Meet the auction houses of New York. Auction History Christies Auction House christies

On December 5, 1766, Christie's was founded by the antique dealer James Christie, the second largest auction house in the world. Every year, Christie's holds about 500 auctions, which showcase unique cultural and art objects.

the site decided to recall the most expensive lots that have ever been sold at auction.

Francis Bacon "Three Sketches for a Portrait of Lucian Freud"

The painting by the British artist Francis Bacon "Three Sketches for a Portrait of Lucian Freud" was sold at Christie's for a record $142.4 million. The work became the most expensive lot in the world.

Jewelry by Elizabeth Taylor

"Three sketches for a portrait of Lucian Freud" sold for $142.4 million

9 months after the death of the actress, a collection of her jewelry was put up for auction by Christie's. The iconic pear-shaped pearl dubbed "Peregrina" went under the hammer for $11.8 million, making it the most expensive pearl ever sold at auction.

Another expensive purchase ($1.48 million) was an 1860s antique diamond and natural pearl necklace given to Taylor in 1968 by Richard Burton.

Office Bureau "Badminton"

This masterpiece of furniture art is made of ebony, inlaid with gold and precious stones. 30 craftsmen worked on its creation for 6 years.

The unique cabinet bureau was sold for $36.8 million.

For $36.8 million, Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein, purchased this unique office bureau.

Codex Leicester by Leonardo da Vinci

The Codex Leicester consists of 18 sheets written on both sides. You can read the manuscript only with the help of a mirror: Leonardo da Vinci used the “mirror” font invented by himself.

The Leicester Code consists of 18 sheets, written on both sides

The first known owner of the manuscript was the Earl of Leicester, who bought it in 1717. In 1980, the well-known industrialist Arnold Hammer bought it from the earl's heirs, and on November 11, 1994, Bill Gates bought the manuscript for $30.8 million.

Diamond "Wittelsbach"

In 2008, the Wittelsbach diamond, a flawless 35.56 carat bluish tint stone without the slightest flaw, was sold at Christie's in London for $23.4 million. Lawrence Graff, the owner of the Graff jewelry house, became its owner.

The Wittelsbach is not the largest diamond ever put up for auction, but its hue and clarity are absolutely flawless across all classifications. In 2010, an examination found that this gem comes from India.

baseball cardHonus Wagner

The most expensive card was the baseball player Honus Wagner, who played in the National League from 1897 to 1917. For speed qualities and German origin, he was called the "Flying Dutchman".

Only 50 copies of the Wagner card were printed.

The card with the image of Wagner was published in a circulation of only 50 copies. One of them was purchased by hockey player Wayne Gretzky in 1991. He then sold it to Wal-Mart, who in turn used the baseball player card as a prize.

The prize went to the postman from Florida, who put the value on "Christie". The card was sold for $640,000. The last price of the card at an online auction was $2.8 million.

"Chateau Lafite" 1787

In 1985, it was sold for $160,000 in London at the Christie's auction. The wine was bought for the Forbes collection. The initials of Thomas Jefferson are engraved on the bottle.

James Christie, 1778
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)
oil on canvas
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Christie’s is a name and place that speaks of extraordinary art, unparalleled service, expertise and global reach. Founded in 1766 by James Christie, Christie's has since conducted the greatest and most celebrated auctions through the centuries providing a popular showcase for the unique and the beautiful. Christie's offers around annually in , including all areas of fine and decorative arts, jewelery, photographs, collectibles, wine, and more. Prices range from $200 to over $100 million. Christie's also has a long and successful history of conducting private sales for its clients in all categories, with emphasis on Post-War & Contemporary, Impressionist & Modern , Old Masters and Jewelery.

Christie’s has a global presence in 46 countries, with around the world including in London, New York, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Amsterdam, Dubai, Zürich, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. More recently, Christie’s has led the market with expanded initiatives in growth markets such as Russia, China, India and the United Arab Emirates, with successful sales and exhibitions in Beijing, Mumbai and Dubai.

Vincent van Gogh. "The Plowed Field and the Ploughman". 1889. Photo: Christie's

Doubts that the turnover of the auction house Christie's in 2017 will be the largest, disappeared already in November, when the painting by Leonardo da Vinci "The Savior of the World" was auctioned in New York for $450.3 million. These 20-minute auctions entered the history of the world art market, almost half a million people became viewers of the live broadcast of the sale of the "Savior of the World". And the work will surely now top the list of the world's most expensive works of art sold at auction for years (usually buyers prefer to make such grandiose deals in private).

The total turnover of the house amounted to $6.6 billion, which is 21% higher than the results of 2016. Moreover, growth is observed in all positions (that is, Christie's would have been in the lead without Leonardo). The proportion of buyers from Asia has grown significantly, now they make about a third of all purchases, and about half of what they buy is art from the Asian region. But the main venue traditionally remains New York. Here they sold for $262.8 million, "The Sleeping Muse" by Constantin Brancusi for a record $57.4 million for the master, a painting by Vincent van Gogh for $81 million. 32% of all acquisitions fell to the share of US clients. However, the British and French departments of the auction house also did not let us down - growth is observed everywhere. For example, a selection of works from the Hubert de Givenchy collection put up for sale in Paris in March was 100% sold.

Constantin Brancusi. "Sleeping Muse" Photo: Christie's

Even the section of Russian art went up: the autumn auction in London was successful. “For Christie's Russia, 2017 was a very busy year,” says Dirk Ball, president of Christie's EMERI. - We held seven exhibitions in the Moscow office, as well as a number of joint projects, including with. In 2018, the 25th anniversary will be celebrated by the Moscow office of Christie's, the oldest of the auction offices of the Russian capital. This event will be marked accordingly."

In general, the global art market is on the rise again. The auction house Sotheby's also reported that the auction brought him $ 4.7 billion, 13.1% more than last year's total. This year, competition promises to be fierce: the second Leonardo Christie's is unlikely to turn up, and Sotheby's continues to arm itself. In addition to consulting Art Agency, Partners (whose experts seem to know all the art buyers in the world personally) and to calculate the benefit from the acquisition of individual works and artists, Sotheby's just bought a New York startup called Thread Genius, which uses image recognition technology. The Thread Genius algorithm identifies a stream of art images and chooses from it what may suit the taste and budget of a particular buyer.

The founder of Sotheby's was the bookseller Samuel Baker, who held his first auction in 1744 in London and published the first book catalog with fixed prices. In 1754, Baker opened a permanent auction room. For a century, Baker and his successors specialized exclusively in books and were the organizers of the auctions of all known libraries, including the libraries of Prince Talleyrand, the Dukes of York and Buckingham, and the library of Napoleon, which the emperor took with him in exile to St. Helena.
In 1778, the business passed to Baker's nephew John Sotheby, whose heirs led the firm for more than 80 years. Since 1778, the company became known as Sotheby's. During this period, the company expanded into the sale of prints, coins, medals and other antiques, but the book trade remained its main business.
An unspoken agreement was maintained, according to which furniture and paintings were sent to Christie's, who ceded all the books to Sotheby's. It was violated in 1913 by the sale of the "Portrait of a Man" by Frans Hals, which was sold for a good price for that time of 9,000 pounds sterling. And in 1917 there was a big sale, for the first time including paintings along with furniture and prints. In 1955, the company opened a New York office, and in 1964 made the even more forward-thinking decision to acquire Park Burnet, the largest art auction house in the United States. By becoming the property of Sotheby's, the Park-Burnet auction house has taken a key position in the rapidly growing North American market for Impressionist and Modernist paintings.
Sotheby's was a closed "club" where only aristocrats could get a job. By the beginning of the 80s of the twentieth century, Sotheby's was practically bankrupt. In 1983, Sotheby's was sold to the American entrepreneur A. Alfred Taubman, the owner of a large chain of stores. Today Sotheby's has more than 100 offices all over the world, including a branch in Moscow. In 2000, Sotheby's became the first international online art auction. Among the most curious lots sold online is the first print of the Declaration of Independence (more than $8 million).

Christie's

Christie's auction house was founded on December 5, 1766 in London by the antique dealer James Christie. Christie's is currently the largest auction house in the world. 1800 employees, 116 auction house branches in 42 countries; the largest branch is located in New York.
Christie's holds more than 1,000 auctions each year with a turnover of over $2 billion. The main office of the auction house is located on King Street in the prestigious area of ​​St. James, 100 meters from St. James's Palace - the current residence of members of the royal family. In particular, the heir to the throne, Prince Charles, lives in St. James's Palace. In 1975, an additional office was opened in South Kensington.

Drotheum auction house

300 years after its foundation, the Dorotheum, established in 1707, is the largest auction house in Central Europe, the largest in the German-speaking area, as well as one of the leading auctioneers worldwide.

The Dorotheum hosts about 600 auctions a year, and more than 100 specialists attend to over 40 departments.

Tradition, our specialists’ expertise and market experience, personal service, a broad selection, and international outlook – this is what our clients appreciate about the Dorotheum.

Founded more than 300 years ago, the Dorotheum continues today on its successful course and is enjoying an increase in turnover. Building on its list of international contacts is one of the main focuses of its activities. Some of its most important international offices are in Brussels, Düsseldorf, Munich, Rome and Milan.

Gildings Auctioneers

Online sale catalogs & information. Fine Art, Furniture, Glass, Ceramics, Collectables, Military, Pottery, Jewelery, Toys, Rugs, Carpets, Silver Plate.Office in: Leicester - United Kingdom

Karl & Faber Kunstauktionen

Founded in 1923, the traditional international auction house specializes in Old Masters, 19th Century, Modern and Contemporary art, namely paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints and sculpture.Office in: Munich - Germany

Bali Auction House, Bali Muzayede

Bali Muzayede, Auction House in Turkey. 19th Oriental paintings, Turkish painting, 19th century antique furniture and objects, including silver and ottoman antiques.Office in:Istanbul - Turkey

Troostwijk Auctions and Valuations

Since 1930, Troostwijk Auctions is the leading firm for concluding successful industrial sales by either private treaty, tender or public (online) auction all over Europe. Office in: Amsterdam - The Netherlands - Europe

Auction House Ruetten

Auctions and sales. Antique & reproduction furniture collectables, paintings prints, silver, porcelain (Meissen etc), ceramics, glasses, fine Carbets, jewelery, fine art.Forstinning - Munich - Germany

Recently, such a phenomenon as art auctions has been increasingly affecting cultural life around the world. The world's largest media (newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and online publications) are filled with sensational auction news. These messages and numerous comments attract much more public attention than publications about unique exhibitions of masterpieces of art and news from the largest museums in the world.

Auctions (lat.auctio - sale at public auction) is a common way to sell goods on the basis of a competition among buyers. Auctioneers perfectly take into account human psychology and rely on excitement, in which buyers by inertia inflate the price to the delight of auctioneers and sellers.

Everything is sold at auctions (antiques, paintings, land, real estate, stocks, vintage wine, celebrity letters, jewelry, and even children's drawings). At the same time, a variety of problems are effectively solved: from purely commercial to charitable ones.

It is believed that auctions existed already in the 5th century BC. e. in Ancient Babylon (they sold girls in marriage) and in Ancient Rome. With the fall of the Roman Empire, auctions were closed and only reappeared in France in the 13th century. The emergence of the modern type of auctions is historically associated with the Netherlands, where in 1599 the first book auction in Europe was held. The auction sale of books was picked up by England (in 1676), which became the birthplace of the largest auction houses in the world. In developed countries, there are now auction houses in almost every major city. There are several types of auctions, but the main ones are "English" ("ascending") and "Dutch" ("descending").
The English auction is based on setting a minimum price for further bidding, during which the price gradually increases, and the thing goes to the one who set the highest price (this is how, for example, both the largest auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's work).

The Dutch auction starts with a very high price and is conducted with its gradual decrease. The thing or product goes to the one who was the first to "intercept" the lowered price. This form is actively used now, for example, at auctions of tulips or fish, that is, where something needs to be sold quickly.

The larger the auction house, the more versatile its activities (from antiques and fine art to collectible cars and musical instruments). Trades sometimes take place several times a day, including in on-line mode, and begin to resemble stock exchanges, although the turnover is still incomparable.

Antiques, paintings, graphics and sculpture are the core of any major art auction. This is, as a rule, a secondary art market, that is, it sells not new works, but what was created earlier, then bought or inherited.
One of the most determining factors for a successful auction is a preliminary evaluation of the proposed works. In addition to general fashion, the place of the author in the history of art, genre, technique, rarity and safety of the work, its price is affected by the so-called. provenance of the painting (English provenance - origin, source). This is a kind of "biography" of the work: the author, the date, in which collections it was, at which exhibitions it was exhibited. Provenance is usually given in auction catalogs to confirm the authenticity of the exhibit. An interesting provenance can significantly raise the price bar of the auction.

Each auction offers detailed instructions for sellers and buyers. Usually the auction is accompanied by a pre-auction exhibition, which opens a few days before the auction.

A catalog is prepared for each auction, which can be purchased or viewed on the auction website. The catalogs already contain information about specific lots (individual objects or groups of objects offered for sale as indivisible units), as well as a pre-sale price range, within which a particular lot is expected to be sold.

To participate in the auction, those wishing to make a purchase must register and receive a token. If the client cannot be present during the auction, he can make a purchase by phone or leave a written application in advance, which indicates the maximum price that he is willing to pay for a particular lot.

The lucky buyer should keep in mind that the price in the auction room (eng. "hammer price" - the price after the blow of the hammer) is less than the actual purchase price: it will be necessary to pay commission to the auction, as well as various taxes accepted in the country in which the auction takes place. bargaining.

About the two "whales" of the auction, the oldest English houses "Sotheby's" and "Christie's", today, perhaps, everyone knows. The auction house Sotheby's (eng. Sotheby's) was founded over 260 years ago in London.
The date of his birth is 1744, and the founder is Samuel Baker. He began with the book trade and quickly amassed a solid capital. In 1767, Samuel's nephew, John Sotheby's, started working for the firm. After Baker's death, the firm became known as Sotheby's. Gradually, purchasing lots at its auctions began to be considered a sign of good taste and a guarantee of serious investments. The central halls of Sotheby's are located in London on the elegant New Bond. It is here that spectacular performances worth hundreds of millions of dollars are played out. Sotheby's entry into the international scene was the creation in 1955 of a branch in New York. Then a large network of branches was created around the world (in Paris, Los Angeles, Zurich, Toronto, Melbourne, Munich, Edinburgh, Johannesburg, Housten, Florence, etc.).

In 1990, the turnover of all branches of Sotheby's reached more than 2 billion dollars.
The whole history of Sotheby's is a brilliant evidence that selling works of art is profitable, prestigious and promising.

One of the first markets for fine arts was captured by another major auction house, Christie's, whose history began on December 5, 1766, when its founder, a former naval officer, James Christie, opened the first auction. Soon he already owned premises in London with an auction room specially built for him.

It is believed that it was here that the largest auctions of the 18th and 19th centuries took place. And by the way, none other than James Christie himself acted as an intermediary in the sale of the famous collection of paintings by Sir Robert Walpole, who is considered the first British Prime Minister, to the Russian Empress Catherine II. This deal laid the foundation for the future Hermitage Museum.

The most important achievement of Sotheby's and Christie's firms in the 20th century was the triumphant sales of works by the Impressionists and contemporary artists. For the first time, it was possible to attract the attention of clients to the art of the new time and turn the works of these masters into expensive lots. Trade in works of art has now become a big business with its own specifics and surprises. In recent years, the two auction giants have managed to pull off some stunning sales that have gone down in business history and set the price level for art objects today. The amazing news of the auctions has become the property of the first pages of the press around the world.

Although today the auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's control up to 90% of the world's auction sales of antiques and art objects, but they, of course, do not exhaust the variety of auction houses in the world. There are several other important “players” on this market, such as the oldest auction house in Germany “Kunsthaus Lempertz” (Cologne), the temple of French auctioneers “Hotel Drouot”, the famous Austrian auction house “Dorotheum” and others.
It is safe to say that new sensations at the auction will not take long, and we will once again be witnessing intriguing events in the art world.