LONDON.- Founder of early digital success story, Online Galleries, and former Managing Director of 1stdibs’ international region, Carmine Bruno, announces his new venture: an international marketplace that will set a new standard for dealing antiques and furniture online.
By blending the global reach and sourcing opportunities presented by online technology with the freedom to communicate, negotiate and purchase outside the platform, The Bruno Effect enables a return to the traditions of the trade, buoyed by the power of digital innovation to the benefit of both dealers and their clients, for whom well-curated, vetted and specialist marketplaces are essential.
With a commission-free model as its guiding principle, The Bruno Effect offers membership to dealers on a strictly invitation-only basis. It is built on the knowledge that there is a better way to buy and sell online and that it is human connection, not corporate intervention, that creates lasting business success. Its launch marks a significant change of tide for the trade, which found itself anonymised and commoditised during the first wave of digital disruption.
Carmine Bruno say: “As a specialist tech entrepreneur I was very much at the forefront of the trade’s evolution online. I have been through that journey, together with the dealer community, and I have witnessed both its immense power and its notable shortcomings.
With The Bruno Effect I will give back to dealers their most valuable asset – the ability to own and nurture their client relationships – in turn enabling the client to directly access the knowledge and expertise of trusted dealers wherever they are in the world.
Online marketplaces have validated the internet's role in enabling buyers to source items globally, and helped dealers meet that demand, but along the way costs have soared and the things that make the trade so unique have been stripped away. I am launching The Bruno Effect to address that. I believe I can run a profitable, human and fair business that benefits all parties and am looking forward to our launch next year.”
The Bruno Effect is family-owned and operated and is not, Carmine comments, intended to be the biggest platform out there. Instead it will remain boutique, placing focus on quality, provenance, service and longevity. The platform will offer elevated engagement with interior designers, collectors and buyers through editorial, curated inventories, partnerships and in-person experiences.
The platform will launch globally in Spring 2021 with an estimated 650 invitation-only Founding Members from across the UK, Europe and USA, a small selection of which so far includes: Howard Walwyn, Butchoff Antiques, Ken Bolan of Talisman, Loveday Antiques and Lennox Cato from the UK; Galerie Gaudium and Studio Cadmium from the Netherlands; Alain Hens, Akanthos and Unforget Decorative Arts from Belgium and Galerie Hartner from France. Further leading dealers from Europe and America will be announced in the coming weeks.
