Christie's is a British
auction house
An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...
founded in 1766 by
James Christie. Its main premises are on
King Street, St James's in London, at
Rockefeller Center in
New York City and at
Alexandra House in
Hong Kong. It is owned by
Groupe Artémis, the holding company of
François-Henri Pinault. Sales in 2015 totalled £4.8 billion (US$7.4 billion). In 2017, the ''
Salvator Mundi
, Latin for Saviour of the World, is a subject in iconography depicting Christ with his right hand raised in Blessing (Roman Catholic Church), blessing and his left hand holding an Globus cruciger, orb (frequently surmounted by a cross), known a ...
'' was sold for $400 million at Christie's in New York, at the time
the highest price ever paid for a single painting at an auction.
History
Founding
The official company literature states that founder
James Christie (1730–1803) conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766. However, other sources note that James Christie rented auction rooms from 1762, and newspaper advertisements for Christie's sales dating from 1759 have also been traced. After his death, Christie's son,
James Christie the Younger (1773–1831) took over the business.
20th century
Christie's was a public company, listed on the
London Stock Exchange, from 1973 to 1999. In 1974, Jo Floyd was appointed chairman of Christie's. He served as chairman of Christie's International plc from 1976 to 1988, until handing over to
Lord Carrington
Peter Alexander Rupert Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, Baron Carington of Upton, (6 June 1919 – 9July 2018), was a British Conservative Party politician and hereditary peer who served as Defence Secretary from 1970 to 1974, Foreign Secret ...
, and later was a non-executive director until 1992. Christie's International Inc. held its first sale in the United States in 1977. Christie's growth was slow but steady since 1989, when it had 42% of the auction market.
[Carol Vogel (11 February 1997)]
At the Wire, Auction Fans, It's, It's . . . Christie's!
''The New York Times''.
In 1990, the company reversed a long-standing policy and guaranteed a minimum price for a collection of artworks in its May auctions. In 1996, sales exceeded those of
Sotheby's for the first time since 1954. However, profits did not grow at the same pace;
[Carol Vogel (19 May 1998)]
Frenchman Seeks the Rest Of Christie's
''The New York Times''. from 1993 through 1997, Christie's annual pretax profits were about $60 million, whereas Sotheby's annual pretax profits were about $265 million for those years.
[Carol Vogel (19 February 1998)]
''The New York Times''.
In 1993, Christie's paid $12.7 million for the London gallery
Spink & Son, which specialised in Oriental art and British paintings; the gallery was run as a separate entity. The company bought Leger Gallery for $3.3 million in 1996, and merged it with Spink to become Spink-Leger. Spink-Leger closed in 2002. To make itself competitive with Sotheby's in the property market, Christie's bought Great Estates in 1995, then the largest network of independent estate agents in North America, changing its name to Christie's Great Estates Inc.
In December 1997, under the chairmanship of
Lord Hindlip, Christie's put itself on the auction block, but after two months of negotiations with the consortium-led investment firm
SBC Warburg Dillon Read it did not attract a bid high enough to accept.
In May 1998,
François Pinault's holding company, Groupe Artémis S.A., first bought 29.1 percent of the company for $243.2 million, and subsequently purchased the rest of it in a deal that valued the entire company at $1.2 billion.
The company has since not been reporting profits, though it gives sale totals twice a year. Its policy, in line with UK accounting standards, is to convert non-UK results using an average exchange rate weighted daily by sales throughout the year.
[Scott Reyburn (17 July 2012)]
Rothko, Private Sales Help Boost Christie's Revenue 13%
'' Bloomberg''.
21st century
In 2002, Christie's France held its first auction in
Paris.
Like Sotheby's, Christie's became increasingly involved in high-profile private transactions. In 2006, Christie's offered a reported $21 million guarantee to the
Donald Judd Foundation and displayed the artist's works for five weeks in an exhibition that later won an
AICA award for "Best Installation in an Alternative Space". In 2007 it brokered a $68 million deal that transferred
Thomas Eakins's ''
The Gross Clinic'' (1875) from the
Jefferson Medical College at the
Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia to joint ownership by the
Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...
and the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In the same year, the
Haunch of Venison
Haunch of Venison was a contemporary art gallery operating from 2002 until 2013. It supported the work of contemporary leading artists, presented a broad and critically acclaimed program of exhibitions to a large public through international exhi ...
gallery became a subsidiary of the company.
On 28 December 2008, ''
The Sunday Times'' reported that Pinault's debts left him "considering" the sale of Christie's and that a number of "
private equity groups" were thought to be interested in its acquisition. In January 2009, the company employed 2,100 people worldwide, though an unspecified number of staff and consultants were soon to be cut due to a worldwide downturn in the art market;
later news reports said that 300 jobs would be cut.
With sales for premier Impressionist, Modern, and contemporary artworks tallying only US$248.8 million in comparison to US$739 million just a year before, a second round of job cuts began after May 2009.
In 2012, Impressionist works, which dominated the market during the 1980s boom, were replaced by contemporary art as Christie's top category. Asian art was the third most lucrative area.
With income from classic auctioneering falling, treaty sales made £413.4 million ($665 million) in the first half of 2012, an increase of 53% on the same period last year; they now represent more than 18% of turnover. The company has since promoted curated events, centred on a theme rather than an art classification or time period.
As part of a companywide review in 2017, Christie's announced the layoffs of 250 employees, or 12 percent of the total work force, based mainly in
Britain and
Europe.
[Scott Reyburn (8 March 2017)]
Christie’s to Close a London Salesroom and Scale Back in Amsterdam
''The New York Times''.
In June 2021, Christie’s Paris held its first sale dedicated to women artists, most notably
Louise Moillon's ''Nature morte aux raisins et pêches''.
Commissions
From 2008 until 2013, Christie's charged 25 per cent for the first $50,000; 20 per cent on the amount between $50,001 and $1 million, and 12 per cent on the rest. From 2013, it charged 25 per cent for the first $75,000; 20 per cent on the next $75,001 to $1.5 million and 12 per cent on the rest.
Locations
In January 2009,
Christie's had 85 offices in 43 countries, including New York City, Los Angeles, Paris,
Geneva,
Houston, Amsterdam, Moscow,
Vienna, Buenos Aires, Berlin, Rome, South Korea,
Milan, Madrid, Japan, China, Australia, Hong Kong,
Singapore,
Bangkok,
Tel Aviv,
Dubai, and Mexico City.
Europe
Christie's main London saleroom is on
King Street in
St. James's
St James's is a central district in the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the West End. In the 17th century the area developed as a residential location for the British aristocracy, and around the 19th century was the focus of the d ...
, where it has been based since 1823. It had a second London saleroom in
South Kensington which opened in 1975 and primarily handled the middle market. Christie's permanently closed the South Kensington saleroom in July 2017 as part of their restructuring plans announced in March 2017. The closure was due in part to a considerable decrease in sales between 2015 and 2016 in addition to the company expanding its online sales presence.
In early 2017, Christie's also announced plans to scale back its operation in Amsterdam.
Americas
In 1977, the company opened its first international branch on
Park Avenue in
New York City in the
Delmonico’s Hotel grand ballroom on the second floor; in 1997 it took a 30-year lease on a space in
Rockefeller Center for $40 million.
Until 2001, Christie's East, a division that sold lower-priced art and objects, was located at 219 East 67th Street. In 1996, Christie's bought a townhouse on East 59th Street in Manhattan as a separate gallery where experts could show clients art in complete privacy to conduct private treaty sales.
Christie's opened a
Beverly Hills salesroom in 1997. In April 2017, in moved to a two-story flagship space in Beverly Hills, designed by
wHY.
Asia
Christie's has been operating a space in Hong Kong's
Alexandra House since 2014. In 2021, the company announced plans to move its Hong Kong headquarters to the
Zaha Hadid-designed luxury tower The Henderson in 2024, where it will launch year-round auctions. Measuring more than over four storeys, the new space, which incorporates a permanent saleroom and galleries, is comparable in size to Christie’s London headquarters.
Notable auctions
* In 1848 the sale of the contents of
Stowe House
Stowe House is a grade I listed country house in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England. It is the home of Stowe School, an independent school and is owned by the Stowe House Preservation Trust who have to date (March 2013) spent more than £25m on th ...
after the bankruptcy of the
Duke of Buckingham and Chandos was one of the first and most publicised
British country house contents auctions British and Irish country house contents auctions are usually held on site at the country house, and have been used to raise funds for their owners, usually before selling the house and estate. Such auctions include the sale of high quality antique ...
. The sale raised £75,400 and included the
Chandos portrait of
William Shakespeare.
* The 1882 sale of the
Hamilton Palace collection raised £332,000.
* In 1987, during the
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...
auction, Christie's famously auctioned off a
Bugatti Royale
The Bugatti Type 41, better known as the Royale, is a large luxury car built from 1927 to 1933 with a 4.3 m (169.3 in) wheelbase and 6.4 m (21 ft) overall length. It weighs approximately 3,175 kg (7,000 lb) and uses a ...
automobile for a
world record price of £5.5 million.
* In May 1989,
Pontormo's ''Portrait of a Halberdier'' was sold to the
J. Paul Getty Museum for $35.2 million, more than tripling the previous auction record for an
Old Master painting.
* On 11 November 1994, the
Codex Leicester was sold to
Bill Gates for .
* In 1998, Christie's in New York sold the famous
Archimedes Palimpsest
The Archimedes Palimpsest is a parchment codex palimpsest, originally a Byzantine Greek copy of a compilation of Archimedes and other authors. It contains two works of Archimedes that were thought to have been lost (the ''Ostomachion'' and the ' ...
after the conclusion of a lawsuit in which its ownership was disputed.
* In November 1999, a single strand necklace of 41 natural and graduated pearls, which belonged to
Barbara Hutton, was auctioned by Christie's Geneva for $1,476,000.
*In June 2001,
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...
sold 20 of his cars at Christie's, saying he didn't get the chance to drive them because he was out of the country so often. The sale, which included a 1993 Jaguar XJ220, the most expensive at £234,750, and several Ferraris, Rolls-Royces, and Bentleys, raised nearly £2 million.
* In 2006, a single Imperial
Qing Dynasty porcelain bowl, another item which belonged to Barbara Hutton, was auctioned by Christie's Hong Kong for a price of $22,240,000.
* On 16 May 2006, Christie's auctioned a
Stradivarius called
The Hammer for a record US$3,544,000. It was, at that time, the most paid at public auction for any musical instrument.
* In November 2006, four celebrated paintings by
Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's prim ...
were sold for a total of $192 million, after being
restituted by Austria to Jewish heirs after a lengthy legal battle.
* In December 2006, a copy of the
black dress worn by
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, t ...
in the film ''
Breakfast at Tiffany's'' was sold for £467,200 at Christie's South Kensington.
* In 2006, controversy arose after Christie's auctioned off artefacts known to be looted from
Bulgaria.
* In November 2007, an album of eight leaves, ink on paper, by China's
Ming Dynasty court painter
Dong Qichang was sold at the Christie's Hong Kong Chinese Paintings Auction for US$6,235,500, a world auction record for the artist.
*In 2008, the
Ink and wash painting of
Gundam drawn by Hisashi in 2005 was sold in the Christie's auction held in Hong Kong with a price of US$600,000.
* On 24 May 2008, ''
Le Bassin Aux Nymphéas'' by
Claude Monet was sold for a price of $80.4 million, the highest price ever for a Monet.
* Over a three-day sale in Paris in February 2009, Christie's auctioned the monumental private collection of
Yves Saint Laurent and
Pierre Bergé for a record-breaking 370 million euros (US$490 million).
It was the most expensive private collection ever sold at auction,
breaking auction records for
Brâncuși,
Matisse, and
Mondrian
Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian (, also , ; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being o ...
.
The
"Dragons" armchair by Irish furniture designer
Eileen Gray sold for 21.9 million euros (US$28 million), setting an auction record for a piece of 20th century decorative art.
*In 2009, controversy arose again after the auction of two imperial bronze zodiac sculptures (for US$36 million) collected by
Yves Saint Laurent, stemming from the fact that these items were looted in 1860 from the
Old Summer Palace of Beijing by French and British forces at the close of the
Second Opium War
The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...
.
*Christie's Hong Kong, November 2009 sale of Fine Modern Chinese Paintings, sold a work by
Fu Baoshi
Fu Baoshi (), or Fu Pao-Shih, (1904-1965) was a Chinese painter from Xinyu, Jiangxi Province. He went to Japan to study the History of Oriental Art in the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1933. He translated many books from Japanese and carried out his ...
titled ''Landscape inspired by Dufu's Poetic Sentiments'', for HK$60,020,000 (US$7,780,105) – a world record for the artist.
*Christie's auctioned
Pablo Picasso's ''
Nude, Green Leaves and Bust
''Nude, Green Leaves and Bust'' (french: Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur) is a 1932 painting by Pablo Picasso, featuring his mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter.
The painting was in the personal collection of Los Angeles art collectors Sidney and France ...
'' on 4 May 2010. The piece sold for US$106.5 million, making the sale among the
most expensive paintings ever sold.
*On 14 June 2010 Amedeo Modigliani's ''
Tête'', a limestone sculpture of a woman's head, became the
second most expensive sculpture ever sold and the most expensive work of art sold in France.
*On 18 April 2012, the silver cup given to the marathon winner, Greek athlete
Spyridon Louis, at the first modern Olympic Games staged in Athens in 1896 sold for GB£541,250 (US$860,000), breaking the auction record for Olympic memorabilia.
*On 22 June 2012,
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
's personal
annotated copy of the ''Acts Passed at a Congress of the United States of America'' from 1789, which includes
The Constitution of the United States and a draft of the
Bill of Rights, was sold at Christie's for a record $9,826,500, with fees the final cost, to
The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association
The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association (MVLA) is a non-profit organization that preserves and maintains the Mount Vernon estate originally owned by the family of President George Washington. The association was founded in 1853 by Ann Pamela Cunning ...
. This was the record for a document sold at auction.
*On 12 November 2013,
Francis Bacon's ''
Three Studies of Lucian Freud'' sold for 142.4 million (including the buyer's premium) to an unnamed buyer,
nominally becoming
the most expensive work of art ever to be sold at auction.
*On 11 May 2015,
Pablo Picasso's ''
Les Femmes d'Alger ("Version O")'' sold for 179.3 million to an unnamed buyer, becoming the most expensive work of art ever to be sold at auction at Christie's New York. In November of the same year, Amedeo Modigliani's ''Nu Couché'' (1917–18) sold at Christie's in New York for $170.4 million, making it the second most expensive work sold at auction.
*In May 2016, the
Oppenheimer Blue
The Oppenheimer Blue is a vivid blue diamond that in May 2016 became the most expensive jewel ever sold at auction, until April 2017 when it was surpassed by the Pink Star diamond.
The diamond was named for its previous owner Philip Oppenheimer. ...
diamond sold for 56.837 million
SFr, a record price for a jewel at auction.
*On 7 July 2016, the highest price ever sold for an old master painting at Christie's was achieved with £44,882,500 / $58,167,720 / €52,422,760 for
Rubens
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...
'
Lot and his Daughters
Lot (; he, לוֹט ''Lōṭ'', lit. "veil" or "covering"; gr, Λώτ ''Lṓt''; ar, لُوط ''Lūṭ''; Syriac language, Syriac: ܠܘܛ ''Lōṭ'') was a man in the biblical Book of Genesis, chapters 11–14 and 19. Notable events in his li ...
.
*On 11 November 2017, a
Patek Philippe
Patek Philippe SA is a Swiss luxury watch and clock manufacturer, located in the Canton of Geneva and the Vallée de Joux. Established in 1839, it is named after two of its founders, Antoni Patek and Adrien Philippe. Since 1932, the compan ...
Titanium wristwatch Ref. 5208T-010 was sold for 6.226 million US dollars (
CHF 6,200,000) in Geneva, making it one of the
most expensive watches ever sold at auction.
*On 15 November 2017,
Leonardo da Vinci's ''
Salvator Mundi
, Latin for Saviour of the World, is a subject in iconography depicting Christ with his right hand raised in Blessing (Roman Catholic Church), blessing and his left hand holding an Globus cruciger, orb (frequently surmounted by a cross), known a ...
'' sold for a record $450.3 million (including buyer's premium).
*On 4 July 2019, a bust fragment of
Tutankhamun was sold for £4.7 million. The
Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities had tried to stop the auction, citing concerns that the bust had been looted from a temple and illegally taken from Egypt in the 1970s.
*On 25 June 2020, Christie's sold a
Timurid Quran manuscript
The Timurid Quran manuscript, also known as the Aqquyunlu Quran manuscript, is a 15th-century Timurid Quranic manuscript written on paper produced in the Ming dynasty. On 25 June 2020, it was sold at auction by Christie's for £7,016,250, surpas ...
, described as "rare and breathtaking", for £7 million (with fees), ten times its estimate.
The price was the highest price ever paid for a Quran manuscript.
Probably created at a
Timurid prince's court, the manuscript comprised 534 folios of
Arabic calligraphy on "gold-flecked, coloured paper from
Ming China
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peop ...
". The sale was criticized that since the "object apparently has no provenance prior to the 1980s, we can’t know anything about the context in which it was removed from its country of origin."
*In October 2020, Christie's sold
Stan
Stan or STAN may refer to:
People
* Stan (given name), a list of people with the given name
** Stan Laurel (1890–1965), English comic actor, part of duo Laurel and Hardy
* Stan (surname), a Romanian surname
* Stan! (born 1964), American author ...
, one of the world's most complete ''
Tyrannosaurus rex'' skeletons for $31.8 million USD,
setting a new world record for any dinosaur skeleton or fossil ever sold at auction at the time.
Criticism
Price-fixing scandal in 2000
In 2000, allegations surfaced of a price-fixing arrangement between Christie's and
Sotheby's. Executives from Christie's subsequently alerted the Department of Justice of their suspicions of commission-fixing
collusion.
Christie's gained immunity from prosecution in the United States as a longtime employee of Christie's confessed and cooperated with the US
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
. Numerous members of Sotheby's senior management were fired soon thereafter, and
A. Alfred Taubman
Adolph Alfred "Al" Taubman (January 31, 1924 – April 17, 2015) was an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist.
He was convicted in 2002 for a price-fixing scheme involving the top two auction houses in the United States.
Backgro ...
, the largest shareholder of Sotheby's at the time, took most of the blame; he and Dede Brooks (the CEO) were given jail sentences, and Christie's, Sotheby's and their owners also paid a civil lawsuit settlement of $512 million.
Insufficient or invalid provenance for looted artifacts
Christie's has been criticized for "an embarrassing history of a lack of transparency around
provenance
Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...
".
In May 2020, Hobby Lobby sued the auction house for its sale of a
Gilgamesh tablet, allegedly while knowing it had a fake provenance. In June 2020, they were forced to withdraw four Greek and Roman antiquities from sale after it was discovered that they came from "sites linked to convicted antiquities traffickers".
The same month, they were criticized for putting up a
Benin plaque and two
Igbo alusi figures for auction.
The plaque was tied to similar plaques taken from Nigeria during the
Benin Expedition of 1897
The Benin Expedition of 1897 was a punitive expedition by a British force of 1,200 men under Sir Harry Rawson in response to the ambush of a previous British party under Acting Consul General James Phillips, of the Niger Coast Protectorate. ...
and remained unsold after an auction was held.
The alusi figures are alleged to have been taken from Nigeria during the
Nigerian Civil War and were sold for €212,500 (after fees), below their low estimate of €250,000.
Christie's claims to require "verifiable documented provenance that the object was taken out of its source nation prior to the earlier date of 2000, or the date which is legally applicable between the country in which the sale takes place and the source nation".
In November 2014, Christie's had to withdraw a prehistoric sculpture from
Sardinia, valued at $800,000–$1.2m, put on auction by
Michael Steinhardt, a US-billionaire, who was given a lifetime ban on acquiring further antiquities by the Manhattan district attorney's office in 2021. After having acquired artworks with unverified
provenance
Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...
for years, for example by convicted art dealer
Giacomo Medici, Steinhard's collection had been subjected to search warrants and investigations since 2017. He finally surrendered 180 looted and illegally smuggled antiquities valued at $70m. According to
The Guardian, the district attorney said: “For decades, Michael Steinhardt displayed a rapacious appetite for plundered artefacts without concern for the legality of his actions, the legitimacy of the pieces he bought and sold or the grievous cultural damage he wrought across the globe.
Christie's Fine Art Storage Services (CFASS)
Christie's first ventured into storage services for outside clients in 1984, when it opened a 100,000 square feet brick warehouse in London that was granted "Exempted Status" by
HM Revenue and Customs,
[Kelly Crow (26 April 2010)]
The Ultimate Walk-In Closet: Christie's Offers Art Storage in Brooklyn
'' The Wall Street Journal''. meaning that property may be imported into the United Kingdom and stored without incurring import duties and
VAT. Christie's Fine Art Storage Services, or CFASS, is a wholly owned subsidiary that runs Christie's storage operation.
In September 2008, Christie's signed a 50-year lease on an early 1900s warehouse of the historic
New York Dock Company
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
[Laura Gilbert (26 April 2013)]
An exodus from Red Hook
'' The Art Newspaper''. in
Red Hook, Brooklyn, and subsequently spent $30 million converting it into a six-storey, 250,000 square feet art-storage facility.
The facility opened in 2010 and features high-tech security and climate controls that maintain a virtually constant 70° and 50% relative humidity.
Located near the Upper Bay tidal waterway near the Atlantic Ocean, the Brooklyn facility was hit by at least one storm surge during
Hurricane Sandy in 2012. CFASS subsequently faced client defections and complaints arising from damage to works of art.
In 2013,
AXA
Axa S.A. (styled as ''AXA'' or GIG in the Middle East) is a French multinational insurance company. The head office is in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. It also provides investment management and other financial services.
The Ax ...
Art Insurance filed a lawsuit in New York court alleging that CFASS' "gross negligence" during the hurricane damaged art collected by late cellist
Gregor Piatigorsky and his wife
Jacqueline Rebecca Louise de Rothschild. Later that year, StarNet Insurance Co., the insurer for the
LeRoy Neiman Foundation and the artist's estate, also filed a lawsuit in
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
claiming that the storage company's negligence caused more than $10 million in damages to Neiman's art.
Educational and other ventures
Christie's Education previously offered Master degree programs in London and New York, but they were planned to be phased out in 2019. In 2020, in the aftermath of the
murder of George Floyd, Christie's noted that there was a lack of racial diversity in the art world, and admitted that Christie's degree programs only exacerbated these inequities.
However, Christie's continue to offer non-degree programmes in London, New York, Hong Kong and Amsterdam as well as online. In addition they offer an Art Business Masterclass Certificate and the Luxury Masterclass Certificate.
With
Bonhams, Christie's is a shareholder in the London-based
Art Loss Register
Art Loss Register (ALR) is the world's largest database of stolen art. A computerized international database that captures information about lost and stolen art, antiques, and collectibles, the ALR is a London-based, independent, for-profit corpora ...
, a privately owned database used by law enforcement services worldwide to trace and recover stolen art.
Management
* 1999–2010: Edward Dolman
* 2010–2014:
Steven Murphy
Steven Murphy (born March 1954) is an American business executive and prominent figure in the international art market. Previously CEO of Christie's, and before that, publishing firm Rodale in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, Murphy is currently Managing P ...
* 2014–2017:
Patricia Barbizet
Patricia Barbizet (born 17 April 1955) is a French businessperson. She was chief executive officer of Christie's from 2014 to 2016. From 1992 to 2017, she served as executive director of Groupe Artémis.
Early life and education
Barbizet grad ...
* 2017–present: Guillaume Cerutti
References
Bibliography
* J. Herbert, ''Inside Christie's'', London, 1990 ()
* P. A. Colson, ''The Story of Christie's'', London, 1950
* H. C. Marillier, ''Christie's, 1766–1925'', London, 1926
* M. A. Michael, ''A Brief History of Christie's Education... '', London, 2008 ()
* W. Roberts, ''Memorials of Christie's'', 2 vols, London, 1897
* "Going Once."
Phaidon Press
Phaidon Press is a global publisher of books on art, architecture, design, fashion, photography, and popular culture, as well as cookbooks, children's books, and travel books. The company is based in London and New York City, with additional off ...
, 2016. .
External links
*
*
*
*
Christie's page on Arcadja Art database with several auction catalogs– ''Daily Telegraph'' obituary
Christie's Fine Art Storage Services– Official website
{{Authority control
Auction houses based in New York City
Retail companies established in 1766
London auction houses
Price fixing convictions
1766 establishments in England
British companies established in 1766
Archaeological theft