NEW YORK—With business acumen honed since 1766, buying fine art is a very lucrative business indeed for Christie's. With salesrooms in just about every major city around the world, the venerable auction house has jumped into the 21st century even as it sells masterpieces from earlier periods.
Their Web site allows users to bid live in any Christie's auction. Anonymous bidders, identified with only a number, can also bid by phone during the auction. Those wishing to experience the action live can sit in the room as paintings and sculptures are displayed on a revolving dais and a large screen on a front wall.
A Christie's auction is not a run-of-the-mill public sale one might come across at the home of a recently deceased resident of small-town America, or at a Western cattle yard. Everything is done to make the bidder think he is involved in a very important cultural event.
On a late November day in the Christie Room at Rockefeller Plaza, bidders in the standing-room only crowd sipped water, soft drinks or wine from wine glasses or nibbled grapes available from a table just outside the main room. Most carried large full-color catalogs or smaller books of the art to be sold that day.
Promotion begins well before the sale, as news reports with expected sale prices are available. On the day of the sale, employees in dark knits mingled with bidders, providing information to serious bidders.
Auctioneer Christopher Burge managed the proceedings in a clear and pleasing British accent that somehow gave everything an upscale feel.
Bidders in understated suits and casual wear meandered in and out, speaking to an acquaintance, or sipping a drink, while at the same time intensely focused on the movement of the circular dais that held the latest painting or sculpture.
Mr. Burge spoke with confidence and consideration and appeared very familiar with the artwork being offered for sale.
Bidders and onlookers alike meandered in and out of the brown and beige room with a nonchalance that belied the money exchanging hands. A bank of phones staffed by young and well-dressed employees filled a long table at one end of the room and a raised bar opposite the auctioneer at the front.
A bidder might be invisible until his desired piece came up on the board. Then he would lift his paddle with his number, which received Mr. Burge's full attention for the 15 to 30 seconds the item was up for bid. Once the gavel came down, all attention moved to the next item. Some bidders would bid on one or two items, then quietly leave.
According to a post-sale Christie's report of their most recent auction of American paintings, drawings and sculpture, "Today's sale offered the most important collection of American Western art to appear on the market for a generation, masterworks by American Impressionists, images from 20th century masters and a charming depiction of Santa Claus by Norman Rockwell."
Some of the paintings expected to bring high prices were exhibited on the walls, among them Frederic Remington's "The Signal (If Skulls Could Speak)" which sold for $4.41 million. The Christie's report described the painting as "representing a classic theme of his art, [in which] the image depicts a Native American on a rearing horse, and nearby a buffalo skull provides a poignant reminder of the fate of Native Americans in the West."
The Norman Rockwell illustration of Santa Claus sold for $2.17 million, coming up short of the auction house's estimate of $2.5 to $3.5 million. The artist, famed for nostalgic images of American life, created the oil on canvas for a December 1939 cover of The Saturday Evening Post, showing Santa mapping a global journey to deliver toys with a diary entitled "Extra Good Boys & Girls."
Paintings by the Wyeths, father and son, fetched some of the top bids. According to Christie's post-sale report: "Andrew Wyeth's 'The Intruder' from 1971, realized an exceptional $5.75 million, above the highest pre-sale expectations and the second highest auction price ever for the artist."
An expected offering of three paintings from the Roanoke College Meier Museum of Art failed to materialize. According to sources at Christies, all three paintings were withdrawn before the event.
Christie's promotes itself as "the world's leading art business" and boasts "85 offices in 43 countries and 14 salerooms around the world including London, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Dubai and Hong Kong." For more information, visit their Web site at www.christies.com.
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