Ragan and PR Daily Award programs celebrate the most successful campaigns, initiatives, people and teams in the communication, PR, marketing and employee wellbeing industries. As the leading voice in organizational communications—both internal and external—Ragan Communications recognizes those who create and cultivate best practices.
Sotheby’s International Realty was named the Corporate Communications Team of the Year. We are pleased to recognize the efforts of the Sotheby’s International Realty Public Relations team and the work they do to support our sales efforts.
Nothing compares to what’s next is a natural evolution of the Nothing Compares campaign. It retains the core brand components that allowed the campaign narrative to flow, while elevating the role of the agent. They are experts in understanding their clients’ wants, needs, and aspirations — all while curating the next chapter of their lives.
The campaign has evolved towards an aesthetic that leverages a modern design approach through an editorial layout style. This allows the campaign to reflect the emotional demand of our clients while positioning Sotheby’s International Realty agents as the knowledgeable experts.
Sotheby’s International Realty debuted the new marketing campaign during the 2023 General Networking Event in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event brought together nearly 3,000 attendees from 44 states and nearly 40 countries around the world – marking the brand’s biggest event to date.
Daniel Roseberry at Maison Schiaparelli, overlooking the Place Vendôme
Daniel Roseberry, the artistic director of Schiaparelli, has long been fascinated by Elsa Schiaparelli’s collaborations with the leading lights of Surrealism. After establishing her venerable fashion house in the 1930s, Schiaparelli became one of the first couturiers to collaborate with artists, working with Salvador Dalí and Man Ray, among others.
“I’m always so nostalgic for that period,” Roseberry says. “I think of those collaborations as ones that were happening between people who were creating culture around them, and who found themselves in real relationships. I often wonder if they had any idea that their work would be romanticized and fetishized for generations after. Even if it was transactional in some way, those creative partnerships feel so deeply natural compared to most of what we observe today.”
Texas-born Roseberry has been reinterpreting Schiaparelli’s historic vision through his dramatic collections since taking the reins of the house in 2019. This March, the Surrealism and Its Legacy sale at Sotheby’s Paris brings together works by artists associated with the movement, including René Magritte, Francis Picabia, Salvador Dalí and Max Ernst, and works from those influenced by it—such as Lucio Fontana and Alexander Calder.
The sale reflects a period of renewed interest in Surrealism, with recent auctions and international exhibitions including last year’s Venice Biennale adopting it as a central theme. For Roseberry, the enduring appeal of the Surrealists is obvious. “Generations and times shift and change, but the urges of the subconscious feel timeless and truly inescapable. They were able to tap into this and exploit it,” he says.
Elsa Schiaparelli with Salvador Dalí, 1949
Elsa Schiaparelli was born into a family of intellectuals and aristocrats in 1890 in Rome, and her encounter with the Surrealists was utterly fortuitous. Sailing on an ocean liner in 1916 to North America with her husband, she met Gabrièle Buffet-Picabia, first wife of the Dada artist Francis Picabia. Buffet-Picabia introduced her to New York’s avant-garde art scene via Société Anonyme, an arts organization founded in the city by the painter and collector Katherine Dreier, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray. Returning to Paris in 1922, Schiaparelli made her foray into fashion, encouraged by a new acquaintance: preeminent designer Paul Poiret. Her first success was the now-renowned trompe-l’œil bow jumper, a design hand-knitted by Armenian women in Paris. Schiaparelli then went on to set up business in a garret on Rue de la Paix and, in 1935, moved to a boutique in the prestigious Place Vendôme. Her connections with artists became central to the brand’s success.
It is her work with Dalí that stands out most. “From my point of view, it is the most striking and influential [collaboration] in the history of the house of Schiaparelli,” says Marie-Sophie Carron de La Carrière, head curator of the fashion and textile collections after 1800 at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, which hosted the exhibition Shocking! Les mondes surréalistes d’Elsa Schiaparelli (July 2022–January 2023). Among other pieces, Schiaparelli and Dalí worked together on the Shoe Hat, 1937–38, absurdly fashioned from an upside-down black shoe, and the Lobster dress, 1937, for which Dalí designed a crustacean to appear on a white organdy dress, which was interpreted into a fabric print by silk designer Sache.
After returning to Paris from the US after the Second World War, Schiaparelli commissioned the Catalan artist to design the crystal bottle for her new fragrance, Le Roy Soleil, in homage to the “Sun King”, Louis XIV. The resulting bottle comprised a golden sun painted with swallows above a gold and blue sea.
Schiaparelli’s Shoe Hat, 1937–38;
Other memorable creations include two pairs of spiral spectacles that Man Ray made for Schiaparelli in 1936. Jean Cocteau, the Surrealism polymath, brought his passion for optical illusion and metamorphosis to Schiaparelli’s collections in 1937 and 1938. Designs include a linen evening jacket featuring a woman in profile, her hair rendered in gold thread, shimmering down the right arm with two hands encircling the waist. On a silk jersey coat, Cocteau designed two facing profiles to form the shape of a vase, filled with a bouquet of pink taffeta flowers. Surrealist artist Leonor Fini designed the bottle for Schiaparelli’s fragrance Shocking, inspired by the hourglass torso of Hollywood film star Mae West, one of Schiaparelli’s clients. Artist Meret Oppenheim traded Schiaparelli a design for a piece of jewelry: a brass bracelet covered in animal fur that Schiaparelli included in her Fall/Winter 1936 collection.
A nod to Jean Cocteau’s evening dress for Fall 2021 Couture
Schiaparelli held these collaborations close to her heart. “Working with artists like Bébé Bérard, Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dalí, Vertès, Van Dongen; and with photographers like Hoyningen-Huene, Horst, Cecil Beaton and Man Ray gave one a sense of exhilaration,” she wrote in her autobiography, Shocking Life. “One felt supported and understood beyond the crude and boring reality of merely making a dress to sell.” They helped her to become one of the most important designers of the 20th century, rivaling contemporaries such as Coco Chanel.
Salvador Dalí, Dream of Venus, 1939
Today, the Surrealists’ influence is carried forward by Roseberry through his own designs for the house, which closed in 1954 and was relaunched in 2012 by Diego Della Valle, the founder of Italian luxury group Tod’s. Roseberry had not worked in a couture atelier before, joining from upmarket fashion brand Thom Browne, but his eye for tailoring and experimentation has made him a perfect fit, and he has resurrected iconic Schiaparelli motifs in bold new ways. Pink silk roses, a nod to Cocteau’s evening dress, cover the billowing arms of a black mini dress from his Fall 2021 Couture collection. For Spring 2022 Couture, he presented a “cage” dress exquisitely crafted from gold leaf and vintage gemstones, which resembles more of a giant brooch than a garment.
To keep the founder’s intentions alive in a new century, Roseberry has “learned to stay loose”. “When you look at Elsa’s process, it feels free and unburdened, and spontaneous,” he says. “It’s like the shower principle: that the best ideas come to you when you’re not thinking about them, or when you’re in the shower. I think her work has this free-wheeling intelligence that feels so ahead of its time. It wasn’t just about beauty, or of the ‘line’ of a dress. It was about a concept, an idea, a notion of reality. She would take this notion and bend it to her will.”
Roseberry’s love of Surrealism extends to his own art collection, too. He has “just bought a small painting by the Belgian surrealist Marcel Delmotte”, who drew from a range of sources, including the Italian Mannerists to contemporaries such as Giorgio de Chirico for his dreamlike works. “French Surrealism in the 1950s has something I love. I am repeatedly drawn to French and Italian art from the 1920s and the 1930s, such as Gaston Lachaise [known for his exaggerated bronze nudes], and I’d love to one day own an important piece of American art from the 1950s or 1960s, like a giant Helen Frankenthaler.”
Like Schiaparelli, Roseberry is eager to collaborate with artists of his time: “I love Katie Stout”—the artist and furniture designer who pushes the boundaries of functionality, and often references organic matter and female figures. “The photographer Nadia Lee Cohen, and my friends—the sculptor F Taylor Colantonio, and the writer and playwright Jeremy O Harris [his Slave Play made waves on Broadway in 2021],” he adds. “I would love to make a short film with Janicza Bravo [her work includes the movies Lemon and Zola]. Tilda Swinton would make an amazing Elsa Schiaparelli one day in a film, and I’d love to be involved in that.”
In the meantime, Roseberry’s eyes are firmly focused on his work with Schiaparelli and, just like the house’s imaginative founder, “creating things that people might remember, and that might last more than a moment”.
Schiaparelli coat designed in collaboration with Cocteau
Axel Vervoordt is a man with many hats: art and antiques dealer, interior designer, initiator of groundbreaking exhibitions and an impresario of musical, artistic and architectural experiences. Central to all this activity is his long marriage to his wife, May. Their evolving interests have been the guiding thread in their esteemed family business. Whether in their private home, the 12th-century Kasteel van ‘s-Gravenwezel, outside Antwerp, or in their impressive business headquarters, Kanaal—a restored late-19th-century distillery and malting complex on the nearby Albert Canal—their shared aesthetic and philosophical values are expressed in every atmospheric interior and the juxtaposition of carefully selected artworks. It is appropriate, therefore, that as Axel and May celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this spring, they have created a book about their collecting.
Axel and May Vervoordt in their home near Antwerp
What has interested them above all on this journey has been a dialogue between traditions—the exchange between east and west—which is reflected throughout their home and in their exhibition-making. It is also expressed in this new book, which celebrates artworks from contrasting traditions to emphasize continuities of thought and feeling. For Axel, his touchstones include works by Kazuo Shiraga and the numinous Fontana sculpture Concetto Spaziale, Natura, 1959–60. May has a favorite painting—Urbino, 1978, by Belgian artist Jef Verheyen, known for his exploration of light, color and geometry. She also loves the Japanese Head of a Lohan, or Buddhist monk on the edge of enlightenment, in their library: “Every time I see them, I learn something new.”
This interest in Asian art can be traced to their friendship with Dr Jos Macken, a neurologist who was a great friend of Verheyen and a passionate collector of eastern art. Through Macken, Axel became interested in eastern philosophy, especially the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi: the wisdom of imperfection. Axel explains that his mother instilled in him a feeling for “the beauty of simplicity—she liked very humble things”.
A collection of figurines in the library
Axel and May had visited Japan before they married and, from their late twenties, traveled through Thailand, China and Japan, developing a passionate understanding of Zen philosophy, ceramics, sculpture and calligraphy. Furthermore, Axel eagerly discovered the East Asian idea of the “void”—a potent emptiness; a latent creative energy beyond human comprehension.
Through Verheyen, the couple discovered the broad network of European artists connected to the Zero movement in Germany, including the Argentine-Italian Lucio Fontana and the German Günther Uecker, who were exploring similar ideas. Axel remarks: “After the terrible destruction of the Second World War, the idea of starting again from nothing was very appealing.”
The “Oriental Salon” at Kasteel van ‘s-Gravenwezel, with a 17th-century Japanese folding screen by Tan’yu Kano (left) and Fusta i Marró Forodat by Antoni Tàpies, 1972 (right)
These ideas were all percolating in the Vervoordts from the beginning of their relationship. They met when they were very young. May reports that Axel, then aged 21, “was a young antiques dealer,” while her interests, as a student of graphic design aged 18 or 19, “were more contemporary.” One of Axel’s early purchases—an oil painting by René Magritte of his famous motif, La Mémoire, 1948—suggests that he was always looking for a sense of “timelessness, the universal”. In addition, what was evident in their shared preferences was that, “the things we loved and bought, they had a sense of silence. They were never aggressive,” says May.
Axel Vervoordt seized upon dealing as a means of exploring his own interests in art. What he bought was always something that he and May loved: “I had to feel it in my breast,” he says.
The loft in the outer buildings of the castle. An Artempo disc by Axel Vervoordt hangs above painted works by Gutai artist Sadaharu Horio. Signal by Takis, 1958, is on the table.
In 2005, Axel discovered the Gutai artists in Japan. Alongside Fontana, Shiraga in particular is an essential reference for them both. May comments: “You feel strength in this art, but with that, a meditative feeling. You see the movement in a Shiraga painting, but recognize the stillness that came before.”
Both agree that they will never stop collecting. May refers to one of her favorite works, a six-fold Japanese screen from the 17th century, decorated with round stepping stones, black and white, with the motto: “By this way, bring you luck.” Collecting has become a series of steps, May explains. “There is an evolution. You continue to look and to buy.”
From a AUD$17M sale in Byron Bay, Australia, to a US$44.55M sale in Woodside, California, here are February 2023’s five highlighted sales represented by the Sotheby’s International Realty® global network.
Byron Bay, Australia
James McCowan and David Medina | Byron Bay Sotheby’s International Realty, AUD$17,000,000
Woodside, California
Arthur Sharif | Sotheby’s International Realty – San Francisco Brokerage, US$44,500,000
Mexico City, Mexico
Laura De la Torre and Maricruz Madrigal | Mexico Sotheby’s International Realty, US$3,200,000
Stockholm, Sweden
Peter Frisell | Sweden Sotheby’s International Realty, Price Undisclosed
St. Louis, Missouri
Stephanie Oliver | Dielmann Sotheby’s International Realty, US$13,000,000
From a legacy estate in Aspen, Colorado, to an oceanfront compound in Skiathos, Greece, these are this month’s five featured notable properties for sale over $10 million.
Merry Go Ranch was one of the first properties built on Mclain Flats and has been held in the same family for almost 40 years. The compound provides proximity to Aspen, the benefits of a private family estate with almost 35,000 sq. ft. of improvements, and panoramic views from Aspen to Snowmass.
Located in Harbour Island on a stretch of beach known as Pink Sands Beach, Runaway Hill Inn offers breathtaking views of the ocean. The boutique hotel is situated on 9.365 acres and consists of 11 guest accommodations including the main house and detached cottages, along with 175 feet of beach.
This furnished residence is offered with a full golf membership available. Prominent angular large boulder volcanic rock architecture, biophilic elements, and Polynesian-style design with a storybook rivulet running over and throughout the verdant hardscape make the home a lush oasis.
With its own private access to crystal clear teal waters and a secluded beach, this property is a paradise for sea lovers and explorers. The property is composed of eight distinct buildings, each boasting magnificent sea views and direct access to the beach.
Developed by RMCI Group and designed by EOS Architecture, this home is a luxury compound with two structures thoughtfully crafted with high-end architectural details. The compound is ideally located near the beach and the shops and eateries of the Cedros Design District.
Sotheby’s International Realty has announced that HomeServices Southern Properties has joined the network and will now operate as Crescent Sotheby’s International Realty. The addition marks the brand’s continued growth in the state of Louisiana and its sixth office in the state.
The company is owned and operated by Kyle Tallo, who brings 22 years of experience to the company. Tallo will lead the company alongside his wife and business partner, Heather Tallo. The company is headquartered in the city of Hammond and will service the surrounding region, as well as Baton Rouge, the Northshore areas, the Mississippi coast, and beyond.
“Hammond is a charming historic downtown area with close proximity to the Greater Baton Rouge and New Orleans area,” said Philip White, president and CEO, Sotheby’s International Realty. “The surrounding area is known for its research centers, college atmosphere, and recreational programs, making it a desirable area for newcomers and luxury real estate investors. We look forward to supporting Kyle and the entire Crescent Sotheby’s International Realty team as we further expand our presence in the state of Louisiana.”
“As a family-owned business, we pride ourselves on building relationships,” said Tallo. “This is evident in the dedication and loyal service that each of our agents provide to our clients every day. Our affiliation with Sotheby’s International Realty further builds on those ideals while bringing global exposure to our market and empowering our agents with best-in-class marketing tools and resources.”
The company’s seasoned real estate agents also have strong ties to the community and the surrounding area, including involvement in local organizations, hosting charitable events, and supporting local business.
From a EUR€11M sale in Milan, Italy, to a US$15M sale in Middletown, Rhode Island, here are January 2023’s five highlighted sales represented by the Sotheby’s International Realty® global network.
