Fine Art Auction's Later Start To Serve More Viewers

Mitch Carter gives the perfect rationale as to why the industry-leading Fine Art Auction has recently decided to bump its show start time from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. and stretching the power buying experience past midnight and 1 a.m. “It’s for viewers on the West Coast,” Carter said from his home in Park City, Utah recently. “[Our viewers] on the East Coast are already night owls.”

There aren’t television ratings boxes for network and cable television programs for the Fine Art Auction, but because of late show bidding trends, Carter estimates that “70-80 percent” of the late show bidding is from the West Coast.

Recently the Fine Art Auction added Thursday to its expansive presence. Through 19 years, show insiders know that 7 p.m. starts have simply become too early for the middleclass working families that make up the institution’s audience. Plus, for those in California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and others, the show starts in the afternoon, before work ends and dinners are made. “No one is home,” he said.

Carter’s integrity and professionalism are characteristics that added him to the Fine Art Auction several years ago, said Mark Bronson, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Fitzhugh Holdings LLC, the auction’s parent company said earlier this year. Carter, described on the show’s website as a “Renaissance Man,” has loved art ever since he was a young man. That goes hand-in-hand to his performance. “My whole life since 15 has included being on a microphone.”

At that impressionable age, Carter, now 60, was in a Beach Boys cover band. After high school, he studied art history and music. Always ambitious, he disc jockeyed in nightclubs for a decade.

At 28, he got a job on a cruise ship and worked his way up to being an Entertainment Director. And around that time, auctioning art on cruise ships started to become big business and his bosses came to Carter. He saw a great opportunity and “digested everything I could” in the trade. That’s when he met Bronson.

Over his cruise ship career, Carter auctioned some $120 million in artwork. “We never gave one person a better deal that anyone else,” he said. It’s a point of great professionalism to Carter, and one of the main reasons for his impeccable reputation. “It’s never car dealer negotiating.”

When Bronson was looking for an experienced art historian and auctioneer for the Fine Art Auction, the search didn’t last long. “He’s the reason I’m here,” said Carter of Bronson.

There was one geographical problem: Carter had relocated to Utah and the Fine Art Auction is famously planted in Peachtree Corners, Atlanta, Georgia. Planted as a musician and a seasonal ski instructor, Carter wasn’t about to “go east” so accommodations were made for him to broadcast from a studio near his home. For three years, he has been appearing remotely with auctioneer Richard English holding down the Atlanta fort on Saturdays and Mondays.

Staying in the Beehive State allows Carter to serve clients on the best slopes skiing has to offer. A Professional Ski Instructor of America, Carter enjoys teaching, and the “forced exercise” it allows him. That, and becoming a Blue Belt in Brazilian Ju Jitsu keeps Carter in top physical shape; however, it’s his work at the “Keys on Main” piano bar that “helps with the show far more.”

Singing 3-4 hours a night keeps the diaphragm strong. “I’m the ‘old guy,’ there,” he jokes. Performing Bon Jovi, Barry Manilow and Bruce Springsteen classics are his forte. Early on in his musical life, Carter loved and learned to play the guitar. Then his mother took him to see an Elton John concert. He soon put the guitar down and became obsessed with the black and white keys. “I had a piano in my bedroom,” he continued.

Carter ditched classes to play piano. “I didn’t know how to read music,” he continued. “I still don’t.” In addition to Reginald Dwight, Carter quickly picked up some of Billy Joel’s catalog.

In addition to expert analysis of live auctions, Carter appears in recorded segments touting the skills of Marc Chagall and others.

So far, the change in time appears to be a winner for the Fine Art Auction. On July 4, a historically slow day for auctions (Rule #1 of auctions—the size of the room, says veteran host Ray Taylor), a hand-signed Jean Miro original lithograph from 1978, was fetching a $3,800 bid as the show went off the air. However, that doesn’t mean there weren’t “late bidders” after the “Live” sign does dark in the studio. That’s why the show almost never ends with a gavel coming down. At any time, there might be five or six bidders hoping for that last millisecond win.

Frequently, English will end a show with the promise of “bidding will continue.” Carter said that action can continue for a few moments to 30 minutes or more. That can be exciting for the “Alpha” buyers, he said. “They watch for that gavel,” he said. “It’s fun to watch.”

Now with the later start, many more viewers and passionate buyers will be able to take advantage of the Pablo Picassos, Salvador Dalis, KeFs and many more for years to come.