IA Magazine 2/09 In this issue: How the Internet has changed the auction business - Contemporary art in Turkey - Collecting old master drawings - Art along the Hudson, New York's riverside art spaces - Glass restoration - Auction previews and reviews Read more about it >>

They are competitors and yet see each other as a family: an alliance with a specific objective, whose members stand together and spar against one another. This is how “International Auctioneers” (IA) functions – a network founded in 1993, initially as a loose association.

Seven leading auction houses in eight countries are represented together, advertising in each other's catalogues and salesrooms. They coordinate their major auction dates and publish their own magazine with a circulation of 80 000. Galerie Koller was present from the very beginning, and in 2003 Cyril Koller was elected IA President for a two-year term. He sees in this global amalgamation a great opportunity for international growth.

Thanks to IA, 350 000 clients can be reached worldwide, with 200 experts within 35 areas of art and collecting at their di-posal. For Galerie Koller, with 70 percent of its major auction sales made to buyers abroad, this is a most beneficial partner-ship. A fine example is Koller's auction world record of CHF 811 000 for a key painting by Mario Sironi, which came about during an IA auction in December 2002.