Unilever auctions off 500 artworks for lack of wall space

Anglo-Dutch consumer products giant Unilever is auctioning off some 500 artworks on Monday because it is running out of wall space.

“Office interiors are changing,” Venduehuis auctioneer Dolf Heyselbergs told broadcaster NOS. “They are open plan, without walls or with glass partitions,” he said.

Some of the works are by relatively unknown 19th and 20th-century artists, which had been gathering dust in the cellar of Unilever’s headquarters in Amsterdam. Heyselbergs said, while others are by reputed artists such as Karel Appel, Dick Bruna and Anton Pieck. Prices vary from a couple of hundred euros to tens of thousands.

The most valuable piece from the collection is a sculpture by Wessel Couzijn, Corporate Entity, which has been donated to the city of Rotterdam. The company had no option but to donate the 200-tonne sculpture.

Unilever is not the only company to sell off its art collections but not in bulk, as in this case, Heyselbergs said.

The auction is expected to raise at least a couple of hundred thousand euros, the auction house expects. A similar collection sold by bankrupt tech company Imtech fetched over a million.

“We are not pocketing the money ourselves,” Unilever spokeswoman Willemijn Storimans said. “Unilever has been based in Rotterdam for a long time and we want to do something locally.  The proceeds will be split in three to help three organisations involved in providing school meals, education and medical care for homeless people,” she said.

Companies started to collect art in the 60s, usually to fill up office wall space but also to encourage young artists. Paint maker AkzoNobel owns around 2,200 works, director of the company’s art foundation Hester Alberdingk Thijm said. It has not run out of space yet, she said. “Our Zuidas building in Amsterdam has an Art Space for exhibitions which is open to the public, she said.

ABN Amro has 6,000 works of art, some of which are put on show in exhibitions, but because of the many branch closures, a large part has had to be put in storage. The bank, too, is looking to sell off part of the collection and use the money to “bring the collection up to date and encourage upcoming talent”.