PROANTIC: Our story, vision & mission
In 2009, as the Internet was becoming an integral part of everyday life, two brothers, Olivier and Stéphane Camus, set out to create an online space dedicated to the sale of antiques. The concept was simple: to allow the many lovers of antique objects to rediscover online an experience similar to that of an antiques market.
An antique dealer for more than 15 years at the time, Olivier conceived the idea for the PROANTIC project while working at the Puces de Saint-Ouen. His brother Stéphane, drawing on his experience in IT in Silicon Valley, was the ideal partner to create a website based on a new concept—one that would meet the requirements of an online marketplace while remaining a simple tool specifically dedicated to the profession of antique dealer.
THE PROANTIC VISION
Reconciling the profession of antique dealer, digital technologies, and the aspirations of art lovers
In 2009, an e-commerce website dedicated to antiques was still something of a novelty. The idea was ultimately simple: to bring antique dealers together on a single platform in order to give them a level of visibility that no dealer, acting alone, could ever achieve with their own website. It was also necessary to take into account the emergence of a new type of consumer—one we have all become—accustomed to buying remotely from a computer and driven by new expectations.
IThe aim was to create a beautiful online catalogue of antiques, unique in its scale and diversity, while also protecting and strengthening the direct relationship between buyer and seller. Indeed, the expertise and personality of each dealer are essential in the subtle world of art and antiques. These buyer–seller relationships are fundamental in the process of acquiring unique pieces.
Through its model, PROANTIC has succeeded in preserving these relationships by choosing not to position itself between antique dealers and their clients. By offering sellers and buyers a wide space for freedom and dialogue, and by taking no commission on sales, PROANTIC has, since its inception, preserved a unique relationship between antique dealers and their clients.
SIMPLICITY AND INNOVATION
Enduring values at PROANTIC
Today, with nearly 300,000 objects for sale and more than 2,000 professional antique dealers, PROANTIC has established itself as a key marketplace for the sale of antiques in Europe. Since 2009, its development has extended far beyond France’s borders, with antique dealers from more than twenty countries, primarily Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Amid the giants of online retail that impose their conditions and their singular vision of the market, PROANTIC occupies a distinct position. We embrace this difference—and more than that, we cultivate it. Antique dealers and their clients are not mistaken. Thanks to their loyalty, PROANTIC is truly a marketplace where everyone can work or browse freely, without being tracked, analyzed, or having their data or online behavior resold to advertising or telemarketing agencies.
But PROANTIC’s commitment does not stop there. The platform continually supports technological developments, whether to combat the growing incidence of online fraud, to guarantee the quality of galleries, or to offer innovative solutions. Always ready to deploy and adopt new technologies, we were among the first to offer antique dealers the ability to create hyper-realistic 3D models of their objects, which clients can then project into their own interiors directly from their smartphones.
