Christie's is a British

auction house An auction house is a business establishment that facilitates the buying and selling of assets, such as works of art and collectibles. Overview The auction house is the physical facility where the objects are catalogued, displayed, and presented ...

founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on

King Street, St James's King Street is a street in the St James's district of the City of Westminster. It runs south-west to north-east from St James's Street to St James's Square. History King Street was probably named after Charles II, and is first mentioned in rat ...

in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shanghai, and Dubai. It is owned by

Groupe Artémis Groupe Artémis is a French investment holding company, holding with a portfolio in fashion (Kering), wine ( including Château Latour), art (Christie's, Pinault Collection), sports (Stade Rennais FC) and entertainment (Creative Artists Agency). ...

, the holding company of

François Pinault François Pinault (born 21 August 1936) is a French billionaire businessman, founder of the luxury group Kering and the investment holding company Artémis. Pinault started his business in the timber industry in the early 1960s. Taken public i ...

. In 2022 Christie's sold US$8.4 billion in art and luxury goods, an all-time high for any auction house. On 15 November 2017, the ''

Salvator Mundi , Latin for Saviour of the World, is a subject in iconography depicting Christ with his right hand raised in blessing and his left hand holding an orb (frequently surmounted by a cross), known as a . The latter symbolizes the Earth, and the whol ...

'' was sold at Christie's in New York for $450 million to Saudi Prince

Badr bin Abdullah Al Saud Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan Al Saud ( ''Badr bin ʿAbdullāh bin Moḥammed bin Farḥān Āl Suʿūd''; born 16 September 1985) is a Saudi Arabian businessman and politician who is a member of the Saudi royal family and the inaugur ...

, the highest price ever paid for a painting.

History

Founding

The official company literature states that founder James Christie (1730–1803) conducted the first sale in London 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 James Christie the Younger (1773–1831) was an English antiquarian, auctioneer, and eldest son of James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie, founder of Christie's. Though his family didn't originally intend for him to go into the business ...

(1773–1831) took over the business.

20th century

Christie's was a public company, listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

, 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 Secreta ...

, 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 Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

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 $60M , whereas Sotheby's annual pretax profits were about $265M for those years.Carol Vogel (19 February 1998)

''The New York Times''. In 1993, Christie's paid $10.9M for the London gallery

Spink & Son Spink & Son (established 1666) is an auction and collectibles company known principally for their sales of coins, banknotes and medals. They also deal in philatelic items, wine and spirits, and other collectible items. History John Spink foun ...

, which specialised in Oriental art and British paintings; the gallery was run as a separate entity. The company bought Leger Gallery for $3.3M 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,

's holding company, Groupe Artémis S.A., first bought 29.1 per cent of the company for $243.2M, and subsequently purchased the rest of it in a deal that valued the entire company at $1.2bn. 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 Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician a ...

''.

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 $21M guarantee to the

Donald Judd Donald Clarence Judd (June 3, 1928February 12, 1994) was an American artist associated with minimalism.Tate Modern websit"Tate Modern Past Exhibitions Donald Judd" Retrieved on February 19, 2009. In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for ...

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 $68M deal that transferred

Thomas Eakins Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins (; July 25, 1844 – June 25, 1916) was an American Realism (visual arts), realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important American artist ...

's ''

The Gross Clinic ''The Gross Clinic'' or ''The Clinic of Dr. Gross'' is an 1875 painting by American artist Thomas Eakins. It is oil on canvas and measures by . The painting depicts Dr. Samuel D. Gross, a seventy-year-old professor dressed in a black frock coat ...

'' (1875) from the

Jefferson Medical College Thomas Jefferson University is a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Established in its earliest form in 1824, the university officially combined with Philadelphia University in 2017. The university is ...

at the

Thomas Jefferson University Thomas Jefferson University is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Established in its earliest form in 1824, the university officially combined with Philadelphia University in 2017. ...

in Philadelphia to joint ownership by the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, 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 ...

and the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1805, it is the longest continuously operating art museum and art school in the United States. The academy's museum ...

. 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 exh ...

gallery became a subsidiary of the company. On 28 December 2008, ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' reported that Pinault's debts left him "considering" the sale of Christie's and that a number of "

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

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$248.8M in comparison to US$739M 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 ($665M) 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 per cent 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''. In 2022 Christie's sold $8.4bn in art and luxury goods, an all-time high for any auction house. Christie's agreed to acquire American

classic car A classic car is typically described as an automobile 25 years or older, although a car's age is not the only requirement it must meet before being considered a "classic." However, a standard criteria for recognizing cars as classics does not ex ...

auction house,

Gooding & Company Gooding & Company, LLC is a classic car auction company headquartered in Santa Monica, California. Incorporated in 2003, the company holds multiple all-time records for the most expensive cars sold in auction. The company also provides private tr ...

, in September 2024.

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 $1M, 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 $1.5M and 12 per cent on the rest. As of 2023, Christie's commission (buyer's premium) is 26 per cent of the hammer price of each lot up to £800,000/US$1,000,000, plus 21 per cent of the hammer price from £800,001/US$1,000,001 up to and including £4,500,000/US$6,000,000, and 15 per cent on the rest.

Locations

As of 2023, Christie's has offices in 46 countries worldwide, with salerooms in London, New York, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.

Europe

Christie's flagship saleroom is in London on King Street in

St. James's St James's is a district of Westminster, and a central district in the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the West End. The area was once part of the northwestern gardens and parks of St. James's Palace and much of it is still owned ...

, where it has been based since 1823. It had a second London saleroom in

South Kensington South Kensington is a district at the West End of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with the advent of the ra ...

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, led by then Chairman

Stephen Lash Stephen Lash (born February 10, 1940) is founder of Christie's North America and the Chairman Emeritus of Christie's New York. Biography He attended Avon Old Farms boarding school for boys. He was a trustee to the New York City Landmarks Pre ...

, the company opened its first international branch on

Park Avenue Park Avenue is a boulevard in New York City that carries north and southbound traffic in the borough (New York City), boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the wes ...

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 Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commerce, commercial buildings covering between 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street and 51st Street (Manhattan), 51st Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The 14 original Art De ...

for $40M. 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 Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...

saleroom in 1997. In April 2017, in moved to a two-story flagship space in Beverly Hills, designed by

wHY Why may refer to: * Causality, a consequential relationship between two events * Reason (argument), a premise in support of an argument, for what reason or purpose * Grounding (metaphysics), a topic in metaphysics regarding how things exist in v ...

Asia

Christie's has been operating a space in Hong Kong's

Alexandra House Alexandra House ( zh, t=歷山大廈) is an office building in Central, Hong Kong, Central, Hong Kong near Central station (MTR), Central station. The building has 37 levels. It hosts a shopping arcade, Landmark Alexandra, and it is connected ...

since 2014. In 2021, the company announced plans to move its Hong Kong headquarters to the

Zaha Hadid Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid ( ''Zahā Ḥadīd''; 31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016) was an Iraqi-born British architect, artist, and designer. She is recognised as a key figure in the architecture of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Born ...

-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 building, listed country house in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England. It is the home of the Private schools in the United Kingdom, private Stowe School and is owned by the Stowe House Preserv ...

after the bankruptcy of the

Duke of Buckingham and Chandos Viscount Cobham is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain that was created in 1718. Owing to its special remainder, the title has passed through several families. Since 1889, it has been held by members of the Lyttelton family. The barony a ...

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 The Chandos portrait is an oil painted portrait thought to depict William Shakespeare (1564–1616). Painted between 1600 and 1610, it may have served as the basis for the engraved portrait of Shakespeare used in the ''First Folio'' in 1623. It ...

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

. * The 1882 sale of the

Hamilton Palace Hamilton Palace was a country house in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It was the seat of the Dukes of Hamilton and is widely acknowledged as having been one of the grandest houses in the British Isles.Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers'' fetched an auction record of $39.9M at Christie's, making it the most expensive painting in the world at the time, at more than three times the price of the previous worldwide record for the highest paid for any painting. * In November 1987, during the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

auction, Christie's auctioned a

Bugatti Royale The Bugatti Type 41, better known as the Royale, is a large luxury car, ultra-luxury car built by Bugatti 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 ...

automobile for a world record price of £5.5M. * In May 1989,

Pontormo Jacopo Carucci or Carrucci (; May 24, 1494 – January 2, 1557), usually known as Jacopo (da) Pontormo or simply Pontormo (), was an Italian Mannerist painter and portraitist from the Florentine School. His work represents a profound stylisti ...

's ''Portrait of a Halberdier'' was sold to the

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California, United States, housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. It is operated by the J. Paul Getty Trust, the world's wealthies ...

for $35.2M, more than tripling the previous auction record for an

Old Master In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

painting. * On 11 November 1994, the

Codex Leicester The Codex Leicester (also briefly known as the Codex Hammer) is a collection of scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci. The codex is named after Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester, who purchased it in 1719. The codex provides an insight into the m ...

was sold to

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

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 Barbara Woolworth Hutton (November 14, 1912 – May 11, 1979) was an American debutante, socialite, heiress and philanthropist. She was dubbed the "Poor Little Rich Girl"—first when she was given a lavish and expensive debutante ball in 1930 ...

, 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, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

sold 20 of his cars at Christie's, saying he didn't drive them often because he was frequently out of the country. The sale, which included a 1993 Jaguar XJ220, the most expensive at £234,750, and several Ferraris, Rolls-Royces, and Bentleys, raised nearly £2M. * In 2006, a single Imperial

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

porcelain bowl, another item which belonged to Barbara Hutton, was auctioned by Christie's Hong Kong for a price of US$19.5M. * On 16 May 2006, Christie's auctioned a

Stradivarius A Stradivarius is one of the string instruments, such as violins, violas, cellos, and guitars, crafted by members of the Stradivari family, particularly Antonio Stradivari (Latin: Antonius Stradivarius), in Cremona, Italy, during the late 17th ...

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 (14 July 1862 – 6 February 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and a founding member of the Vienna Secession movement. His work helped define the Art Nouveau style in Europe. Klimt is known for his paintings, murals, sket ...

were sold for a total of $192M, after being restituted by Austria to Jewish heirs after a lengthy legal battle. * In December 2006, one of the three versions of the Givenchy black dress worn by

Audrey Hepburn Audrey Kathleen Hepburn ( Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress. Recognised as a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend from the Classical Holly ...

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 artefacts known to be looted from

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. * In November 2007, an album of eight leaves, ink on paper, by China's

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

court painter

Dong Qichang Dong Qichang (; courtesy name Xuanzai (玄宰); 1555–1636) was a Chinese art theorist, Calligraphy, calligrapher, Painting, painter, and politician of the later period of the Ming dynasty. Life as a scholar and calligrapher Dong Qichang was a ...

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 wash painting Ink wash painting ( zh, t=水墨畫, s=水墨画, p=shuǐmòhuà) is a type of Chinese ink brush painting which uses Wash (visual arts), washes of black ink, such as that used in East Asian calligraphy, in different concentrations. It emerged duri ...

Gundam is a Japanese military science fiction media franchise. Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sunrise (now Bandai Namco Filmworks), the franchise features giant robots, or mecha, with the name "Gundam". The franchise began on April 7, 1979, with ...

painted by

Tenmyouya Hisashi Tenmyouya Hisashi (天明屋尚, born 1966 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese contemporary artist. Tenmyouya's unique style, Neo-Nihonga, revives Japanese traditional painting as a contemporary art. In 2000 he also created the new-style "Butouha" ...

in 2005 was sold in the Christie's auction held in Hong Kong at a price of US$600,000. * In June 2008, ''

Le Bassin Aux Nymphéas (''Water Lily Pond''; 1919) is one of the series of ''Water Lilies'' paintings by French Impressionism, impressionist artist Claude Monet. Exhibited *Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Monet, January - February 1921, no. 44 or 45. *Pittsburgh, Carn ...

'' by

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

was sold for a price of $80.4M, 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 Pierre Vital Georges Bergé (; 14 November 1930 – 8 September 2017) was a French industrialist and patron. He co-founded the fashion label Yves Saint Laurent (YSL), and was a longtime business partner—and onetime significant other—of its ...

for a record-breaking 370M euros. It was the most expensive private collection ever sold at auction, breaking auction records for Constantin Brâncuși, Brâncuși, Henri Matisse, Matisse, and Piet Mondrian, Mondrian. The "Dragons" armchair by Irish furniture designer Eileen Gray sold for 21.9M euros, 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$36M) collected by Yves Saint Laurent, as the items had been looted in 1860 from the Old Summer Palace of Beijing by French and British forces at the close of the Second Opium War. * Christie's Hong Kong, November 2009 sale of Fine Modern Chinese Paintings, sold a work by Fu Baoshi titled ''Landscape inspired by Dufu's Poetic Sentiments'', for HK$60M (US$7.7M) – a world record for the artist. * Christie's auctioned Pablo Picasso's ''Nude, Green Leaves and Bust'' on 4 May 2010. The piece sold for US$106.5M, making the sale among the List of most expensive paintings, most expensive paintings ever sold. * On 14 June 2010 Amedeo Modigliani's ''Tête (sculpture), Tête'', a limestone sculpture of a woman's head, sold for $52.6M, making it one of the List of most expensive sculptures, most expensive sculpture ever sold, and at the time 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 £541,250, breaking the auction record for Olympic memorabilia. * On 22 June 2012, George Washington'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 United States Bill of Rights, 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. This was the record for a document sold at auction. * On 12 November 2013, Francis Bacon (artist), Francis Bacon's ''Three Studies of Lucian Freud'' sold for 142.4M(including the buyer's premium) to an unnamed buyer, Real versus nominal value (economics), nominally becoming List of most expensive paintings, 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", Les Femmes d'Alger ("Version O")'' sold for 179.3M 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 $170.4M, making it the second most expensive work sold at auction. * In May 2016, the Oppenheimer Blue diamond sold for Swiss franc, CHF56,837,000, 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 for Rubens' :File:Lot and his daughters, by Peter Paul Rubens.jpg, Lot and his Daughters. * On 11 November 2017, a Patek Philippe SA, Patek Philippe Titanium wristwatch Ref. 5208T-010 was sold for $6.226M (Swiss franc, CHF6,200,000) in Geneva, making it one of the List of most expensive watches sold at auction, most expensive watches ever sold at auction. * On 15 November 2017, Leonardo da Vinci's ''

'' sold for a record $450.3M (including buyer's premium). * On 4 July 2019, a bust fragment of Tutankhamun was sold for £4.7M. The Ministry of Antiquities (Egypt), 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, described as "rare and breathtaking", for £7M (with fees), ten times its estimate. The price was the highest price ever paid for a Quran manuscript. Probably created at a Timurid dynasty, Timurid prince's court, the manuscript comprised 534 folios of Arabic calligraphy on "gold-flecked, coloured paper from Ming dynasty, Ming China". 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 (dinosaur), Stan, one of the world's most complete ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' skeletons for US$31.8M, List of dinosaur specimens sold at auction, setting a new world record for any dinosaur skeleton or fossil ever sold at auction at the time. * In May 2022, Andy Warhol's silkscreen painting ''Shot Marilyns, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn'' sold at Christie's New York for $195M, making it the most expensive work of American art sold at auction and the most expensive work of 20th-century art sold at auction. * In September and October 2022 at Christie's, the Production of the James Bond films, ''James Bond'' film franchise auctioned 61 lots of vehicles, watches, costumes, props, posters, and memorabilia from the 25 Bond films. The auction raised nearly £7M from 28 countries, and proceeds went to over 45 charities. * In November 2022, the art collection of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen was auctioned at Christie's New York. It was the biggest sale in art auction history, surpassing $1.5bn in sales. Six works sold for more than $100M: Seurat's ''Les Poseuses Ensemble (Petite version)'', ($149M, with fees); Paul Cézanne's 1888–90 ''La Montagne Sainte-Victoire'' ($138M); Vincent van Gogh, van Gogh's ''Verger avec cyprès'' ($117M); and

's 1903 ''Birch Forest'' ($105M). The auction also included paintings by Botticelli, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Jan Brueghel the Younger. Proceeds from the auction benefitted undisclosed philanthropies. * In May 2023, the jewellery collection once owned by Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten, who died in 2022, set a record for the most valuable single collection of jewels in an auction, fetching CHF180M ($201M). In August 2023, Christie's cancelled a second Horten jewellery sale, which had been scheduled for November, after Jewish charities and organizations refused to accept portions of the proceeds from the first sale citing the source of Horten's wealth. * In November 2024 a painting by surrealist artist Rene Magritte broke an auction record, selling for more than $121 million at Christie's in New York. The previous record for a work by Magritte was $79 million, set in 2022. * In May 2025, a painting by Marlene Dumas ''Miss January'' (1997) broke the record for a living woman artist, selling for $13.6 million with fees at Christie's 21st Century Evening sale in New York.

Criticism

Price-fixing scandal in 2000

In 2000, allegations surfaced of a price-fixing arrangement between Christie's and

. 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. Numerous members of Sotheby's senior management were fired soon thereafter, and A. Alfred Taubman, 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 $512M.

Insufficient or invalid provenance for looted works

Christie's has been criticised for "an embarrassing history of a lack of transparency around provenance". In 2003, Christie's was criticised for its handling of two Nazi plunder, Nazi-looted artworks claimed by heirs of the original Jewish owners. In one case, it refused to divulge to the heirs the location of an Italian painting formerly owned by Jewish Viennese banker Heinrich Graf, looted by the Gestapo. Christie's eventually revealed the holder's name after the Jewish Community of Vienna filed a successful suit in the UK on behalf of Graf's American daughters in late 2004. In the other 2003 case Christie's declined to inform the family that it had discovered that a painting consigned to it had been looted from Ulla and Moriz Rosenthal, a Jewish couple murdered in Auschwitz. On 19 May 2020, the craft supply company Hobby Lobby, who purchased material for loan or donation to Museum of the Bible, The Museum of the Bible, filed a diversity action on the auction house regarding the sale and purchase of the Gilgamesh tablet by private sale agreement on 14 July 2014, allegedly while knowing the Iraqi-origin cuneiform object 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 criticised for putting up a Benin Bronzes, Benin plaque and two Igbo people, Igbo alusi figures for auction. The plaque was tied to similar plaques taken from Nigeria during the Benin Expedition of 1897 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 for years, for example by convicted art dealer Giacomo Medici (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. In February 2023 a French court ordered Christie's to unconditionally restitute Dutch painting ''The Penitent Magdalene'', signed Adriaen van der Werff (1707), looted in 1942 from Lionel Hauser in Paris and last sold by the auction house without any provenance in London in April 2005. Christie's had offered the Hauser heirs 50 per cent of the sale price; the heirs refused the offer and took the case to court.

Blockchain Technology at Auctions

In 2018, Christie's began offering "digital passports" stored on the blockchain to a select number of private collectors purchasing art. These "certificates of ownership" gave the buyer a clear and transparent provenance record of the piece of art they were purchasing, a record that could never be erased or manipulated, and accessible worldwide. Six years later in October 2024, two Christie's auctions exhibited this block-chain technology in the most public events to date. In the first, on 2 October, Christie's New York showcased the work of Diane Arbus and Cindy Sherman in ''An Eye Towards the Real: Photographs from the Collection of Ambassador Trevor Traina'' - a former U.S. ambassador to Austria and founder of the web3 wallet provider ''Kresus''. Eight days later, on 10 October, Christie's New York auctioned ''Ascend'', a digital work created by Ryan Koopmans and Alice Wexell, marking the first time a piece inscribed on Bitcoin protocol, Bitcoin's Ordinals protocol had been sold in a live auction at Christie’s. Christie's sees this "integration of physical and digital ownership" as the future of art auctioning, and the most efficient way for buyers to know they've purchased a work with as accurate and secure a provenance as possible.

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 N.Y.D. CompanyLaura Gilbert (26 April 2013)
An exodus from Red Hook
''The Art Newspaper''. in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and subsequently spent $30M 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 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 Piatigorsky, 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 claiming that the storage company's negligence caused more than $10M in damages to Neiman's art.

Educational and other ventures

Christie's Education previously offered master's 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, a privately owned database used by law enforcement services worldwide to trace and recover stolen art.

Management

Since its acquisition by François Pinault, Christie's CEOs have been as follows: * 1999–2010: Edward Dolman * 2010–2014: Steven Murphy * 2014–2017: Patricia Barbizet * 2017–2025: Guillaume Cerutti * 2025–present: Bonnie BrennanKabir Jhala (15 January 2025)
Guillaume Cerutti steps down as Christie's chief executive—but will stay within Pinault's orbit
''The Art Newspaper''.

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, 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 Christie's, 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 Defunct private universities and colleges in New York City