FNN Bids for Ratings With Its Auction News

The alliance between art and commerce took a novel TV twist Tuesday when cable’s Financial News Network presented a live broadcast of the New York auction at which a painting by Edouard Manet sold for $26.4 million.

“Live from the auction floor of Christie’s,” enthused an announcer as though he were introducing the Super Bowl, “the sale of 14 masterpieces collected by Paul Mellon. You’ll have front-row seats for one of the biggest nights in auction history.”

Television has a way of turning everything into television, and this was no different. At one point before the bidding began, co-host Walter Maibaum asked auctioneer Christopher Burge the eternal TV question: “How do you feel?”

“Excited on the one hand, nervous on the other,” Burge replied.

The auction was presented as a special edition of an FNN series, “The Art Market Report.” It was broadcast, FNN vice president Jim Lucas said, “because the art market is hot.” Lucas said that FNN had put on one other live art auction--of Andy Warhol works: “We obviously want to pick high visibility auctions for coverage.”

This was not a PBS presentation. The brief glimpses of the art itself got much less air time than the flood of commercials.

The focus was more on the auction than a history of the art works, given the nature of the event. And there was an undeniable fascination in watching the elegant Burge--who looks a bit like Michael Caine--roll off the incredible bidding for the 1878 Manet painting, “La Rue Mosnier With Flags,” which was sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum.

“$12 million . . . $16 million . . . $21 million . . . $23 million. . . .”

And finally upward to the winning bid.

The broadcast was sent to FNN’s estimated 33 million viewers on 3,500 cable systems in the United States and Canada. FNN says its viewers are “typically affluent, educated, 35-64 years of age and are interested in making the most of their money.”

Their mouths must have watered watching the Christie’s auction. But FNN felt compelled for some reason to present the event with the same old TV format used for everything from sports to politics. Hosts Maibaum and Susie Gharib presided at a desk like a couple of news anchors, and there was even a floor reporter--which might have been a good idea since that’s where the action was.

But typical TV audio problems from the jam-packed floor fouled up some of the best parts of the program--the analyses of art experts. Somehow, Manet, Van Gogh and Picasso seemed worth a more settled discussion than the commercial-strewn remarks emanating from a format better suited to interviewing an on-the-run congressman at a political convention.

FNN failed, strangely, to capture the apparent excitement on the floor. Maibaum improved after he launched into analysis, a distinct step up from his gee-whiz tone earlier. At times, the questioning of Burge was somehow reminiscent of how Fred Roggin might talk to Jim Everett or Todd Marinovich on the eve of a big game.

What this program needed as host was a Clifton Webb or a George Sanders. Or, since they’re dead, an Alistair Cooke.