Anthony Meyer

Anthony JP Meyer has a small respectable gallery specializing in Oceanic Art on the rue des Beaux Arts in the heart of Saint Germain des prés whose aim is to bring rare objects of tribal art from the largest part of Earth - the Pacific Ocean - to amateurs of the art world. Curious about his parcours in this rare specialised domain, I enter this gallery on a mid afternoon and we sit down in his small office in the back. The sun is faintly flickering throught the window to the lush courtyard, it's a small break amidst chaos.

When did you open the gallery?

AM: This gallery or the original gallery? The original gallery was opened the first week of January 1980 at the Louvre des Antiquaires with my mother. I showed up in October and we enlarged the gallery there in a year or two, then we opened a secondary gallery which I took over on the rue de Lille, from '83-84-to-'85, and closed that and moved here and so we're here since 1985 full time.

When did you open the gallery?

AM: This gallery or the original gallery? The original gallery was opened the first week of January 1980 at the Louvre des Antiquaires with my mother. I showed up in October and we enlarged the gallery there in a year or two, then we opened a secondary gallery which I took over on the rue de Lille, from '83-84-to-'85, and closed that and moved here and so we're here since 1985 full time.

Did you change your subjects?

AM: Definitely. When my mother opened the gallery it was with what she still had from my parents' collection - my parents were important antique dealers and they covered many many many subjects in ways the old time antique dealers did - so we had Indian subcontinent, we had Khmer, we had Mediterranean basin that went from Sumaria, to Egypt, to Greece, to Rome, and we had medieval renaissance Europe, Russian, we had Asian arts from Tang China we had a smattering of primitive art, a little bit of Eskimo, couple of Oceanic tit-bits, very little African, and even modern paintings and contemporary art.. - (phone call interrupts - bleep bleep bleep)

How did you become a dealer and expert of Oceanic Art?

AM: I sat in the gallery for 3 months after I got there in October. I's not supposed to become an antique dealer, I hated it, I never wanted to. And there were a couple of South Pacific war clubs in the corner, and I was sitting there for 3 months writing my employment offers to Saudi-Arabian oil field companies - offering my services as a security personnel. (We crack up)

In those days I was first shot of the army, a former professional soldier, I was a non-commissioned officer, been in the French army for 6 years, and got out of the army because I realized I was never going to get where I wanted to go that was, to be a general.

And the security people were offering me good jobs, but as sentries, walking around perimeters. And I wasn't interested in that, I wanted a more substantial job. And then after about 3 months my mother went out one day for a cup of coffee and I was watching the gallery and some guy came in. And he bought something. So I sold something - he bought it - but I sold it. And I ended up with all that money in my hand, and I didn't even know how to calculate the discount of 10% which I knew you had to do (because in the army we didn't have such refined calculations, you put a kilo or two of explosives, who cares) - and so he did the 10% calculation. And when she came back I said here, I sold that, here's the guy's name and address and here's the money, and I stayed.

And the three clubs in the corner, the south pacific war clubs, I'd had some in my room when I was a child and they must've triggered something and I got interested in that aspect of the thing. And I got interested in tribal art, and slowly I moved my mother and the gallery towards tribal art.

(We're interrupted, this time by the door bell, cling cling, an old madam stepping into the gallery to show a bag of coins she believes are from the Solomon islands; AM is evasive, he doesn't believe so, he wants to get rid of her; she persists and says she's got un collier and a war club from the Solomon islands she's ready to bring over; AM politely asks her to return another afternoon.)

So you made some money...

AM: Yeah, now I'm seeing these war clubs - my mother was a self-taught Egyptologist, specialist in Egyptian amulets, a very specific area of Egyptian art, and we slowly moved the style of the gallery away from all of these works of art from all of different countries, civilizations and periods, towards tribal art and towards Egyptian art.

And when we moved, she stayed at the Louvre des Antiquaires, and I opened the gallery on the rue de Lille with an Englishman, of the name of John Barnett, who was a Himalayan specialist. Medieval India, Tibet, Nepal. And I bought his tribal art and he bought my Indian art. And we shared the space on the rue de Lille for 2 years, and that's when I went basically totally tribal.

And then when we came here, we sold the gallery on rue de Lille and separated. My mother sold what remained at the Louvre des Antiquaires and she rejoined me here, we took this gallery together,-- purely tribal, but already with a very very strong oceanic bent - since the beginning. And I decided here to go only oceanic. So it was in 1985 or 86.

We did our first exhibition of Egyptian amulets, here. We opened the gallery with tribal art only, next, and then we did the first exhibition of only oceanic and it was only oceanic from then on.

How're you represented on European art fairs?

AM: I don't know if I'd be called selective or restrictive. I'm very selective and restrictive at the same time, even in my approach to shows, to art fairs, in Europe, I try to do only the best, and I've been very lucky and very pleased to be selected now for the 7th, 8th, or 9th year running at Maastricht, at the TEFAF (The European Fine Art Fair) in the Netherlands, which is the world's primary antique fairs. 200 of the world's absolute best antique dealers in their own fields, and I was also doing a very very high class show in New York which was the International Fine Art and Antique Dealers show in October. Which more or less - for me, at least - fell apart after 9/11.

Which are the nationalities of your clients?

AM: I got people from Japan, I've got people from Mexico, clients from Argentina, Chile, I got from Easter Island, I've clients in Tahiti, in Caledonia, Australia, which is kind of normal, in the south Pacific, I have Americans, I have Hong kong, Taiwan, Singapore, France, Germany, Switzerland, even from Russia, even from Ukraine, I receive requests.

Is there any other motivation besides just being a merchant of Oceanic Art?

AM: I do this because I like this. I could do other things and possibly maybe make more money. I don't know, but no, I do this because I like this. I don't sell tinned goods.

I buy these things first because I like them. I don't buy them because I know I can make a profit on them. I don't pay the price to purchase them in relation to a probable or eventual selling price.

And I like the academic part of the whole thing, my biggest joy is finding a great piece and studying and writing about it. Selling is actually relatively easy, it happens. I'm not a very good salesperson.

What're your plans for the future?

AM: Well, I don't want to be here for the rest of my life. I'd like to at some point, in the future, stop the gallery and continue with this art which I like so much.

But this is my collection. You see, I don't collect oceanic art. I don't keep it and keep it for myself, and not sell it. I collect Oceanic Art through my gallery, this is my collection, so the gallery allows me to constantly move pieces in and out of my collection, but it's all for sale, there's not a single piece that isn't.

The poetic names of these oceanic tribes are?

AM: There's the Maori of New Zealand, the Kuka-Kuka of New Guinea, there's the Abelam, the Iatmul and the Sawos, and the people from the highlands, you got the Huli and the Chimbu, and you've got the Marqueses islands, Tahiti, Hawaii, the aborigines of Australia, the Solomon islands, of course, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, which is formerly the New Hebrides, a very Scottish approach, the other islands of Micronesia, Guam, Palau, Tuvalu, the Gilbert Island - you got fly-specs on the face of the earth which are absolutely divine, an island called Bora-Bora, a place called Pago-Pago, there's a wonderful island called Sudest, there's another one called Green Island, there's yet another called Grass Island.

And you know your work?

AM: My main collecting passion, where I really know a lot about what I'm doing, is in Oceanic Art. By being a dealer of it, makes it an ongoing collection.

Visit his gallery at Galerie JP Meyer Oceanic Art. - in Paris