Going, going, gone!

Arthouse rock!
Founded in 1766 by James Christie, Christie's has conducted the greatest auctions of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, and today remains a world-renowned showcase for the unique and the beautiful. Christie’s offers over 450 sales annually in over 80 categories, including all areas of fine and decorative arts, jewellery, photographs, collectibles, wine, and more. Christie’s has 53 offices in 30 countries and 10 salesrooms around the world including London, New York, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Amsterdam, Dubai and Hong Kong. Over its history, Christie's has grown and diversified into the world's leading art business. Most recently, Christie’s has led the market with expanded initiatives in growth markets such as China, India and the United Arab Emirates, with successful sales and exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai, Dubai, Mumbai and Moscow. Christie's also offers its clients worldwide access to its sales through Christie's LIVE™, its real-time online bidding service. While they are best known for selling the world’s most valuable works of art, many of the items offered are widely affordable and have estimates, which are attractive to new collectors. Bidding and buying at auction is easy, enjoyable and good value. Christie’s is also the only major auction house in the world that directly runs educational programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, led by an international team of dedicated art-world experts, academics and practitioners committed to educating and inspiring the next generation of art-world professionals.

Motivation of a collector
Collectors come with all kinds of motivation. Some are for building museum quality collections for posterity; others want to enjoy the thrill of having and acquiring rare, unique, beautifully made works of art.

Christie’s Collection
At Christie’s, we look for the strongest examples of works by the premier artists. We turn away so much more than we include in our auctions because we are trusted by our clients to find and source the best works available. We are fortunate that with the transparency of the catalogue, and invaluable tools such as the Art Loss Register etc., we are able to do our due diligence in research. We advise collectors to look at the history and provenances of works and to try and trace them back to the artist’s studio. Nothing comes out of thin air and if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The market for any commodity is a fluid one based on a willing seller and buyer. It sometimes takes several auctions of an artist’s works to provide a benchmark and show the solidity in that artist’s market.

Name-dropping
In our field, Tyeb Mehta has been a standout over the last year as many have realized that he has a very limited body of work over a very long career. By contrast, MF Husain has also fared very well in our auctions due to our selectivity; he remains India’s most popular artist. Labels do not matter as much as the inherent quality of the work of art. In the field of South Asian Modern and Contemporary art, the world record is for Syed Haider Raza’s Saurashtra , which was auctioned at Christie’s in 2010 for £2,393,250 (US $3,454,510).

Elite, not elitist
Christie's has hundreds of specialists with years of experience evaluating and researching thousands of objects in their respective areas. Specialists, along with Christie's Valuations and Client Advisory Departments, are available to assist clients, new and old, who are interested in having objects appraised or wish to learn more about buying and selling at auction. Whether one piece brought in by an individual or the contents of an entire home, Christie's staff advises clients on their works for value, condition, and authenticity.