Wharton Now

Reunions 2000!
By Nancy Moffitt

A rainy, cool May in Philadelphia continued during Reunion Weekend, but the more than 950 returning alumni and guests were undeterred and unwaveringly cheerful. The May 19-21 weekend brought together the classes of WG'95, WG'90, WG'85, WG'80, WG'75, WG'70, WG'65, WG'60, WG'55 and WG'50 - the second time 10 MBA reunion years have been celebrated at once.

Democratizing Art

Christine Bourron, WG'95, Defies the Skeptics

Christine Bourron knew exactly what she wanted to buy — a floral painting for her mother's 60th birthday. It seemed a simple and sure-to-please plan, but after scouring dozens of galleries in Boston and New York and still coming up empty handed, Bourron realized that buying original art is anything but a customer friendly experience.

She also realized that an incredible business opportunity was staring her in the face.

"People would tell us that searching for a specific thing really wasn't the way to buy paintings, or that we should buy Chinese abstract instead because that was in vogue at the time," Bourron, WG'95, says. "It really started to fascinate me how inefficient the distribution channel for art was."

Intrigued, Bourron, 33, searched the Internet for online companies selling original art and saw that none existed. The French native incorporated PaintingsDIRECT.com just a few months later in November 1997, and launched the site in April 1998.

Today, PaintingsDIRECT.com offers more than 8,000 paintings from about 450 artists, has 15 full-time employees, and has been written about by major media including The New York Times and USA Today.

Art was always a part of Bourron's life — her parents collected original paintings in France — but she never imagined it would become the foundation of her work world.

But combining the two worlds while simultaneously turning the art scene on its ear has been satisfying and exhilarating, she says. "The way art is sold hasn't changed in a hundred years — primarily through small, local galleries that tend to specialize in a particular style of painting or artist. Would-be buyers spend long hours searching, often in vain. At the same time, thousands of artists are not represented by galleries and are looking for an alternative means to showcase their work," Bourron says.

PaintingsDIRECT.com is a departure from this longstanding sales pipeline. Visitors to the site seek out and find paintings using criteria they choose, including style, medium, price, size, or subject. Prices range from $40 to $20,000.

Bourron worked in market research for Procter & Gamble in Paris immediately after graduating from Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Paris with a degree in finance, then had the chance to be a part of CDV Apple Computer's launch in the Ukraine. Once immersed in that project, Bourron quickly realized she needed an MBA, applied and got into Wharton, and graduated in 1995. She worked in consulting for Corporate Decisions Inc. in Boston for two years, then co-founded a newsprint importing company in 1997. She soon scrapped that effort after deciding to move forward with PaintingsDIRECT.com. After initially creating the site on a shoestring in Boston, Bourron realized the company would never really take off unless it was based in New York. So once she closed her first major round of financing in April 1999, she and her husband, Ilia Tchelikidi, WG'94, sold their house and moved. Tchelikidi transferred to Mercer Management Consulting's New York office is now a partner.

Recruiting her first group of artists was an early challenge. Artists from the U.S., she found, wouldn't sign up unless the site was already live, but Bourron needed artists in order to create the site in the first place. Ultimately, she called on contacts in France and Russia where she was able to recruit artists who were hungry for exposure in the U.S. The site launched with about 30 such artists and Bourron never had difficulty recruiting again.

Bourron also faced early skepticism from those who doubted that people would be willing to buy art over the Internet. "When I began talking about selling art online two years ago, people told me I was crazy and that that this would never work," Bourron says. "But it has." Bourron won't disclose sales figures, but says the site has more daily traffic than most galleries enjoy in a year, and that people are buying paintings from the site every day. She admits, though, that for all of its advantages, the Internet can't replicate the tactile and visual experience of seeing a painting in person. Bourron has worked to offset these limitations by offering customers extras they wouldn't likely find at a gallery. For instance, the site provides bios on artists, quotes from artists about the inspiration behind each painting, and offers customers the ability to return the painting for any reason up to ten days after they receive it. "I never, ever thought that art would be my business," Bourron says. "And I would never have seen myself in the traditional art world — to me it wasn't creative enough. But for me this business is the best of both worlds.