Christie’s
UNDER THE AUCTION HAMMER
Nicknamed “the oldest fine arts auctioneers in the world,” the 200-year-old auction house Christie’s continually sets record prices not only for works of art but also for carpets, cameras, fast cars, and teddy bears.
Whether you are bidding on a car or a collection of Persian miniatures, once the auctioneer’s gavel falls, the sale is finalized.
After the French Revolution, the auction house, founded by English businessman James Christie in 1766, blossomed into a reputable center for buying, selling, and trading works of art. Even the Russian monarch Catherine the Great bought works of art from Christie’s to found the world-famous art institution the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
Like many other international auction houses, Christie’s has dozens of offices all over the world, but is centered in London and New York. The auction house broke new ground by becoming the first to exhibit works of art in Beijing, China (1995), and to sell $21 million US worth of jewelry in Dubai, the first jewelry auction of its kind in the Middle East. But Christie’s is not without controversy; after taking the company private in 1998, a US Justice Department probe of possible price fixing with Sotheby’s rocked the art world, damaging the reputations of both houses. Yet Christie’s continues to make records in the auction world: The black dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s sold in 2006 for close to $700,000, and the highest price paid for a work by French Impressionist Claude Monet ($80.4 million US) is held, at the time of this printing, by Christie’s. —SBR