Christie's

Christie's
Industry Art, auctions
Founded 1766
Headquarters London, United Kingdom
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 François-Henri Pinault
Guillaume Cerutti (CEO)
Products Painting, modern art, fine arts, pop art
Parent Groupe Artémis
Website christies.com
Christie's American branch in Rockefeller Center, New York

Christie's is a British auction house. It was founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are in King Street, St. James's, in London, and on Rockefeller Plaza in New York City in the United States.[1] The company is owned by Groupe Artémis, the holding company of François-Henri Pinault.[2] Sales in 2015 totalled £4.8 billion ($7.4 billion).[3]

History

In A Peep at Christies (1796), James Gillray caricatured actress Elizabeth Farren and huntsman Lord Derby examining paintings appropriate to their tastes and heights.

Founding

The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766,[4] 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 of Christie's sales dating from 1759 have also been traced.[5]

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. From 1859, the company was called Christie, Manson & Woods. In 1958, it established its first overseas office, by placing a representative in Rome. The first overseas salesroom opened in Geneva, where Christie's holds jewellery auctions.

1973–1999

The Microcosm of London (1808), an engraving of Christie's auction room

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 member of the board of directors until 1992.[6] The auction house's subsidiary Christie's International Inc. held its first sale in the United States in 1977, 13 years later than Sotheby's. Christie's growth was slow but steady since 1989, when it had 42 percent of the auction market.[7]

In 1990, the company reversed a longstanding policy and guaranteed a minimum price for a collection of artworks in its May auctions.[8] In 1996, the auction house's sales eclipsed Sotheby's for the first time since 1954.[9] However, its profits did not grow at the same pace;[10] 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.[11]

In 1993, Christie's paid $10.9 million for the London gallery Spink & Sons, which specialised in Oriental art and British paintings; the gallery was run as a separate entity from the auction house. The company bought Leger Gallery for $3.3 million in 1996, and merged it with Spink to become Spink-Leger.[12] Spink-Leger was 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.[7]

1998 takeover

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.[11] 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.[10] 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.[13] In 2002, Christie's France held its first auction in Paris.[14]

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".[15] In 2007 the auction house 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 and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.[16] That same year, Haunch of Venison, a contemporary art gallery which since 2002 had successfully conducted back-room sales of secondary-market works by major artists such as Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, and Damien Hirst from its locations in London and Zürich,[17] became a subsidiary of Christie's International plc.[18]

Under the original deal, the gallery was meant to be the channel for all of Christie's private-client business as well as the focus of its primary trade.[19] Also, the auction house originally announced that Haunch employees could not bid at auction because of conflicts of interest or issues of market manipulation, but later abandoned this rule.[20] While Christie's eventually retained the brand name and repositioned Haunch as purely a primary-focused gallery, any secondary-market activities were taken over by the auction house's post-war and contemporary department.[21] Today, the gallery continues to operate as an independent company in London and New York, and again handles all of its secondary market activities itself.[22]

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.[23] In January 2009, Christie's was reported to employ 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;[24] later news reports said that 300 jobs would be cut.[25] With sales for premier Impressionist, Modern, and contemporary artworks tallying only $US248.8 million in comparison to $US739 million just a year before, a second round of job cuts began after May 2009 when the auction house was still reported to employ 1,900 people worldwide.[26] One of the auction house's "rainmakers" in the sale of Impressionist and Modern art, Guy Bennett, resigned from the auction house just prior to the beginning of the summer 2009 sales season.[27] Although the economic downturn has encouraged some collectors to sell art, others are unwilling to sell in a market which may yield only bargain prices.[25]

Today

On 1 January 2017 Guillaume Cerutti was appointed chief executive officer.[28] Patricia Barbizet was appointed chief executive officer of Christie's in 2014, the first female CEO of the company.[29] 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.[13]

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.[30] The company has promoted curated events, centred on a theme rather than an art classification or time period.[31]

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.[32]

Commissions

From 2008 until 2013, Christie's charged 25 percent for the first $50,000; 20 percent on the amount between $50,001 and $1 million, and 12 percent on the rest. From 2013, it charged 25 percent for the first $75,000; 20 percent on the next $75,001 to $1.5 million and 12 percent on the rest.[33]

Locations

Christie's main London salesroom is on King Street in St. James's, where it has been based since 1823. It has a second London salesroom in South Kensington which opened in 1975 and primarily handles the middle market. Christie's South Kensington is one of the world's busiest auction rooms.

In 1977, Christie's opened a branch on New York's Park Avenue, with a salesroom accommodating about 600 people. Increasingly cramped for space, the auction house signed a 30-year lease in 1997 for a 300,000-square-foot space in Rockefeller Center for $40 million.[34] (The Christie's New York sign was created by Nancy Meyers during the production of the 2003 film Something's Gotta Give for an exterior shot; the auction house liked the sign so much that it requested the production leave it after shooting finished.)

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 town house on East 59th Street in Manhattan as a separate gallery where experts could show clients art in complete privacy to conduct private treaty sales.[7] Christie's opened a Beverly Hills salesroom in 1997.[35]

In January 2009,[24] 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. In 1995, Christie's became the first international auction house to exhibit works of art in Beijing, China.

In early 2017, Christie's announced plans to close its secondary South Kensington salesroom at the end of the year and scale back its operation in Amsterdam.[36] In April 2017, Christie’s is to open a 4,500 square feet two-story flagship space in Beverly Hills, California.[37]

Price-fixing scandal

In 2000, allegations surfaced of a price-fixing arrangement between Christie's and Sotheby's, another major auction house. 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 $512 million.[38][39][40]

Notable auctions

Pontormo, Portrait of a Halberdier, 1528–1530. Sold by Christie's for US $35. 2 million in 1989. (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles)

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,[67] 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[68] in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and subsequently spent $30 million converting it into a six-storey, 250,000 square feet[69] art-storage facility.[67] The facility opened in 2010 and features high-tech security and climate controls that maintain a virtually constant 70° and 50% relative humidity.[70] Since 2009, Christie's has been the main tenant of the Singapore FreePort, taking up 40 per cent of the space to offer its fine art storage services to its global clients.

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.[68] 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 Rebecca Louise de Rothschild.[71] 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 $10 million in damages to Neiman's art.[72]

Christie's Education graduate programmes

The educational arm of Christie's auction house is called Christie's Education. It offers graduate programs in London and New York, and nondegree programs in London, Paris, New York and Melbourne.[73] It has colleges in London and New York accredited by the University of Glasgow in the UK and the New York State Board of Regents in the US. It offers master's degrees, Graduate Diplomas, Art Business Certificates and an Undergraduate Degree. Courses include: Arts of China; Arts of Europe; Art, Style and Design; Modern and Contemporary Art (all in London) and History of Art and the Art Market (in New York). Evening programmes in Art Business and part-time certificates in continuing education are also offered in London and New York.

Ventures

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 sale rooms around the world. With offices in New York and London, images are available for reproduction.

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.[74]

References

  1. ↑ "Christie's locations". Christies.com.
  2. ↑ "Christie's". Groupe Artémis. Archived from the original on 19 April 2012.
  3. ↑ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-26/christie-s-sales-fall-5-as-froth-comes-off-global-art-market
  4. ↑ "Christies.com – About Us". Retrieved 3 December 2008. James Christie conducted the first sale in London on 5 December 1766.
  5. ↑ Gazetteer and London Daily Advertiser (London, England), 25 September 1762; Issue 10460
  6. ↑ Sarah Lyall (27 February 1998), Jo Floyd, 74; Led Growth and Change at Christie's New York Times.
  7. 1 2 3 Carol Vogel (11 February 1997), At the Wire, Auction Fans, It's, It's . . . Christie's! New York Times.
  8. ↑ Rita Reif (12 March 1990), Christie's Reverses Stand on Price Guarantees New York Times.
  9. ↑ Carol Vogel (6 May 1998), Frenchman Gets Big Stake In Christie's New York Times.
  10. 1 2 Carol Vogel (19 May 1998), Frenchman Seeks the Rest Of Christie's New York Times.
  11. 1 2 Carol Vogel (19 February 1998), Christie's Ends Talks On Takeover By Swiss New York Times.
  12. ↑ Carol Vogel (22 June 2001), Re: Real Estate New York Times.
  13. 1 2 Scott Reyburn (17 July 2012), Rothko, Private Sales Help Boost Christie's Revenue 13% Bloomberg.
  14. ↑ Souren Melikian (17 January 2004), The battle of Paris: Christie's rising International Herald Tribune.
  15. ↑ Souren Melikian (12 January 2007), How Christie's kept top spot over Sotheby's in 2006 sales New York Times.
  16. ↑ Judd Tully (24 October 2011), Private Sales Go Public: Why Christie's and Sotheby's Are Embracing Galleries Like Never Before New York Observer.
  17. ↑ Colin Gleadell (27 February 2007), Christie's move stuns dealers The Daily Telegraph.
  18. ↑ Kate Taylor (16 April 2007), Auction Houses Vs. Dealers New York Sun.
  19. ↑ Sarah Thornton (2 June 2010), Smoked venison The Economist.
  20. ↑ Alexandra Peers (22 June 2008), The Venison Menace New York Magazine.
  21. ↑ Sarah Thornton (2 June 2010), Smoked venison The Economist.
  22. ↑ Dan Duray (13 September 2011), Flanking the Competition: Haunch of Venison Gallery Moves Away From Its Auction House Owner New York Observer.
  23. ↑ Walsh, Kate (28 December 2008). "Pinault woes may force Château Latour sell-off". (London) Sunday Times. Retrieved 14 January 2009.
  24. 1 2 Werdigier, Julia (12 January 2009). "Christie's Plans Cuts as Auctions Slow". New York Times. Retrieved 12 January 2009.
  25. 1 2 Holson, Laura M. (8 February 2009). "In World of High-Glamour, Low-Pay Jobs, the Recession Has Its Bright Spots". New York Times. Retrieved 10 February 2009.
  26. ↑ "Christie's Resumes Cutting Jobs After May N.Y. Auctions Decline". Bloomberg News. 18 June 2009. Retrieved 30 June 2009.
  27. ↑ Vogel, Carol (18 June 2009). "Christie's Executive Leaves a Top Post". New York Times. Retrieved 30 June 2009.
  28. ↑
  29. ↑ "Christie’s Names Barbizet First Woman CEO as Murphy Exits". Bloomberg. Retrieved 14 May 2015
  30. ↑ Georgina Adam (17 October 2012), Battle for private selling shows Archived 23 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine. The Art Newspaper.
  31. ↑ Childs, Mary (26 January 2016). "‘Curated’ auctions and new buyers keep Christie’s in the frame". Financial Times. ISSN 0307-1766. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
  32. ↑ Scott Reyburn (8 March 2017), Christie’s to Close a London Salesroom and Scale Back in Amsterdam New York Times.
  33. ↑ Carol Vogel (18 February 2013), Christie's Raises Its Commissions for First Time in Five Years New York Times.
  34. ↑ Carol Vogel (25 March 1997), Rockefeller Center Lease Is Signed By Christie's New York Times.
  35. ↑ Irene Lacher (2 August 1996), Christie's Ups the Ante With Beverly Hills Space Los Angeles Times.
  36. ↑ Scott Reyburn (8 March 2017), Christie’s to Close a London Salesroom and Scale Back in Amsterdam New York Times.
  37. ↑ Gabriella Angeleti (9 February 2017), Christie’s to open new flagship location in Los Angeles The Art Newspaper.
  38. ↑ Rohleder, Anna (2001). "Who's Who in the Sotheby's Price-Fixing Trial". Forbes. New York. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
  39. ↑ Mason, Christopher (3 May 2005). Art of the Steal: Inside the Sotheby's-Christie's Auction House Scandal. New York: Penguin Group. ISBN 978-1-4406-0480-5.
  40. ↑ "Going Once, Going Twice… Glamour, Greed and Fraud at Sotheby's and Christie's". Knowledge@Wharton. University of Pennsylvania. 8 September 2004. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
  41. ↑ Kimmelman, Michael (3 June 1989). "The Getty Fills a Role, for Itself and the Public". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 February 2009.
  42. ↑ "Christie, Manson and Woods, sale 8030, 11 November 1994". Christies.com. 11 November 1994. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  43. ↑ "Stradivarius tops auction record". BBC News. 17 May 2006. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
  44. 1 2 Vogel, Carol (9 November 2006). "$491 Million Sale at Christie's Shatters Art Auction Record". New York Times. Retrieved 13 March 2009.
  45. ↑ "Bulgaria, Christie's Face Off Over Looted Artifact". Art Info. 7 November 2006. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
  46. ↑ Kodzhabasheva, Ani (7 June 2011). "Rogue excavators routinely steal and destroy Bulgaria's archaeological treasures". The Oxonian Globalist. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
  47. ↑ "Christie's". Studiospecial.com. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  48. ↑ "Most expensive Gundam picture sold in history". People's Daily. Archived from the original on 5 October 2013. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  49. ↑ "Ink painting of Gundam sold at historical price". Gamebase.com.tw. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  50. ↑ Lim, Le-Min (25 May 2008). "Gun-Slinging Robot, Wooden Beams Mark Quiet Hong Kong Art Sale". Bloomberg. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  51. ↑ Artefact (26 May 2008). "Gundam Fetches $600,000". Sankakucomplex.com. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  52. ↑ "Gundam Painting Auctioned for US$600,000+ in Hong Kong". Animenewsnetwork.com. 24 February 2012. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  53. 1 2 "Record-breaking YSL auction shrugs off crisis". Reuters. 25 February 2009. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
  54. ↑ Erlanger, Steve (23 February 2009). "Yves Saint Laurent Art Sale Brings In $264 Million". New York Times. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
  55. ↑ "Small brown armchair sells for £19 million". The Daily Telegraph. 25 February 2009. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  56. ↑ Harris, George (2 March 2009). "China demands return of Christie's 'looted relics'". France 24. Agence France-Presse (AFP). Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  57. ↑ "Marathon cup from 1896 sets Olympics auction record". Reuters. 18 April 2012. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  58. ↑ "NYC Auction of George Washington Document Sets Record". CBS News New York. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
  59. ↑ Vogel, Carol (12 November 2013). "At $142.4 Million, Triptych Is the Most Expensive Artwork Ever Sold at an Auction". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
  60. ↑ Sherwin, Adam (13 November 2013). "When Lucian met Francis: Relationship that spawned most expensive painting ever sold". The Independent. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
  61. ↑ "Bacon painting fetches record price". BBC. 12 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
  62. ↑ Swaine, Jon (13 November 2013). "Francis Bacon triptych smashes art auction record". Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
  63. ↑ "Contemporary art market cools, but Modern sector heats up at Christie’s in 2015". theartnewspaper.com. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  64. ↑ "Oppenheimer Blue diamond sells for world record at auction". The Guardian. 18 May 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  65. ↑ Alain Truong art blog
  66. ↑ 6010107 Christie's sale record
  67. 1 2 Kelly Crow (26 April 2010), The Ultimate Walk-In Closet: Christie's Offers Art Storage in Brooklyn Wall Street Journal.
  68. 1 2 Laura Gilbert (26 April 2013), An exodus from Red Hook The Art Newspaper.
  69. ↑ Diane Cardwell (24 August 2009), A High-Tech Home for Multimillion-Dollar Works of Art New York Times.
  70. ↑ Jennifer Maloney (10 May 2013), Builder Is Bullish on New York City's Fine-Art Storage Market: Developer Starts Construction of Art Storage Facility in Long Island City Wall Street Journal.
  71. ↑ Laura Gilbert (20 August 2013), Axa sues Christie's storage services over Sandy damage The Art Newspaper.
  72. ↑ Laura Gilbert (12 December 2013), Christie's storage hit by second lawsuit over storm damage The Art Newspaper.
  73. ↑ Karen W. Arenson (20 October 2005), Getting a Master's Looking at the Masters New York Times.
  74. ↑ The Art Loss Register, Ltd.: "The Art Loss Register is the world's largest database of stolen art and antiques dedicated to their recovery. Its shareholders include Christie's, Bonhams, members of the insurance industry and art trade associations. " Retrieved 27 September 2008.

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