From Me to You Auction Foreword

For the last 30 years, I have been lucky enough to travel the world and meet amazingly talented creatives. In 2003, during my first visit to Tokyo, I got to meet NIGO in person. I was already familiar with his myth, but what I saw upon meeting him changed my life forever.

I was never really attached to things. I loved to shop for clothing, jewelry, furniture, cars and other things, but I never looked at it as though I was collecting anything in particular. When I got tired of a piece of jewelry or watch, I would trade it in for something new. It was more about staying fresh. NIGO completely changed that. I totally adjusted the way I purchased things, and started to make everything more curated so they could become things that I could collect and live with for longer.

NIGO blew me away with his taste and curation. Everything he bought was an investment, something that clearly fit in a defined collection. He’s like me; he likes a lot of different things but once he picks something he goes all the way and collects deep. His house felt like a museum, filled with priceless things but it was still very livable and comfortable. Every single thing was carefully placed so that it could be admired and enjoyed. Where else could you see Prouvé, Charlotte Perriand & Jeanneret furniture mixed with a multicolor giant metallic tool chest filled with customs winders for his watch collection, and a vintage tube television playing early Beatles performances next to Pee Wee Herman’s original suit?

NIGO also had fully curated rooms, including one of the largest Star Wars collections in the world. And funnily enough, another room was dedicated to Louis Vuitton pieces. Seeing him collect these vintage LV pieces immediately sent me to the St Ouen Market in Paris to start my own Louis Vuitton trunk collection. NIGO also introduced me to Brian Donnelly (a.k.a. KAWS) who he had done a gallery show with in Tokyo and was also collecting heavily with. I went back to the US and immediately started my KAWS collection. These stories are endless. The man is a legend, a true definition of what people refer to as the GOAT.

As we get older, we realize that some of the things we collect never end up seeing the light of day again and even sometimes lose the sparkle they once held in our heart. That’s what led me to start JOOPITER. I felt that there was room to offer a new experience where both seasoned and new collectors could feel welcomed. When NIGO first told me that he was going to do his original auction, I was shocked but it eventually opened the idea for me to start thinking about certain things I felt others would enjoy more than me at this point in my life. NIGO has actually had a few extremely successful auctions already, but now that we have access to his incredible archive for JOOPITER, it’s an honor to be trusted with his new auction “From Me To You.”

Thank you, NIGO-Sama!

Pharrell Williams