TWO UNLIKELY
AUCTIONEERS.

01 / THEIR STORY
HOW IT BEGAN.

Cornell Auctions, Objects & Trade began more than 25 years ago as Thos. Cornell Galleries, founded by Thomas Cornell. Over the decades it became a fixture of Long Island’s South Shore. In 2024, it found its way to two people who never planned to be auctioneers.

We were both regulars in Bellport, drawn to the village and its community. A mutual friend introduced us. Then a chance conversation revealed we’d both heard the local auction house was coming up for sale, and we both saw what this storied but dusty house could become. Not long after, it was ours.

02 / WHO WE ARE
DIFFERENT PEOPLE.
SAME DESTINATION.

Roy founded Roy Braeger Design and has produced high-profile events for Ferrari, Microsoft, and HBO. Carlo spent his career in luxury retail as a longtime Neiman Marcus executive and head of Shopbop Men, and he is a connoisseur of antiques. Roy studied at Columbia. Carlo holds degrees from Stanford and Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. Between us: design, art history, business, and a cocktail of adventures that somehow led here.

We are, by our own admission, nothing alike. Carlo deliberates while Roy decides in an instant. Roy wants to give everything away and Carlo wants to keep it all. We take different roads, but we always arrive at the same place.

03 / WHAT WE'RE BUILDING
MORE THAN AN
AUCTION.

We’re bridging two worlds: the discernment of Manhattan’s great galleries and the warmth of a barn on the South Shore. On sale days, the barn becomes a town square. There are bagels at eight and Champagne by nine, and neighbors catch up long before the first lot is called. In summer, Friday happy hour draws locals and their weekend guests from across the Hamptons and Manhattan.

We take the objects seriously and ourselves a lot less so. When everything is a click away and looks the same, we want an auction to feel like a discovery again: personal, a little unpredictable, and the most fun you’ve had all year.

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