in our Studio in Cologne. Sometimes we switch but also to another interesting place. So, for example, in the Historisches Kaufhaus in Freiburg. There are a couple from Tyrol, which offered us Steiff exhibits came to us. Everyone knows the stuffed animals with the button in the ear, but the company Steiff has also produced scenes. In our case, a vintage carousel, a Steiff shop in which one sees the famous Teddy bear at work, and a Steiff-Band with the Teddy bear as a musician with their instruments.
the exhibits were limited editions; they were only in a strictly limited number of pieces for the registered Steiff collectors on the market. But this was not Antiques, pieces with a certain age, or rarities, things that are rare – on the contrary, the Steiff exhibits, one finds very often in the normal trade. Therefore, none of us had dealers interest to the pieces. The was no ill-will. But we can only buy what we can sell, for which there are customers.
The couple ran a risk, to have all the way from the Tyrol to Freiburg in vain. As an Austrian, especially as a Tyrolean, I felt a solidarity, a certain amount of loyalty to country, people to my and offered the two to the three exhibits of 1,000 euros, with the note that their long journey so not quite in vain. They were both, and I can sell the three Steiff exhibits later on, but still with a small profit. But the most important thing to me was that the two Austrians (and then Tyrolean) did not have to go home empty-handed.
I am Happy to support also want young people who are real Fans of “Bares für Rares” and sell you something to do with the proceeds to something worthwhile. So in the almost seventeen-year-old boy who came to us in the shipment, in order to Finance his driver’s license. It was not enough at the end of the whole – but the largest part of the money he got. I was able to wish him much success and give him the advice to give to drive carefully and to put up with alcohol in the blood. Because who has the money for alcohol, which also has the money for a Taxi. The young man promised me to take that to heart.
And finally, there is also a very personal and touching stories in the dealer room, like this for example: The older lady came with a Ring to us that her husband, shortly before his death, had given. He had cancer and knew he would not live long. He wanted to say to his wife once again, Thank you, for your care in the last few months. For many years she had worn this Ring now. But now was the time to become an other, and she needed the money for a necessary car repair.
on such occasions it happens that one of us buys traders the offered piece and then a few euros on it, the amount of offsetting needed. It also happens time and again, that other or all members participate.
My colleague, Walter bought the lady this Ring for 900 Euro. Necessary for the repair of your car is 1,000. Therefore, everyone to put Ludwig and I once again 50 Euro. As the lady left, she had tears in her eyes. I made with “Cash for Rares,” the experience that I can almost bargain everything to almost any price. My life as a TV auctioneer remains colorful …
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