Benny Raharjo is no ordinary entrepreneur. While he admits to having had a passion for drawing and the arts from a tender age, he has been able to mix business with pleasure via the Masterpiece Group, perhaps the most versatile and prolific Indonesia-based action house in the market today.
"I began oil painting when I was eight years old," said Benny, a Surakarta native, as The Jakarta Post caught up with him at the Masterpiece Building on Jl. Tanah Abang IV, Central Jakarta.
"My parents recognized my talent and commissioned a painter to teach me painting," he added, not knowing back then that his growing passion would take him to found the Masterpiece Auction House in 2003, followed by two sister auction houses Heritage Fine Arts Auction and Treasures Auctions, which he established in 2005 and 2007 respectively.
After finishing high school, Benny settled on a degree in architecture and worked as an architect and interior designer before taking an MBA degree in the U.S. in the mid 1990s.
"Supportive though my parents were, they were afraid that I would be going the *starving artist' route," he reminisced.
Yet the artistic drive never once waned. Moving back to Jakarta after graduation, Benny became involved in a number of residential projects - apartments, hotels, residences - which had him furnishing their interiors with various furniture and decoration items -- and plenty of paintings.
Benny's artist friends became regular suppliers to the projects and in turn, he helped promote their works by arranging exhibitions and such.
"When the 1997 monetary crisis hit, the painting market slowed down and almost came to a complete halt.
Thankfully, it reemerged in 2000 and I began to continue on my personal project to establish an auction house," he said.
Masterpiece's first auction was held in 2003 and recorded sensational hammer prices, including that of an Affandi painting sold for just over Rp 1 billion (about US$88,400). "That came as a delightful surprise since the market for Affandi was only between Rp 200 million and Rp 400 million at the time," he explained.
Since then, the Masterpiece Group has expanded from holding auctions twice to four and five times a year to almost every fortnight these days, thanks to the addition of Masterpiece's two sister companies, Heritage and Treasures.
According to Benny, auctions are interesting because they are, in many aspects, quite "fair". Unlike in galleries where fixed prices are set for a given artwork - give or take a few discounts, auctions let the "floor" decide on the appropriate price for it. Also, factors like demand and supply have a hand in determining prices.
Benny believes that good quality artworks should be supported by good marketing and promotion, and that public education of arts is essential in bridging art to the market.
In 2005, for example, Masterpiece began auctioning off cultural items such as antiques, ceramics, pottery and even seemingly mystical items like kris and traditional masks. This new auction line finally led to the founding of Heritage, which helped attract different types of bidders to the auctions.
Benny took the vision one step forward by putting together Treasures Auctions in 2007. Treasures' dual aim is to educate new collectors and give opportunities for younger and lesser-known artists to develop.
"We are seeing more and more people with the interest and buying power to invest in art nowadays. However, many feel reluctant to do so because they don't understand a thing about paintings. We need to grab this new market to be able to expand," he said.
To break into the mass market effectively, Treasures' approach is decidedly different from that of its predecessors. Works of emerging artists, most of which command lower prices, are previewed and auctioned off at shopping malls with public figures appointed as auctioneers.
Although the method has helped strengthen the group's image and brand awareness in the new art-loving public, Benny acknowledges that it does take up a lot of energy with not so much profit being generated.
"It is Treasures' idealist nature that keeps it thriving," he stressed. "That, and the knowledge that when our new collectors have gained more appreciation of the arts, they can *graduate' to more advanced levels such as offered at Heritage and Masterpiece."
Not just involved in the management of his auction house, Benny also takes pleasure in curating the lots to be auctioned.
"Our curator team are constantly on the lookout for potential artists with unique ideas and concepts, browsing through exhibitions, catalogs and awards shortlists. Such new artists and works are usually referred first to Treasures -- for a quick market check -- before they can progress to the other two auction houses," he said.
As noted by Benny, contemporary art is still all the rage today in the Southeast Asian market today, partially because it attracts global players and is easier to absorb by younger, highly educated collectors.
"It all began in China with the emergence of the nouveau riche following the country's economic boom, which finally led to the raising demand for art," explained Benny. "Since Chinese contemporary art has gained in value and become grossly overpriced, collectors are eyeing new grounds in the likes of Vietnam, India and Indonesia."
Regional players have indeed shown their presence in the Indonesian art market, either by attending the auctions in person or through placing bids via phone, a common staple in auctions that never fails to add thrills to the floor on auction day.
Seeing the high potential of the regional market, Benny has placed a Masterpiece representative in Singapore and has twice arranged auctions in the city-state, the last being in August 2008 -- "right before the economic downturn", he remarked.
Organizing auctions abroad requires hundreds of paintings to be shipped by air and the lots to be auctioned off in three or more sessions as opposed to just one to two sessions back home. The next Masterpiece Singapore auction is scheduled for early March this year and will feature Indonesian contemporary art as well as Chinese and Southeast Asian modern and contemporary arts.
Benny's long-term plans now are to expand to the Hong Kong market and begin auctioning off antique and limited edition jewelry and watches. He believes that Masterpiece's self-owned property in Tanah Abang - a Piet Mondrian-inspired building that has housed the group since April 2008 -- is a great landmark for the brand's image and legacy.
Speaking of the current global crisis, Benny said: "The painting market may be slowing down at the time, but even when their prices go down, collectors may not always want to sell their paintings."
"This is because unlike with stocks or shares, collectors have real emotional attachment to these works of art," he added.
