«Art dealers had the goods that museums were looking for.»

Rapha­el Selig is an art dea­ler. He is the sixth gene­ra­ti­on of his fami­ly to run Basel’s famed shop, Anti­qui­tés Ségal. Nao­mi Lubrich spo­ke to him about the rela­ti­onship bet­ween art dea­lers and museo­lo­gists, the first Judai­ca in Basel and chan­ging tas­tes in old objects.

Nao­mi Lubrich: Rapha­el, you are the sixth gene­ra­ti­on of your fami­ly to run Basel’s antique shop, Anti­qui­tés Ségal. How was it founded? 

Rapha­el Selig: As far as we know, the foun­der, Joseph Ségal, came to Basel from Alsace with Napoleon’s sol­diers in the ear­ly 19th cen­tu­ry. He was a pedd­ler and traded in house­hold items, such as car­pets and Bie­der­mei­er fur­ni­tu­re. But his busi­ness was short-lived. Like most Jews in Basel, his resi­dence per­mit ended with Napoleon’s defeat. By 1862, the legal situa­ti­on for Jews was more favorable, so his son Isaak sett­led with his grand­son Bert­hold on Spa­len­berg. Bert­hold was lucky: He was in busi­ness as lar­ge muse­ums were ope­ning. The Muse­um für Völ­ker­kun­de (today: Muse­um der Kul­tu­ren) and the His­to­ri­sches Muse­um ope­ned in Basel, and the Swiss Natio­nal Muse­um ope­ned in Zurich. Art dea­lers had the goods that muse­ums were loo­king for, from sil­ver goblets to woo­den spoons. The cura­tor of the Muse­um für Völ­ker­kun­de, Edu­ard Hoff­mann-Kray­er, bought ca. 100 objects from Anti­qui­tés Ségal within ten years.

NL: How important are Judai­ca for your shop?

RS: Judai­ca were never of finan­cial importance for our store. Most other Jewish art dea­ler fami­lies would pro­ba­b­ly say the same. Not many peo­p­le coll­ec­ted Judai­ca, except for a small num­ber of well-known fami­lies, such as the Eph­rus­sis, the Roth­schilds and the Oppen­hei­mers. But Juda­ism plays an important role in our work for a dif­fe­rent reason: When buy­ing objects, Jewish dea­lers could often rely on a wide net­work. They were in cont­act with other Jewish dea­lers in dif­fe­rent count­ries. I mys­elf have a part­ner in Lon­don. It’s an advan­ta­ge for purcha­sing objects.

NL: But a num­ber of peo­p­le bought Judai­ca – and still do.

RS: Jews gai­ned equal rights in 1866. Tho­se who expe­ri­en­ced the so-cal­led eman­ci­pa­ti­on first­hand were also the first to have finan­cial means. Their pre­de­ces­sors lacked the abili­ty to acqui­re beau­tiful objects. A shift then took place around 1870. The new gene­ra­ti­on desi­red valuable ritu­al objects. The Jewish com­mu­ni­ty of Basel for ins­tance com­mis­sio­ned lar­ge, repre­sen­ta­ti­ve cand­le­sticks, scrolls and Kid­dush cups. Nota bene, the­se were new crea­ti­ons, not used objects. Judai­ca befo­re the 19th cen­tu­ry are extre­me­ly rare. Only Ita­li­an com­mu­ni­ties manu­fac­tu­red Judai­ca befo­re the 19th cen­tu­ry. They were more pro­spe­rous and less likely to be expel­led from their homes, in con­trast to the com­mu­ni­ties in Ger­man-spea­king countries.

NL: Have tas­tes changed?

RS: Yes: Cus­to­mers used to buy most­ly orna­men­tal objects. Today, many pre­fer objects with a sto­ry. As a result, a baro­que sil­ver­work can have a lon­ger shelf life than, say, a woo­den spoon with an emblem or a Hebrew inscrip­ti­on. But tas­tes vary. In France, «aris­to­cra­tic» pie­ces are very popu­lar. It shouldn’t come as a sur­pri­se in the land of so many cast­les. So tas­tes vary by regi­on. And they also vary by gene­ra­ti­on. Our most fre­quent cus­to­mers are six­ty years old and older. And a lar­ge num­ber are for­ty or youn­ger. But cus­to­mers bet­ween for­ty and six­ty are rare. They pre­fer to spend their money in other ways, for exam­p­le on vaca­ti­ons. I’ve also noti­ced a demo­gra­phic chan­ge: In the 1960s, midd­le and lower-class fami­lies bought anti­qui­ties, the lat­ter often in install­ments. Today, most of our buy­ers are wealt­hy. They invest in top objects with las­ting value.

NL: Are the­re bar­gains, objects we don’t suf­fi­ci­ent­ly appreciate?

RS: Many objects are traded below value. Fur­ni­tu­re, for ins­tance, is very cheap. Many old tables and chests of dra­wers are mas­ter­pie­ces of craft­sman­ship. They will sur­vi­ve for hundreds more years. Judai­ca from the Bau­haus peri­od were an insi­der tip twen­ty years ago, today they have rea­ched the upper pri­ce seg­ment. But land­scape pain­tings are very afforda­ble. What used to trade for five figu­res now is likely to cross the table for a few thousand francs. Some cus­to­mers would call them bor­ing. But tomor­row they might chan­ge their minds!

NL: Rapha­el, thank you very much for this inter­view. I’ll take a clo­ser look at the land­scape pain­tings next time I see one.