Back in the “good old days” of collecting via the online auction service that rhymes with “reemay” a bidder used to know who they were bidding against. I kept a list of board members, other donors, and unaffiliated collectors. I would contact them and come to agreements about not bidding against one another. “reeMay” lost money on these agreements, deemed them unethical, and blinded the process. Museums have lost much money on this policy change over the years and it has unwittingly placed affiliated collectors in conflict with institutions.
