From Star Trek Memorabilia to Diana’s Dresses. He’s Gavelling in the Next Generation of Auction Buyers.
3 min
A fury of fast and frequent bidding appeared to take auctioneer Kody Frederick by surprise at June sale of Princess Diana’s dresses and other memorabilia from the royal family
At one point, the bidding for a Catherine Walker evening gown worn by the late Princess of Wales blew past an original estimate of US$100,000 to US$200,000, topping out at US$450,000 with Frederick ultimately calling it “a moment of moments.”
“You have to give people a minute to breathe when you’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars per bid,” he says about the auction.
That event continued to rack up records, including the US$910,000 sale of another dress, and it demonstrated not only a rise in the relevance of cultural memorabilia as a category, but Frederick’s quick ascent among auctioneers.
Although on the younger side of the current auctioneer crop, at age 40, and with just two years of experience with gavel in hand, Frederick is finding himself running sales in new categories and welcoming in a new set of auction buyers.
“So much of this stuff has never come to auction, so it really is a first time [opportunity],” he says.
Frederick, who is based in Los Angeles, is not a career showperson. Prior to attending auctioneering school in Indiana, he was working in production for Disney+, and didn’t even have auctioneering on his radar until a colleague suggested he check out the profession while looking for work. He joined Julien’s in April 2020.
“My start date was supposed to be the day California went into lockdown, but it was delayed a month because of that,” he says.
Frederick ran his first auction in September 2021, selling low-value music memorabilia in a largely empty room where the top-selling item (a commemorative guitar) went for US$2,880.
“Ninety percent of our bidding takes place online, so being able to communicate to online bidders in the moment is always the challenge,” he says. “Creating the sense of excitement is challenging, and the personality is more important than the medium.”
He would continue to work his way up through various Julien’s sales until he found himself selling a signed Banksy painting in March 2023. The item was the marquee lot of a larger contemporary art sale, and had an original estimate of US$600,000 to US$800,000. The hammer price topped out at just over US$2 million.
“We had bidders in the room and put an event around it,” he says.
Frederick says it’s important to see in the room who’s bidding and in which order the bids are coming in, especially in high-value, high-volume sales.
Courtesy of Julien’s Auctions
“I have to keep things as close to real time as possible, and make sure there’s no disconnect between bidding and the auctioneer,” he says.
Much of what Julien’s sells falls into new or emerging auction categories—music memorabilia, pop culture artefacts, or modern art pieces that newer buyers connect to in ways that traditional areas (like classic art or wine) don’t.
Frederick will run an auction this fall featuring original Star Trek items and a separate event selling a significant guitar played in 1993 by the late Eddie Van Halen. Both sales could potentially resonate with those who haven’t spent much time in the auction world.
“It’s easier to convey value when an item has strong cultural significance,” he says. “A lot of what we sell has stories.”
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The government in Switzerland has waived residency requirements in a handful of locations, including one that’s growing fast.
3 min
While golden visa schemes proliferate, Switzerland remains famously protective about buying property in the country.
Rules known as Lex Koller, introduced in 1983, prohibit foreigners from buying homes in cities like Geneva and Zurich. And in the few locations where foreigners can buy, purchase permits come with rules around size and occupancy.
But non-Swiss buyers who have coveted an Alpine home now have a pathway to ownership, and it’s likely to come with financial upside. The Swiss government has waived residency requirements in a handful of locations where developers have negotiated exemptions in exchange for billions of dollars of investment in construction and improvements.
Andermatt, a village 4,715 feet above sea level in the centre of the Swiss Alps, is the largest municipality to open up to foreign buyers.
Its main investor, Egyptian magnate Samih Sawiris, “believed Andermatt could become a full-town redevelopment when he first visited in 2005, but the key was to offer real estate to people outside of Switzerland,” said Russell Collins, chief commercial officer of Andermatt-Swiss Alps, Sawiris’s development company.
“We became the only large-scale real estate development in Switzerland with an exemption from the Lex Koller regulations.”
In the ensuing decades, Andermatt has become a major draw for high-net-worth buyers from around the world, said Alex Koch de Gooreynd, a partner at Knight Frank in London and head of its Swiss residential sales team.
“What the Andermatt-Swiss Alps guys have done is incredible,” he said. “It’s an impressive resort, and there is still a good 10 years’ worth of construction to come. The future of the resort is very good.”
Andermatt’s profile got another boost from the 2022 acquisition of its ski and resort operations by Vail Resorts, which runs 41 ski destinations worldwide.
“Vail has committed to 150 million Swiss francs (US$175 million) in investments, which is another game-changer,” de Gooreynd said.
“If you’d asked me about Andermatt 10 years ago, I would have said the ski areas weren’t good enough of a draw.”
Along with the five-star Chedi Andermatt hotel and residences, which opened in 2013, residential offerings include the Gotthard Residences at the Radisson Blu hotel; at least six branded residences are planned to open by 2030, according to Jeremy Rollason, director for France, Switzerland, and Austria at Savills Ski.
“Most of these are niche, boutique buildings with anywhere from eight to 14 units, and they’re releasing them selectively to create interest and demand, which has been a very successful approach,” he said.
“Andermatt is an emerging destination, and an intelligent buy. Many buyers haven’t heard of it, but it’s about building a brand to the level of Verbier, Courchevel or Gstaad.”
The Alpinist, Andermatt’s third hotel residence, is slated to open in 2027; with 164 apartments, the five-star project will be run by Andermatt-Swiss Alps, according to Collins.
Other developments include Tova, an 18-unit project designed by Norwegian architects Snohetta, and La Foret, an 18-apartment building conceived by Swiss architects Brandenberger Kloter.
Prices in Andermatt’s new buildings range from around 1.35 million francs for a one-bedroom apartment to as much as 3.5 million francs for a two-bedroom unit, according to Astrid Josuran, an agent with Zurich Sotheby’s International Realty.
Penthouses with four or more bedrooms average 5 million-6 million francs. “Property values have been increasing steadily, with an average annual growth rate of 7.7% in the last 10 years,” she said.
“New developments will continue for the next 10 years, after which supply will be limited.”
Foreign buyers can obtain mortgages from Swiss banks, where current rates hover around 1.5% “and are declining,” Josuran said.
Compared to other countries with Alpine resorts, Switzerland also offers tax advantages, said Rollason of Savills. “France has a wealth tax on property wealth, which can become quite penal if you own $4 million or $5 million worth of property,” he said.
Andermatt’s high-end lifestyle has enhanced its appeal, said Collins of Andermatt-Swiss Alps.
“We have three Michelin-starred restaurants, and we want to create a culinary hub here,” he said. “We’ve redeveloped the main shopping promenade, Furkagasse, with 20 new retail and culinary outlets.
And there is a unique international community developing. While half our owners are Swiss, we have British, Italian and German buyers, and we are seeing inquiries from the U.S.”
But Andermatt is not the only Swiss location to cut red tape for foreign buyers.
The much smaller Samnaun resort, between Davos and Innsbruck, Austria, “is zoned so we can sell to foreigners,” said Thomas Joyce of Alpine property specialist Pure International.
“It’s high-altitude, with good restaurants and offers low property taxes of the Graubunden canton where it’s located.”
At the Edge, a new 22-apartment project by a Dutch developer, prices range from 12,000-13,500 francs per square metre, he said.
As Andermatt’s stature grows, this is a strategic time for foreigners to invest, said Josuran of Sotheby’s.
“It might be under the radar now, but it’s rapidly growing, and already among Switzerland’s most attractive ski locations,” she said. “Now’s the time to buy, before it reaches the status of a St. Moritz or Zermatt.”
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