Christie's Auction House. Christie's auction - history of creation
Recently, cultural life around the world has been increasingly influenced by the phenomenon of art auctions. The world's largest media (newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and online publications) are filled with sensational news from auctions. 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) are a common way of selling goods based on a buyer competition. 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, shares, vintage wine, letters from celebrities, 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 for marriage) and in Ancient Rome. With the fall of the Roman Empire, auctions were closed and reappeared only in France in the 13th century. The emergence of the modern type of auction is historically associated with the Netherlands, where the first book auction in Europe was held in 1599. 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” (“bottom-up”) and “Dutch” (“top-down”).
An English auction is based on setting a minimum price for further auctions, during which the price gradually increases, and the item goes to the one who set the highest price (this is how, for example, both major auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's work).
The Dutch auction starts with a very high price and proceeds with a gradual decrease in price. The item or product goes to the one who was the first to “intercept” the reduced 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). Trading sometimes takes place several times a day, including in on-line mode, and begins to resemble stock exchanges, although the turnover is still not comparable.
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 does not sell new works, but what was created earlier, then bought or inherited.
One of the most determining factors for a successful auction is the preliminary assessment of the proposed works. In addition to general fashion, the author’s place in the history of art, genre, technique, rarity and preservation of the work, its price is influenced by the so-called. provenance of the painting (English provenance - origin, source). This is a kind of “biography” of the work: author, date, which collections it was in, which exhibitions it was exhibited at. Provenance is usually provided in auction catalogs to confirm the authenticity of an item. Interesting provenance can significantly increase the price level 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 provide information about specific lots (individual objects or groups of objects offered for sale as indivisible units), as well as the pre-sale price range within which a specific 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 request in advance, which indicates the maximum price he is willing to pay for a particular lot.
The successful buyer should keep in mind that the price in the auction room (English “hammer price” - the price after the hammer hits) is less than the actual purchase price: it will be necessary to pay the auction commission, as well as various taxes applicable in the country in which the auction takes place bargaining.
Today, perhaps, everyone knows about the two “pillars” of auction trading, the oldest English houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s. The Sotheby's auction house was founded more than 260 years ago in London.
Its date of birth is considered to be 1744, and its founder is Samuel Baker. He started out in the book trade and quickly amassed substantial capital. In 1767, Samuel's nephew, John Sotheby, began working at the company. After Baker's death, the company became known as Sotheby's. Gradually, purchasing lots at her auctions began to be considered a sign of good manners and a guarantee of serious investments. Sotheby's central halls are located in London on the elegant New Bond. This is where spectacular performances worth hundreds of millions of dollars are staged. Sotheby's entry onto the international stage was the creation of a branch in New York in 1955. Then a large network of branches was created around the world (in Paris, Los Angeles, Zurich, Toronto, Melbourne, Munich, Edinburgh, Johannesburg, Heusten, Florence, etc.).
In 1990, the turnover of all Sotheby's branches reached more than $2 billion.
The entire history of Sotheby's is brilliant evidence that trading works of art is profitable, prestigious and promising.
One of the first to capture the fine arts market was another major auction house, Christie’s, whose history began on December 5, 1766, when its founder, former naval officer James Christie, opened the first auction. Soon he already owned a premises in London with an auction hall specially built for him.
It is believed that the largest auctions of the 18th and 19th centuries took place here. And by the way, none other than James Christie himself mediated the deal to sell 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 foundations for the future Hermitage Museum.
The most important achievement of Sotheby's and Christie's in the 20th century was the triumphant sales of works by impressionists and modern artists. For the first time, it was possible to attract the attention of clients to the art of modern times 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 its own surprises. In recent years, the two auction giants have managed to pull off several stunning sales that have gone down in the history of the business and determined the modern level of prices for art objects. The amazing news of the auctions became the property of the front 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, they, of course, do not exhaust the variety of auction houses in the world. There are several other important “players” in this market, such as the oldest auction house in Germany “Kunsthaus Lempertz” (Cologne), the temple of French auctioneers “Hotel Drouot”, the most famous auction house in Austria “Dorotheum” and others.
It is safe to say that new sensations at auctions will not be long in coming, and we will once again find ourselves witnessing intriguing events in the world of art.
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 been 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, jewellery, 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 Jewellery.
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.
Christie's auction house is currently the largest in the world in terms of turnover. Named after its founder, James Christie, who held his first auction in London on December 5, 1766. From the very beginning, Christie's house had an emphasis on the elitism of the enterprise and a desire for leadership, which was largely determined by the list of high-ranking clients And the house has something to be proud of: members of the royal family and the aristocracy often sent their collections here, and even valuables of the British national heritage, as well as paintings by most great European artists: impressionists, modernists, cubists, were often exhibited as lots. - XVIII and XIX centuries, when the famous Christie's held the largest auctions of that time. It was representatives of this auction house who negotiated with Empress Catherine the Great about the sale of Sir Robert Worpole's collection, which later formed the basis of the Hermitage exhibition.
The most expensive painting was Vincent Van Gogh's "Portrait of Doctor Gachet", sold in May 1990 for more than $80 million. In July 2001, Pablo Picasso's work from the "Blue Period" series - "Woman with Crossed Arms" - was sold for 55 million dollars, which is twice its starting price. There were 6 more buyers who were willing to pay $32 million for the masterpiece. A similar situation arose in 1940 with Matisse’s painting “Persian Dress.” It was sold for $17 million, while the initial cost was just under $12 million.
Christie's auction house is one of the most respected auction organizers. Together with Sotheby's auction house, it occupies 90% of the world market for auction sales of antiques and art objects. Its annual turnover is 1.5-2 billion dollars. Today Christie's offers its many clients works by masters whose paintings adorn the exhibitions of many museums around the world, as well as rare books, cars, cigars, collectible wines and other valuables. Christie's is an elite auction house, and therefore it is very sensitive to its reputation. All lots are provided with expert assessment, therefore the number of scandals associated with this house is minimal.
At every opportunity, Christie's does not forget to note that its ties with Russia go back to the 18th century, when James Christie helped Empress Catherine II with the acquisition of the famous collection of Sir Robert Walpole, rightly considered one of the key ones in the collection of the State Hermitage. Christie's worldwide sales in 2006 amounted to £2.51 billion ($4.67 billion). Christie's carries out more than 600 sales (i.e. an average of 2 times a day) in 80 categories, including such areas as fine and decorative arts, jewelry, photographs, furniture, watches, wine, cars, etc. Christie's has 85 offices in 43 countries on all five continents, and also has 14 of its own sales areas (salerooms), including London, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Dubai , Hong Kong. Recently, the house has shown its activity in emerging markets - in Russia, China, India, and the UAE. Christie`s has a permanent Russian department and prestigious Russian Sales. According to the house itself, Russian trading continues to be one of the fastest growing areas of the international market.
In 2006, turnover reached $54.9 million; several new records were set. “In the late 1890s, Russian participation in international exhibitions allowed previously unknown Russian works to appear in America. At the beginning of the 20th century, the first wave of Russian immigrants brought with them a huge number of works of art, which was repeated with each new wave of immigration throughout the 20th century. Nostalgia and interest in Russian culture, instilled in the Russian intelligentsia from their youth, forced them to buy back their national heritage - a process that is now continuing on a larger scale,” said a leading specialist in the Russian department of Christie’s in New York in a recent interview with the Kommersant newspaper. York Elena Kharbik. The Russian department of Christie's annually holds sales in April (New York) and November (London). The icons are regularly sold at a separate auction in London.
The smooth-talking liar: the golden era of the house of Christie's
We know only in general terms about the founder of the Christie's house. It is known that James Christie was born in the Scottish city of Perth in 1730 to a Scottish mother and an English father. After a short service in the Royal Navy, the young man began working as an apprentice auctioneer in Covent Garden was a fashionable area of London at the time.
A few years later, believing that he had gained enough experience, Christie took a risky step and opened his own auction house on Pall Mall. The choice of location was made with prophetic foresight. Several decades will pass, and this particular street will become a symbol of luxurious life - the center of gentlemen's clubs and art centers in London. Christie's first auction took place on December 5, 1766. The net proceeds from the sale of the lots, which included wine, amounted to 76 pounds 16 shillings and six pence. Thus began the more than two-hundred-year history of the world's largest auction house.
Things immediately went smoothly. James Christie seemed to have been born just like that - with a wooden hammer in his hands. Possessing a special charm and the gift of persuasion, he could sell everything - from a kitchen pot to an extra coffin, for which he earned the nickname “Sweet-tongued liar” from wits. After several years of successful sales, the auction house was already dealing with works by venerable European artists and “old masters” of painting. And Christie himself moved to a new office at 125 Pall Mall, becoming a neighbor of Thomas Gainsborough, who later (like Sir Joshua Reynolds) painted a portrait of the auctioneer.
Having changed owners several times, the portrait of James Christie found an owner in the person of the famous American industrialist Jean Paul Getty, who bought the painting for 26 and a half thousand dollars in 1938. This was the first major acquisition in the field of art by the founder of the Getty Museum.
Christie’s courage and natural talent were enough for a successful start. But to survive in the difficult world of London business, much more was needed. And Christie managed to see a niche in his business that no one had managed to fill before him - the auctioneer relied on contemporary art. And I was right. The fact is that in Britain at that time there was not a single exhibition hall in which the viewer could get acquainted with the artistic works of their contemporaries. Therefore, the place where one could see paintings by Landseer, Rosetti or Sargent was Christie’s auction house.
Another successful move was the emphasis on the elitism of the enterprise. This was largely determined by the list of high-ranking clients. Over the history of Christie's, members of the royal family and aristocracy often sent their collections here, and even valuables of the British national heritage were exhibited as lots. It was representatives of this auction house who were invited as experts to negotiate with the Russian Empress Catherine the Great about the sale of Sir Robert's collection Warpole, which later formed the basis of the Hermitage exhibition, the collection was sold for a phenomenal sum at that time - 40 thousand pounds sterling.
But the apogee of the golden era of the auction was, oddly enough, the French Revolution: Paris, the main art market of that time, was destroyed, and whole streams of the precious heritage of the French aristocrats poured into Britain - gold, paintings, everything that was of any value. The revolutionary government of France even turned to Christie's with an offer to help sell the legendary collection of jewelry of Louis XV's favorite, Countess DuBarry, who died on the scaffold in 1793. James Christie himself outlived the countess by only 10 years. The “sweet-tongued liar” died in 1803 , and his son, James Christie Jr., took over the company.
Wind of change
The era of the Industrial Revolution meant new realities for Christie's, to which it was necessary to adapt. Firstly, aristocratic buyers were replaced by magnate buyers: the main players in the art market were American nouveau riche, such as Andrew William Mellon or John Pierpont Morgan. The auctioneers dreamed of big profits, which means it was time to expand the business. In 1823, Christie's moved to its new home at 8 King Street (the company's London office is located here to this day).
Christie's The room set aside for auctions seemed huge. It was called the Great Hall. According to legend, its plan was conceived in the shape of a hexagon by James Christie in order to create as many vertical areas as possible on which to place the lots auction. Eyewitnesses later recalled that the walls of the Great Room were hung with paintings right up to the ceiling.
The time of “serious business” also meant that the Christie family gradually began to lose their monopoly in the management of the auction house. In 1831, William Manson joined the company, and in 1859, Thomas Woods became another partner of the auction house, and Christie's changed its name to "Christie, Manson and Woods." And 1889 was the last year when the Christie family was still involved in affairs of the auction house of his own name - James Christie retired. Ironically, in the same year the auction for the first time put up for sale works of the Impressionists - the main innovators of their time.
Blows of fate
The first half of the twentieth century brought Christie's serious trials. The first blow was the appearance of a new player on the art market - the venerable auction house Sotheby's. Founded two decades earlier by Christie's, it still did not stand in the latter's way, as it was mainly engaged in selling books. But the Art Nouveau era brought with it new temptations: the flourishing of painting meant a good opportunity to make money, and in 1913 Sotheby "s begins to sell paintings. Christie's was seriously scared. In response, he stopped selling his books through Sotheby's and organized his own sales of book collections. Thus began the competition between the two auction houses, which continues to this day.
The biggest success of the 20s. was the sale of a portrait of Mrs. Davenport (1782-1784) by the English portraitist George Romney for £360,900.
But soon Christie's had no time for competitors. The global economic depression of the 1930s and the consequences of the First World War depleted the art market. As a measure of survival, even the option of merging Christie's and Sotheby's was considered. Nothing came of these discussions - having an established base in the USA, Sotheby's gradually regained its position, and the need for unification disappeared.
The most terrible blow was not competitors or even the Great Depression. On April 16, 1941, an auction house on King's Street was damaged by a bomb. Auctioneers were able to begin its resumption only in 1953. For even longer - until 1966 - the company had to abandon sales of collection wines, which also meant noticeable financial losses.
New features
Several operational decisions helped the auction house get back on its feet after the war. Firstly, Christie's from an elite establishment, where only the rich had access, turned into a public show. The auction hall was literally flooded with television cameramen, and the most high-profile sales were reported in the news. The auctions became public knowledge, attracting everyone to Christie's more clients. At the same time, the management of the auction house is hiring specialists to create a press office for the company. Then the mastery of new technologies was added to the development of the media space. In 1965, Christie's purchased White Bros. Printers for £38,000 and began printing catalogs and other high-quality publications. The effect of all this publicity was immediate: in 1960, Christie's reported sales of $2.7 million pounds sterling, and the following year this figure reached 3.1 million. But a much more important result of such processes was that in the course of commercialization, it was the leading auction houses that began to dictate fashion in art.
The confrontation between Christie's and Sotheby's resumed with renewed vigor in the late 1950s. Companies literally competed in... reading obituaries, looking for potential objects for sale.
Secondly, despite serious financial difficulties in the post-war period, Christie's was the first among British auction houses to begin working on representation in continental Europe, first opening a branch in Rome. Soon company offices appeared in several European countries and Christie's focused on America . The auction house has also expanded its special interests to include collectible coins and porcelain, and increased its staff of related specialists.
Finally, a successful move was the placement of the company's shares on the London Stock Exchange. This immediately brought good results: in five years, Christie's pre-tax profit grew from 139 thousand to 1.1 million pounds. The company remained public from 1973 to 1999, until it became the property of the French multi-billionaire Francois Pinault.
Gigantism as a business
The further development of the company cannot be called anything other than gigantism. Having taken the first step towards worldwide expansion in Rome, a few years later Christie's was already making leaps and bounds around the world. Faced with strict laws in Italy restricting the export of art objects, the auction house founded another subsidiary in Geneva - Christie's International SA , and Australia, Japan and Canada were included in the “world takeover” plan. In 1977, Christie's opened a sales hall in the famous Delmonico Hotel in New York. A year later, another company showroom appeared in the city, and sales in the USA became of primary importance for the auction house. Christie's reputation in the States was finally strengthened in 1980, when Henry Ford II approaches the company with an offer to sell 10 paintings from his collection of impressionist and modernist paintings. It was then that Van Gogh’s painting “The Garden of Poets” was sold for a record amount of $5.2 million. Today, Christie's offices are located in 43 countries, and permanent auction rooms operate in London, New York, Paris, Zurich, Milan, Amsterdam, Geneva, Dubai, Hong Kong and Los Angeles.
In the 70s, the sale of Coco Chanel's wardrobe of 40 dresses at Christie's, which brought in £43,250, attracted public attention.
All this time, the company continues to set auction trading records. One of the most striking successes of the 60s was the sale of Holman Hunt's Lady of Shalott for $27,950 - the highest amount ever paid for a Pre-Raphaelite painting. And the sale in 1965 of the Cook collection (paintings by old masters) finally established the reputation of the auction house. A portrait of Titus, son of Rembrandt Van Rijn, sold for an amount that exceeded all expectations - $2.2 million.
1987 set a record number of sales at Christie's auction. In particular, Van Gogh's famous painting "Sunflowers" went under the hammer for $39.9 million; a 65-carat pear-shaped diamond and a 1931 Bugati Type 41 Royale were sold for $6.4 million. for $9.8 million.
In recent years, the auction house has increasingly paid attention to jewelry. Their steady sales helped Christie's International boost its earnings in the first half of 2008. While the company's overall sales revenue rose 10 percent, sales of jewelry, jadeite and watches rose 34 percent to $275 million.
Recipe for a crisis
The global economic crisis, which began in the third quarter of 2008, brought Christie’s a 19% drop in sales (its main competitor, Sotheby’s, had a 15% decline). Nevertheless, the auction house sold 629 works of art in 2008 for amounts exceeding a million dollars. The best lot was “Water Lilies” by Claude Monet, which went under the hammer for 80.5 million. The second position in the top ten most expensive works was taken by Francis Bacon's triptych - 51.7 million, the third - painting "No. 15" by Mark Rothko (50.4 million). The total trading result for the year was $5.1 billion. And at the beginning of 2009, the auction house won a competition with Sotheby’s for the right to auction the art collection of Yves Saint Laurent. Experts valued this meeting at 300 million euros. The auction, which the French press has already called the “auction of the century,” will take place at the Paris Grand Palais on February 23-25. In anticipation of them, the director of the Art of Impressionism and Modernism department at Christie's, Matthew Stevenson, voiced his recommendations for collectors and investors in times of crisis: “In difficult times, always buy the best.”
Interesting facts
* In 1962, as the Cuban Missile Crisis intensified, company CEO Peter Chance secretly entered Cuba in an attempt to locate auction property that had been nationalized in 1959 after Castro came to power. And although the evaluation commission arrived with a catalog of values, its efforts were unsuccessful.
* In the late 60s, five years after the failure in Cuba, Christie's was able to establish successful trade relations with the USSR, selling 1,700 cutlery from a dinner service made in 1830, previously owned by Tsar Nicholas I, for the amount of 65,751 pounds ($193) 308).
* In January 1967, for the 200th anniversary of its founding, Christie's organized a huge exhibition. About 60 of the most famous paintings that were part of the auction were borrowed from the owners and exhibited to the public. The total cost of these works, including a portrait of the company's founder by Gainsborough, was about $5 million.
* At the end of 2008, representatives of Christie's called the market... icons among the most promising, because there are more and more potential buyers, people from countries where Orthodoxy is accepted.
* In November 2008, Christie’s brought its masterpieces to Kyiv: 18 paintings by old masters, Russian and Ukrainian contemporaries, including works by Canaletto, Frans Hals, Natalia Goncharova and Kazimir Malevich. The highlights of the exhibition were unanimously recognized as two works by Canaletto - “St. Mark’s Square in Venice” and “View of the Grand Canal in Venice.” The cost of each of them is at least 4 million euros. Ukrainian painting, in addition to Malevich, was represented by the works of David Burliuk.
*In February 2009, a nude photo of Madonna taken by Lee Friedlander for Playboy magazine in 1979 was sold at Christies for $37,500.
Vincent van Gogh. "A plowed field and a plowman." 1889. Photo: Christie's
Doubts that Christie’s auction house’s turnover in 2017 would be the largest were dispelled already in November, when Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “Salvator Mundi” was auctioned in New York for $450.3 million. These 20-minute auctions went down in the history of the world art market; almost half a million people watched the live broadcast of the sale of “Savior of the World.” And the work will probably now for years top the list of the world’s most expensive works of art sold at auction (buyers usually prefer to make such grand transactions 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 even without Leonardo). The share of buyers from Asia has grown significantly; they now make about a third of all purchases, and about half of what they buy is art from the Asian region. But New York traditionally remains the main site. Here they sold for $262.8 million, “The Sleeping Muse” by Constantin Brancusi for a record for the master $57.4 million, a painting by Vincent van Gogh for $81 million. Clients from the USA accounted for 32% of all acquisitions. However, the British and French branches of the auction house also did not disappoint - growth is observed everywhere. For example, a selection of works from the collection of Hubert de Givenchy, put up for sale in Paris in March, was 100% sold.
Constantin Brancusi. "Sleeping Muse" Photo: Christie's
Even the section of Russian art began to grow: the autumn auction in London was successful. “For the Russian representative office of Christie’s, 2017 was a very busy year,” says Dirk Boll, 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 Moscow office of Christie’s, the oldest auction office in the Russian capital, will celebrate its 25th anniversary. 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 it $4.7 billion, 13.1% more than last year’s total. This year the competition promises to be intense: a second Leonardo from Christie’s is unlikely to turn up, and Sotheby’s continues to arm itself. In addition to Art Agency, Partners, a consulting company (whose experts seem to know every art buyer in the world personally) and , which allows you to calculate the value of purchasing 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 images of works of art and selects from it what may suit the taste and budget of a particular buyer.
Twice a year, Christie's auction house organizes an auction of Russian art in London, and the rest of the time it is proud of the records it has set and tirelessly reminds us of the connection with our country, which was formed back in the 18th century. Then the founder of the house, James Christie, helped Empress Catherine II to acquire the collection of Sir Robert Walpole, which formed the basis of the State Hermitage collection. Since then, Russia’s friendship with Christie’s has only grown stronger.
When we arrived at Christie's headquarters on King Street, we had no idea how everything worked in it, much less could we imagine that under our feet, planted firmly on the patterned carpet in the foyer, there was a large storage room with Russian art. While the cultural population of Moscow dreams of looking behind the scenes of the Pushkin Museum, the Hermitage or the Tretyakov Gallery and does not have such an opportunity, and we share their unfulfilled desires, foreign museums, galleries and theaters turn out to be more accessible. Christie's Repository is an equally sacred place. , the same as the costume department of the Bolshoi Theater or the Ansaldo workshop in Milan, where they create monumental sets for La Scala performances. If the last two places are periodically given excursions, and the RGBI storage facility, for example, is even opened to everyone as part of “Library Night,” then it is almost impossible to get behind the scenes of one of the oldest auction houses without being involved in it. Christie's showed us the sidelines, leaving a section with Russian art for dessert, but, as often happens, they were not allowed to photograph anything. However, after the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva, where at the entrance they take away all things from each visitor, including mobile phones, such Bans won’t surprise anyone.
If you enter the building at 8 King Street and turn left from the main staircase, you will see an iron door that can only be opened with a special pass. Hidden behind it is a small spiral staircase decorated with posters and posters. Going underground, to the ground floor, you will find repositories of Russian, Islamic, and Indian art, where specialists are collecting lots for the upcoming auction. Before entering each tightly closed room, you experience confusion - like that moment when the cover that hides them is removed from masterpieces or when a theater curtain swings open. We met this moment in the company of the head of Christie's Russian art department, Sarah Mansfield, who kindly took us through the closed areas.
If in the repository of the Vienna Museum Essl (we remembered it at the recent auction at Christie's, where they sold the collection of the museum's founder, the Austrian Karlheinz Essl), you need to pull the handrails with all your might in order to bring out three-meter stands with German paintings, then the miniature one in comparison with it, Christie's Russian art section impresses with its comfort and warm atmosphere. It looks like a small library in an old building from the time of classicism, which can be found, for example, in the Moscow art school named after Serov. Paintings by Russian artists: Lentulov, Mashkov, Grigoriev are arranged in a row on wooden shelves. Above the desks hang shelves with Russian books, and enamel figurines, copper dishes, porcelain figurines, lamps and other objects of decorative and applied art are placed randomly nearby. All treasures are at arm's length: there is no glass or protective shells. “This is very rare,” Sarah handed me a lamp with a soft pink lampshade, created in the collaboration of Tiffany and Faberge, which was acquired by Empress Maria Feodorovna in 1901. She showed us antique Russian dishes, then pulled out several oil paintings for the upcoming auction and carried one of them into a tiny, lonely room. “Come in,” Sarah closes the door, and we find ourselves in the dark. Here, under the light of an ultraviolet lamp, Christie's experts examine the objects of art that came to them, finding defects and traces of restoration - those that cannot be noticed either in daylight or with electricity. In the sky of the landscape that she brought for inspection, we discovered a dark spot - this, according to Sarah, means that someone slightly restored the painting decades after its creation. When we again came out into the white light, the “secret” spot again became invisible.
In other departments of Christie's there are the same impressive warehouses full of sculptures, canvases and stretchers, and only in one room the light is on: from there you can hear the constant clicks of the camera shutter. Ancient Chinese vases, paintings by Pablo Picasso, sculptures by Jeff Koons and other art objects necessarily pass in front of the lens of Christie's photographer, who over the years of work has seen almost more art than all the other employees of the auction house. I remember the photo lab of LIFE magazine, shown in the film “The Incredible Life of Walter Mitty,” where the main character, who has been working in his position for 16 years, is immersed in the work of the entire magazine and knows it inside and out. Each photograph for the catalog takes the photographer 60-70 frames and about 20 minutes of work. At the same time, Christie's has as many as six photo studios in a mansion on King Street, where all the main lots are taken.
Results of Russian weeks - 2014
Christie's experts always talk about the Russian department as the fastest growing. The results of recent years clearly illustrate this. This summer, at the auction of Russian art, Christie's received record revenue - £24 million, about £200 thousand ahead of its main competitor - the oldest auction Sotheby's house. If you look at 2013, then the then £12.4 million was 49% higher than the revenue from similar auctions in 2012.
November 24, 2014 is now a special date in Christie's calendar. On this day, an absolute record was set for a work sold at Russian auctions. Thus, the canvas Valentina Serova "Portrait of Maria Tsetlin" went under the hammer for £9.3 million ($14.5 million). The list of ten top lots also included “Portrait of Alexander Tikhonov” by Yuri Annenkov (purchased for £4 million by a Russian dealer), two paintings by Boris Grigoriev, pieces from Faberge, a rare Soviet vase produced at the State Porcelain Factory in St. Petersburg, and other works of fine and decorative art.
Christie's auction dedicated to printed materials, in which Russian books were exhibited, was held in South Kensington the next day, November 25. 205 items were put up for sale, including 38 lots with Russian provenance, for example, a translation dedicated to Simon Chikovani Goethe's Faust (by Boris Pasternak), which went under the hammer for £6,875 ($10,766), as well as other valuable documents The Russian department will now quiet down for a while before preparations begin for the 2015 summer auction.
First row
The two main people who promote the Russian department are Alexey Tizenhausen and Sarah Mansfield. Connecting New York, Moscow and London, they have been together for ten years. heads the international department of Russian art at Christie's for 23 years and knows it better than anyone else. Tiesenhausen's track record includes large sales of Faberge collections in the late 1990s, and a particularly impressive one in 2007, when Christie's managed to sell a Faberge egg from the Rothschild collection for $18.5 million and set a new price record. He is also involved in cataloging all works of art that fall into the Russian departments, and is a mandatory figure at all Christie's pre-auction vernissages held in Moscow.
visits Russia more often than others: making several business visits a year, she made a lot of friends in Moscow, honed her knowledge of the Russian language and acquired important notes in her biography. Through the efforts of Ms. Mansfield, who is mainly engaged in Russian painting, in recent years Christie's has managed to sell several works of art for record sums. The most striking example is “Flowers” by Natalia Goncharova, which in 2008 went under the hammer for more than $10 million, setting a record the cost of the artist's works. Other major achievements are the sale of paintings by Abram Arkhipov ("On the Market"), Ivan Aivazovsky ("American Ship at the Rocks of Gibraltar") and Konstantin Somov.
Russian context
A whole galaxy of events was dedicated to the weeks of Russian auctions in London, which in addition to Christie's were also held by Sotheby's, Bonhams and MacDougall's. It is worth noting that neither sanctions nor the general situation in the world prevent the cross-year of culture Russia and Great Britain ended successfully. Interest in Russian culture not only does not fade, but, on the contrary, it flares up. The results of this year’s auction, as well as the very Russian autumn months for London, are proof of this.
London's Pace Gallery, for example, always in the front row at art fairs and with ten venues around the world (just shy of the Gagosian Gallery), opened a major exhibition by Olga Chernyshova in one of its spaces on November 25th. This Moscow artist, famous for her projects at international biennales (in 2001, for example, she represented Russia in Venice), first came to Pace and immediately found herself on Lexington Street, occupying the site for almost two months. Chernyshova works freely in various media, excelling both in graphics, photography and painting, as well as in creating video installations. All genres are mixed together at London's Pace, forming a common canvas that reveals Russia in general and Moscow in particular. It is interesting that, in parallel with the London exhibition, Chernyshova is also shown in Antwerp: there her works are mixed with the permanent collection of the museum, and, it is worth noting, they contrast with it no less brightly than the works of Wim Delvoye and the familiar Pushkin halls.
We also note the opening of the new building of the Russified auction house Phillips in Berkeley Square, the active participation of Russian collectors in the October Frieze Art Week, the showing of the play “As You Like It” based on Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” on the stage of the Barbican Center and other related Autumn events in Russia.
Perhaps the main Russian event of December was hosted by Charles Saatchi in his gallery. He decided to reconcile Russia with the rest of the world and mixed in one exhibition “Post-Pop: Meeting East and West” works by artists from the USA, Great Britain, China, Taiwan, Russia and the CIS countries. Thus, video installations by AES+F, paintings by Eric Bulatov and Vladimir Dubossarsky, installations by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov are combined with works by Chinese activist Ai Weiwei, American sculptor Daniel Arsham, iconic post-war artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, as well as exhibits from the British Glenn Brown, Gary Hume, Marc Quinn and many others. Milestones of the 20th century in the works of artists of that time and their echoes in contemporary art can be studied from November 26 to February 23, 2015.
