Christie's

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Christie's Auction Room in London circa 1808.

The Christie's auction house in South Kensington, London

Christie's American branch in Rockefeller Center, New York

Christie's is a world-famous auction house. It was founded in London, England on 5 December 1766 by James Christie. Christie's soon established a reputation as a leading auction house, and took advantage of London's new found status as the major centre of the international art trade after the French Revolution.

Christie's was a public company, listed at the London Stock Exchange from 1973 to 1999, when it was taken into private ownership by Frenchman François Pinault. Christie's has held the greater market share against its longtime rival, Sotheby's, for several years and is currently the world's largest auction house measured by revenues.

1 Locations
2 Notable auctions
3 Price-fixing scandal
4 Ventures
5 Trivia
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Locations

Christie's main London saleroom is on King Street in St. James's, where it has been based since 1823. It also has a second London saleroom in South Kensington which opened in 1975 and primarily handles collectibles such as cameras, teddy bears, scientific instruments, toys and dolls and the middle market. Christie's South Kensington is one of the worlds busiest auction rooms. Christie's also has locations worldwide in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Geneva, Amsterdam, Rome, Milan, Australia (although operations in Australia have closed since April 2006^[1]), Hong Kong, Singapore, and Bangkok.

[edit] Notable auctions

More recently, Christie's has auctioned off artwork and personal possessions linked to historical figures such as Pablo Picasso, Rembrandt, Diana, Princess of Wales, Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, Napoleon Bonaparte, Marilyn Monroe, and others. In 1998, Christie's in New York sold the famous Archimedes Palimpsest after the conclusion of a lawsuit in which its ownership was disputed.

In October 2006 Christie's autioned 1,000 lots of official Star Trek contents from the CBS Paramount Television studios. A model of Starship Enterprise-D, used in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek Generations sold for $576,000. For more information, see the 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.

In 1995, Christie's became the first international auction house to exhibit works of art in Beijing, China.

[edit] Price-fixing scandal

In 2000, allegations surfaced of a price-fixing arrangement between Christie's and Sotheby's, another major auction house. Executives from both Christie's and Sotheby's subsequently admitted their participation in commission-fixing collusion. Christie's gained immunity from prosecution in the United States after a longtime employee of Christie's confessed and cooperated with the U.S. 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.^[2]^[3]

[edit] Ventures

Christie's is the only major auction house in the world that directly runs educational courses at Master's, Diploma and Degree level. Christie's Education, founded in 1978, is a unique international institution, based in London, New York and Paris, offering an extensive range of courses in the fine and decorative arts, both for those looking for professional training and those keen to develop an interest in art. What differentiates Christie's Education from more conventional courses, is the belief in object-based learning: this encourages independence of thought and curiosity - essential qualities recognised as key attributes by employers. Christie's Education alumni can be found working in key positions throughout the international art world, as specialists in major auction houses, working as curators, dealers and critics, or working in art insurance, publishing, marketing and arts administration.

Christie's Images is the picture library for the auction house and has an archive of several million fine and decorative art images representing items sold in its salerooms around the world. With offices in New York and London, images are available for reproduction.

[edit] Trivia

The Christie's New York sign was created by Nancy Meyers during the production of Something's Gotta Give for an exterior shot. The auction house liked the sign so much that they requested the production leave it after shooting finished.^[4]