The newly built art depot of the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam can be considered a work of art in its own right. The architects at MVRDV have designed a massive, mirrored “bowl” with trees growing out of its “lid”. This new building can be admired already – even before the art objects have been installed …

The materialization of colors is the origin of every work by Anna Virnich. On display are fine fabrics made of mustard-yellow crepe, silky taffeta in lavender shades and rectangles of wrinkled, coarse-pored nettle. In its radiance, a royal blue attracts all the attention of the moment, salmon-colored silk slides between crepe de chine and ultramarine …

Although we live in a materialistic world, “things” have a surprisingly bad reputation: they are seen as dead and soulless, and inferior to the organic world of plants, animals and humans in every respect. Anyone devoting themselves too enthusiastically to “things” is quickly suspected of being superficial. You might find that somewhat hypocritical considering we all invest a lot of energy in the quest for beautiful and valuable things, and in order to buy them we have to earn that thing called money…

Perfection is fleeting, so we need to see the beauty in the imperfect – that’s how the Japanese live with their philosophy of wabi-sabi, according to which all things are charming, even those with flaws. But it hasn’t been possible to carry this idea over to people, because in the land of the rising sun, it’s still business as usual: pressure, perfectionism, success …

Michael Kovacek is one of the founders of the Viennese auction house im Kinsky and, as he will tell you himself, has dedicated himself “body and soul” to art. We discuss the thrill of the auctions, the passion for collecting and why record prices are always worthy of making the headlines …