CHRISTIE’S INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCES HISTORIC WORLDWIDE SALES CHRISTIE’S INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCES HISTORIC WORLDWIDE SALES OF £1.63 BILLION ($3.25 BILLION) FOR THE FIRST HALF OF 2007, UP 32% BY £ OR 45% BY $ FROM THE SAME PERIOD LAST YEAR
Christie’s the first international auction house in Asia to offer fine art through live online auctions. The highest underbid received through Christie’s LIVE™ is HK$20 million/US$2.6 million, which is also the highest online bid ever on Christie’s LIVE™ to date.
Hong Kong – Su-Mei Thompson is appointed Senior Vice President, Director of Strategic Business Development, Asia in June with responsibility for strategic planning, business development, marketing and public relations throughout Asia. Levina Li is appointed Vice-President, Director of Business Development for Asia in June, overseeing daily business development activities for the region.
Beijing – Christie’s licensing partner Forever International Auction Company Limited continues with a May sale of Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy which totals RMB 32,949,840/US$4,118,730.
Americas
January – Two sales of American Decorative Arts total an impressive $22.2 million and set a world auction record for Edward Hick’s Peaceable Kingdom at $6.2 million
February – Christie’s New York and the Judd Foundation are recognized by the American Section of the International Art Critics Association (AICA/USA) with its Award for the Best Show in a Temporary or Alternative Space for the Judd exhibition organized in May 2006
March – Asia Week totals $39.6 million, the second highest total for the category at Christie’s in New York
April – Christie’s sale of Important Old Master Pictures, which includes Property from the Collection of Jacques Goudstikker, totals $57,521,800 (£28.6 million) and marks another milestone in Christie’s record of responsibly handling restitution issues. The sale of the exquisite and legendary Baroda pearls achieves $7.1 million (£3.5 million), a world auction record for a pearl jewel – the entire Magnificent Jewels sale totals $39 million (£19.5 million).
May – Sales of Impressionist, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art conclude with a grand total of $760,193,000 – of the 142 masterworks sold in two evening sales, 82% realized a price above $1 million. Christie’s establishes market leadership for Latin American Art and American Art with grand sale totals of $28.9 million and $55.4 million, respectively. Andrew Wyeth’s Ericksons, establishes a new world auction record for the artist at $10,344,000 and is the most expensive American painting sold at auction in the first half of the year.
June – the imaginative installation of Jean Prouvé’s exquisitely restored Maison Tropicale under the Queensborough Bridge in New York attracts enormous public attention and receives extensive coverage in the New York Times Metro section. Christie’s sells the house for $4.97 million to American hotelier and tastemaker André Balazs.
Marc Porter, President Christie’s Americas, is instrumental in negotiating three private sales of important paintings by Thomas Eakins, sold by the Thomas Jefferson University, including The Gross Clinic, purchased by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts, as well as the Portrait of Benjamin H. Rand, bought by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Looking Ahead
Christie’s will offer the 1963 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso, chassis number 4891 once owned, driven and raced by Steve McQueen in the Christie’s International Motor Cars 2007 sale
