Overview of Christie's - the leading auction house on the planet

08 October 2009

Currently the largest and leading auction house on the planet, Christie's deals primarily in fine arts and has an extremely impressive resume, boasting world records for sale prices and revenue. There is also a shroud of mystery surrounding Christie's. Many have speculated that the auction house is full of corruption, and various investigations have been conducted in attempts to prove these allegations true.

Today, Christie's locations can be found all over the world. The company's main salesroom is headquartered in London on King Street in the St. James's quarter of the city, and has been in the same location since 1823. There's also a London salesroom in South Kensington, opened in 1975.

Christie's currently has 85 offices around the world. Not all offices are official salesrooms, but all are pertinent to the auction business. These offices can be found in New York City, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Paris, Moscow, Geneva, Berlin, Spain, Milan, Rome, Hong Kong, Tel Aviv, Dubai, Mexico City, and many other locations. Christie's was also the first auction house to exhibit works in Beijing, China, breaking the international barrier.

Christie's founder, James Christie, conducted his first sale in London in 1766. After becoming an auctioneer, Christie quickly started to build a reputation, and his London location was said to be the finest around. After the French Revolution, London was the center of the art trade, and Christie made sure to take full advantage of that fact.

Christie's location in Pall Mall became the home of the Royal Academy of Arts for 13 years, and his venue was the go-to place for high society types who loved to discuss and trade fine art.

At the start of the 1800s, Christie's son took over the reigns as the house's operator. He was an expert in Greek pottery and sculptures and soon added a new level of art to the Christie's brand. After James the Younger's death, his sons, James and George, joined forces with William and Edward Manson to form a new company: Christie, Manson and Woods

The company began dealing in priceless artifacts and soon became the world's leading auction house. The house has held this status for 200 years, never giving up the title. A few competitors have come along, but Christie's has always risen above the fold with their unique and pricy dealings.

In 1973, the privately owned Christie's became a public company and shares were listed and traded on the London Stock Exchange. In 1999, the company was once again returned to private ownership after Francois Pinault purchased the majority share. Soon after Pinault's purchase, allegations of price-fixing started to pop up.

Christie's was rumored to be working with Sotheby's, an equally large auction house, to cut out all other competition and fix prices in the industry. The allegations were far from false. After the weight of the UK authorities and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation got involved, a Christie's employee confessed to the crime in exchange for immunity. Many members of Sotheby's senior management were also fired as a result.

Despite it all, Christie's is still a celebrated auction house, and every year, the house pulls in over $6 billion on average.

Tags: hong kong, beijing, geneva, paris, spain, new york city, milan, mexico city, los angeles, moscow, st. james, south kensington, amsterdam, berlin, rome, tel aviv, dubai, pall mall, royal academy of arts, edward manson, william manson, francois pinault,
Posted In: Company History,

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