Christie's

Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, with additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shanghai and Dubai. It is owned by Groupe Artémis, the holding company of François Pinault. 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 was sold at Christie's in New York for $450 million to Saudi Prince Badr bin Abdullah Al Saud, 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.Gazetteer and London Daily Advertiser (London, England), 25 September 1762; Issue 10460 After his death, Christie's son, James Christie the Younger (1773–1831) took over the business.M.A. Michael (2019). "Not Exactly a Connoisseur A New Portrait of James Christie". The British Art Journal (London: Robin Simon). 19:76.

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, and later was a non-executive director until 1992.Sarah Lyall (27 February 1998), Jo Floyd, 74; Led Growth and Change at Christie's The New York Times. 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.Rita Reif (12 March 1990), Christie's Reverses Stand on Price Guarantees The New York Times. In 1996, sales exceeded those of Sotheby's for the first time since 1954.Carol Vogel (6 May 1998), Frenchman Gets Big Stake In Christie's The New York Times. 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), Christie's Ends Talks On Takeover By Swiss The New York Times.

In 1993, Christie's paid $10.9M 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 $3.3M in 1996, and merged it with Spink to become Spink-Leger.Carol Vogel (22 June 2001), Re: Real Estate The New York Times. 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 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.

21st century

In 2002, Christie's France held its first auction in Paris.Souren Melikian (17 January 2004), The battle of Paris: Christie's rising International Herald Tribune.

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 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' 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 and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In the same year, the Haunch of Venison 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$248.8M 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, centered 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. Towards the end of the year, Christie's entered into a partnership with OpenSea to conduct auctions of non-fungible tokens (NFT) on the blockchain. The collaboration's first sale featured works by artists including Andre O'Shea, Recur, Oseanworld, GMUNK, and Ash Thorp.

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 auction house, Gooding & Company, 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.Carol Vogel (18 February 2013), Christie's Raises Its Commissions for First Time in Five Years. The New York Times.

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, 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, led by then Chairman Stephen Lash, 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 $40M.Carol Vogel (25 March 1997), Rockefeller Center Lease Is Signed By Christie's New York Times.

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 saleroom in 1997.Irene Lacher (2 August 1996), Christie's Ups the Ante With Beverly Hills Space Los Angeles Times. In April 2017, in moved to a two-story flagship space in Beverly Hills, designed by wHY.Gabriella Angeleti (9 February 2017), Christie's to open new flagship location in Los Angeles The Art Newspaper.

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.Annie Shaw (27 July 2021), Follow the money: Christie's bets on Hong Kong with vast new headquarters as clients in Asia spend over $1bn so far this year The Art Newspaper.

Notable auctions

Paintings In 1848 the sale of the contents of Stowe House after the bankruptcy of the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos was one of the first and most publicised British country house contents auctions. 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 March 1987, Vincent van Gogh's 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 May 1989, Pontormo's Portrait of a Halberdier was sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum for $35.2M, more than tripling the previous auction record for an Old Master painting. In November 2006, four celebrated paintings by Gustav Klimt were sold for a total of $192M, after being restituted by Austria to Jewish heirs after a lengthy legal battle. 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 wash painting of the RX-78-2 Gundam painted by Tenmyouya Hisashi 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 by Claude Monet was sold for a price of $80.4M, the highest price ever for a Monet. 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.