Famous Ciputat antique showcase began small

By Edith Hartanto

Antique dealers on Jl. Ciputat Raya are holding a month-long fair to fete Indonesia's 52nd independence anniversary. The Jakarta Post talks to dealers about the ups and downs of the antique business, and about how this high street on the outskirts of South Jakarta became famous as the place to purchase objects of the past.

JAKARTA (JP): Pelikan was once the lone antique shop on Jl. Ciputat Raya. Today, with more dealers lured by the promise of profits, more than 100 of the stores crowd the high street leading to Parung and Bogor.

Although Ciputat Raya is still associated with tiny antique shops and galleries, the street now bustles with supermarkets, department stores and car showrooms.

At first glance, it is hard to envisage why antique dealers chose this street as their showcase in Jakarta.

That is until one meets Nasrun, 55, the former owner of Pelikan who pioneered the relocation of antique dealers from their main haunts in Jl. Sabang, Jl. Kebon Sirih and Jl. Surabaya, all in Central Jakarta, to Ciputat Raya in the 1980s.

Nasrun, who started out in the 1960s by peddling his antiques by bicycle to mostly foreign customers, says rapid development of Jl. Sabang with offices, department stores and restaurants almost pushed him out of the business altogether.

That, and the fact that many of his clients died between 1970 and 1980. "I had a hard time finding new buyers," he confessed.

Nasrun set up the Pelikan on a 100-square meter plot which is now the site of Situ Gintung, a restaurant and swimming pool property.

In 1980, Ciputat land prices were going for between Rp 30,000 and Rp 50,000 per square meter. Today, the rate is probably 10 times as much.

"It was still affordable then. We gathered money, bought the land and, using our own developer, who happened to be a relative, developed four shops with other members of the family," he said.

Getting other antique dealers from Jl. Sabang, Jl. Kebon Sirih and Jl. Surabaya to move was not as easy.

Like Nasrun, most antique dealers in Jakarta come from the tiny village of Sarik in Bukittinggi. Most of the shops on Jl. Ciputat Raya are owned by people from this village at the foot of Mt. Merapi in West Sumatra. Most of them are related.

Budi Santosa, Nasrun's eldest child who runs one of the family galleries named after him, recalls the arduous task entailed in convincing others to follow their move south.

"They were reluctant to move because they were afraid they could lose their business.

"Once our shops were opened and we started getting business our way, they came in throngs and opened shops and galleries here," Budi said.

"That's typical of Sarik people. Never want to lose a dime," Nasrun chimed in.

At last count, there were 105 antique dealers and galleries along Jl. Ciputat Raya, including the two-story shop that Nasrun runs.

His three adult children are also in the business.

Budi and the more established shop owners do not appear to feel threatened by the many competitors in the neighborhood.

"I'm doing fine. I have my regular buyers," Budi said.

The concentration of antique shops in one area actually appears to have bolstered their business.

"Many shops export at least 10 container trucks filled with antiques each month to various places around the world," Budi said.

Nasrun, his view tinged by the wariness of age, did not share his son's optimism.

"The antique business, in the real sense of the word, is dying," he said.

"Now, most people sell so-called art, but not real antiques," he added, citing the Jepara furniture, china, sculptures, sarongs and ulos displayed in shops along Jl. Ciputat Raya.

Nasrun, a business veteran for 37 years, estimates only about 10 percent of goods sold in Ciputat antiques.

"It's hard to find one these days. The meaning of antique has changed. In the past, it meant original products. Now, it's just the form of art."

Buyers looking for bonafide antiques should get an expert opinion first, he said.

"It hurts when you've been cheated. I've been cheated many times so I know the feeling," he said.

Budi claims at least 85 percent of goods displayed in his gallery are real antiques. "Our target is the upper-middle class people who want limited and exclusive items."

Dealers have their own ways of surviving in the tough business.

Given that most dealers on Jl. Ciputat Raya belong to the Sarik Migrant Fraternity, they avoid direct competition with one another by creating their own market niches.

Gallery 59, for example, specializes in primitive wooden furniture, with limited and selected items for people in the middle to upper income group.

Limo Lapan Art Gallery focuses on wooden furniture mass reproductions, targeting the middle to lower income group.

"There is no standard price, because there is no basic production cost in the antique business. It depends entirely to the buyer," Limo Lapan art shop manager Pepen said.

Budi identified three types of antique wooden furniture -- original, a combination of original models plus some modification in motifs, and a complete reproduction from the original design.

Each type attracts its own particular buyers.

With china, sculpture and painting, dealers employ their own artists to make reproductions, and sell them to selected buyers.

"Once I was asked by a collector to copy a Van Gogh. My artist made one, and we sold it for Rp 5 million," Budi said.

Nasrun counts Pia Alisyahbana, chief editor of Femina magazine, Nelly Adam Malik, the wife of the late vice president Adam Malik, several ambassadors and foreign businessmen among his top clients. Some also turn to him for advise.

Surviving in the antique business requires strength and patience to weather business peaks and valleys.

"Some times we can have five transactions in a week, or a dozen in a month," Budi said. "At other times, we have none at all. It's so unpredictable."

Pepen said he had been too long in the business to consider switching profession.

"I started from scratch," he said. "My father was a carpenter but I was a construction worker. Then I learned to become a carpenter and now I'm a shop manager. I love this business because it can turn a nobody into somebody."