Myrtille Dumonteil: From Zero to Vice-President of Drouot

Myrtille Dumonteil, auctioneer, judicial officer, and vice-president of Drouot, co-founded Art Valorem in 2007 with Sabine Sourdoire. Without a family network in the auction world, she built her career from scratch. Growing up in Deauville, she spent Sundays at the local auction house, captivated by the drama of bidding. After an initial internship in Paris handling mundane inventory, she trained under Chantal Pescheteau-Badin and later Marie-Françoise Robert, whose study she acquired in 2015. With Sourdoire, she launched Art Valorem from a home office and a small storage space, initially dismissed by the Paris auction establishment. Nearly twenty years later, Art Valorem organizes up to forty sales annually, both physical and online, specializing in jewelry, modern and contemporary ceramics, and collectible perfume bottles. Dumonteil emphasizes that auction is only the 'cherry on top'; behind each sale are weeks of research, logistics, and client consultations during life transitions such as inheritances, moves, or separations. She advises aspiring auctioneers to be curious, determined, and without prejudice.