Christie's

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Christie's
legal form Limited
founding 1766
Seat London
management François-Henri Pinault
Guillaume Cerutti (CEO)
sales 7 billion US dollars (2018)
Branch Auction house
Website https://www.christies.com
As of May 3, 2019

Christie's in Rockefeller Center , New York City
Company founder James Christie portrayed by Thomas Gainsborough (1778)
Adele Bloch-Bauer II , 1912, Gustav Klimt , auctioned for US $ 87.9 million

Headquartered in London, Christie's is one of the most traditional auction houses and is a global leader in the art and antiques market , especially auctions, with 2015 sales of £ 4.8 billion / US $ 7.4 billion.

history

It was founded in 1766 by James Christie . The founder held the first auction on December 5, 1766 . He worked for the aristocracy and for the royal family. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the auction house was in contact with Catherine II, among others, and sold her Robert Walpole's collection of paintings , which made an important contribution to the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg .

Today Christie's operates worldwide and has annual sales of $ 6.3 billion (2007). The main auction locations are London , New York , Paris and Hong Kong .

Recently, Christie's has sold works and personal possessions by Pablo Picasso , Rembrandt , Leonardo da Vinci , Vincent van Gogh, and Napoleon Bonaparte, among others .

Christie's is owned by Groupe Artémis , owned by the French billionaire François Pinault and which includes numerous companies and brands in the luxury goods sector: Gucci , Puma , Ponant , Château Latour . In 2008 there was speculation about a sale of Christie's due to the depreciation of Pinault's holdings. According to an article in the Times published in late December 2008, several groups of investors were interested in a purchase. In 2009 the company employed 1900 people worldwide.

On January 1, 2017, Guillaume Cerutti became Christie's Chief Executive Officer, on the recommendation of Patricia Barbizet and the Pinault family. Mr. Pinault assumed the role of chairman of the board and Mme. Barbizet was appointed vice chairman. The French Madame Patricia Barbizet was appointed CEO of the company in 2014, becoming Christie's first female CEO.

Christie offers around 350 auctions annually in more than 80 categories, including all areas of fine and applied arts, jewelry, photographs, collectibles, wine and much more. Christie also has a long and successful history of directing private sales to clients in all categories, with an emphasis on Post War and Contemporary Art, Impressionist and Modern Art, Old Masters and Jewelry.

Christie has a global presence with 54 offices in 32 countries and 12 salesrooms around the world including London, New York, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Amsterdam, Dubai, Zurich, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Mumbai. Lately, Christie has taken the market initiative in emerging markets such as Russia, China, India and the United Arab Emirates, with successful sales and exhibitions in Beijing, Mumbai and Dubai.

Record auctions

  • In 1989, the auctioned J. Paul Getty Museum , the Portrait of a Halberdier by Pontormo for 35.2 million US $. For a long time, the picture was considered the most expensive painting by one of the Old Masters , until Rubens' Child Murder from Bethlehem was auctioned for around US $ 76.7 million in July 2002 .
  • 2005 reached Photography Untitled (Cowboy) by Richard Prince at Christie's New York the record price of more than $ 1 million, and achieved the highest price to date for a single photo.
  • In 2006, a china bowl from the Qing Dynasty was auctioned at Christie's in Hong Kong for US $ 22.24 million.
  • Also in 2006, a Stradivarius violin was auctioned at Christie's for US $ 3.544 million, which was the highest price for a musical instrument at the time.
  • On November 8, 2006, four paintings by Gustav Klimt were auctioned in New York for US $ 192 million. The painting Adele Bloch-Bauer II achieved US $ 87.936 million, the fifth highest price ever paid for a painting. Apple tree I achieved US $ 40.336 million, Buchenwald / Birkenwald US $ 33.056 million, houses in Unterach am Attersee US $ 31.376 million. The buyers remained anonymous.
  • The water lily painting Le Bassin Aux Nymphéas by Claude Monet was auctioned in 2008 for US $ 80.4 million, the highest price ever achieved for a work by Monet.
  • The oil painting Naked, Green Leaves and Bust by Pablo Picasso was auctioned at Christie's in New York for US $ 106.5 million on May 4, 2010 through a telephone bid from an unknown bidder.
  • The Dr.-No-Bikini from the movie "James Bond - 007 is chasing Dr. No ”was sold to a collector at auction for over £ 40,000 in 2001.
  • As the most expensive carpet in the world, a Persian vase carpet from the 17th century was auctioned off to an Arab buyer in April 2010 after a bidding competition for the equivalent of 7.2 million euros. The Augsburg auction house Georg Rehm had previously cataloged the carpet for only 900 euros.
  • On May 11, 2015, Pablo Picasso's Les femmes d'Alger (version "O") was sold for US $ 179.3 million, making it the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction at Christie's in New York.
  • In November of the same year, Nu Couché by Amedeo Modigliani (1917–1918) was sold for US $ 170.4 million at Christie's in New York . It counts as the third most expensive work of art that was sold at auction.
  • On November 15, 2017, an anonymous telephone bidder auctioned the painting Salvator mundi by Leonardo da Vinci for US $ 400 million. With fees, a price of around US $ 450 million was achieved. This makes it the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction. It was last owned by Russian billionaire Dmitri Rybolovlew . Christie's originally expected a price of around $ 100 million.
  • On November 15, 2018 York branch was in the New David Hockney picture Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) for 90,312,500 US dollars auctioned to an unknown bidder. At the time of sale, the painting was the most expensive artwork by a living artist ever to be auctioned.

See also

Web links

Commons : Christie's  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anne Reimers: Art market report: The numbers of the year 2018. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine. April 17, 2019, accessed October 8, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Katya Kazakina artdetective: Christie's Sales Fall 5% as `Froth 'Comes off Global Art Market. In: Bloomberg.com. Retrieved June 22, 2016 .
  3. ↑ The Times , article by Kate Walsh, Dec. 28, 2008
  4. ↑ Report on Christie's , Bloomberg , June 2009
  5. ↑ Christie's Names Guillaume Cerutti as CEO Replacing Barbizet . In: Bloomberg.com . December 14, 2016 ( online [accessed January 6, 2017]).
  6. ↑ Anne-Sylvaine Chassany: Patricia Barbizet, Christie's: Loyal dealmaker comes to the fore . In: Financial Times . ISSN  0307-1766 ( online [accessed June 22, 2016]).
  7. ↑ About Us: This History of Christie's | Christie's. In: www.christies.com. Retrieved June 22, 2016 .
  8. ^ New York Times , Michael Kimmelmann, June 1989 report
  9. ↑ SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg Germany: Record auction: $ 170.4 million for Modigliani's "Nu couché". In: SPIEGEL ONLINE. Retrieved June 22, 2016 .
  10. ^ Auction result on Christie's website.
  11. ↑ Hockney painting auctioned for $ 90 million , online item November 16, 2018.