disambiguation christie s christie s american branch in rockefeller center new york industry art auctions founded 1766 headquarters london united kingdom area served worldwide key people fran ois henri pinault patricia barbizet products painting modern art fine arts pop art parent groupe art mis website christies.com christie s founded in 1766 by james christie is the world s leading art business with sales in 2015 that totalled 4.8 billion 7.4 billion . 1 christie s has its main headquarters in london on king street and rockefeller plaza in new york . 2 it is owned by groupe art mis the holding company of fran ois henri pinault . 3 contents 1 history 1.1 founding 1.2 1973 1999 1.3 1998 takeover 1.4 today 2 commissions 3 locations 4 price fixing scandal 5 notable auctions 6 christie s fine art storage services cfass 7 christie s international real estate 8 christie s education graduate programmes 9 ventures 10 references 11 bibliography 12 external links history edit founding edit in a peep at christies 1796 james gillray caricatured actress elizabeth farren and huntsman lord derby examining paintings appropriate to their tastes and heights . the official company literature states that founder james christie conducted the first sale in london england on 5 december 1766 4 and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from december 1766 . however other sources note that james christie rented auction rooms from 1762 and newspaper advertisements of christie s sales dating from 1759 have also been traced . 5 christie s soon established a reputation as a leading auction house and took advantage of london s new found status as the major centre of the international art trade after the french revolution . from 1859 the company was called christie manson & woods . in 1958 it established its first overseas office by placing a representative in rome . the first overseas salesroom opened in geneva where christie s holds jewellery auctions . 1973 1999 edit the microcosm of london 1808 an engraving of christie s auction room christie s was a public company listed on the london stock exchange from 1973 to 1999 . in 1974 jo floyd was appointed chairman of christie s. he served as chairman of christie s international p.l.c. from 1976 to 1988 until handing over to lord carrington and later was a non executive member of the board of directors until 1992 . 6 the auction house s subsidiary christie s international inc. held its first sale in the united states in 1977 13 years later than sotheby s. christie s growth was slow but steady since 1989 when it had 42 percent of the auction market . 7 in 1990 the company reversed a longstanding policy and guaranteed a minimum price for a collection of artworks in its may auctions . 8 in 1996 the auction house s sales eclipsed sotheby s for the first time since 1954 . 9 however its profits did not grow at the same pace ; 10 from 1993 through 1997 christie s annual pretax profits were about 60 million whereas sotheby s annual pretax profits were about 265 million for those years . 11 in 1993 christie s paid 10.9 million for the london gallery spink & sons which specialised in oriental art and british paintings ; the gallery was run as a separate entity from the auction house . the company bought leger gallery for 3.3 million in 1996 and merged it with spink to become spink leger . 12 spink leger was closed in 2002 . to make itself competitive with sotheby s in real estate christie s bought great estates in 1995 then the largest network of independent real estate brokers in north america changing its name to christie s great estates inc. 7 1998 takeover edit in december 1997 under the chairmanship of lord hindlip christie s put itself on the auction block but after two months of negotiations with the consortium led investment firm sbc warburg dillon read it did not attract a bid high enough to accept . 11 in may 1998 fran ois pinault s holding company groupe art mis s.a. first bought 29.1 percent of the company for 243.2 million and subsequently purchased the rest of it in a deal that valued the entire company at 1.2 billion . 10 the company has since not been reporting profits though it gives sale totals twice a year . its policy in line with u.k. accounting standards is to convert non u.k. results using an average exchange rate weighted daily by sales throughout the year . 13 in 2002 christie s france held its first auction in paris . 14 like sotheby s christie s became increasingly involved in high profile private transactions . in 2006 christie s offered a reported 21 million guarantee to the donald judd foundation and displayed the artist s works for five weeks in an exhibition that later won an aica award for best installation in an alternative space . 15 in 2007 the auction house brokered a 68 million deal that transferred thomas eakins s the gross clinic 1875 from the jefferson medical college at the thomas jefferson university in philadelphia to joint ownership by the philadelphia museum of art and the pennsylvania academy of the fine arts . 16 that same year haunch of venison a contemporary art gallery which since 2002 had successfully conducted back room sales of secondary market works by major artists such as francis bacon andy warhol and damien hirst from its locations in london and z rich 17 became a subsidiary of christie s international plc. 18 under the original deal the gallery was meant to be the channel for all of christie s private client business as well as the focus of its primary trade . 19 also the auction house originally announced that haunch employees could not bid at auction because of conflicts of interest or issues of market manipulation but later abandoned this rule . 20 while christie s eventually retained the brand name and repositioned haunch as purely a primary focused gallery any secondary market activities were taken over by the auction house s post war and contemporary department . 21 today the gallery continues to operate as an independent company in london and new york and again handles all of its secondary market activities itself . 22 on 28 december 2008 the sunday times reported that pinault s debts left him considering the sale of christie s and that a number of private equity groups were thought to be interested in its acquisition . 23 in january 2009 christie s was reported to employ 2 100 people worldwide though an unspecified number of staff and consultants were soon to be cut due to a worldwide downturn in the art market ; 24 later news reports said that 300 jobs would be cut . 25 with sales for premier impressionist modern and contemporary artworks tallying only us248 .8 million in comparison to us739 million just a year before a second round of job cuts began after may 2009 when the auction house was still reported to employ 1 900 people worldwide . 26 one of the auction house s rainmakers in the sale of impressionist and modern art guy bennett resigned from the auction house just prior to the beginning of the summer 2009 sales season . 27 although the economic downturn has encouraged some collectors to sell art others are unwilling to sell in a market which may yield only bargain prices . 25 today edit christie s chinese preview exhibition frenchwoman madame patricia barbizet was appointed chief executive officer of christie s in 2014 the first female ceo of the company . 28 as of 2012 impressionist works which dominated the market during the 1980s boom have been replaced by contemporary art as christie s top category . asian art was the third most lucrative area . 13 with income from classic auctioneering falling treaty sales made 413.4 million 665 million in the first half of 2012 an increase of 53 % on the same period last year ; they now represent more than 18 % of turnover . 29 the company has promoted curated events centred on a theme rather than an art classification or time period . 30 commissions edit from 2008 until 2013 christie s charged 25 percent for the first 50 000 ; 20 percent on the amount between 50 001 and 1 million and 12 percent on the rest . from 2013 it charged 25 percent for the first 75 000 ; 20 percent on the next 75 001 to 1.5 million and 12 percent on the rest . 31 locations edit the christie s secondary london salesroom in south kensington . 20 rockefeller plaza manhattan christie s main london salesroom is on king street in st. james s where it has been based since 1823 . it has a second london salesroom in south kensington which opened in 1975 and primarily handles the middle market . christie s south kensington is one of the world s busiest auction rooms . in 1977 christie s opened a branch on new york s park avenue with a salesroom accommodating about 600 people . increasingly cramped for space the auction house signed a 30 year lease in 1997 for a 300 000 square foot space in rockefeller center for 40 million . 32 the christie s new york sign was created by nancy meyers during the production of the 2003 film something s got ta give for an exterior shot ; the auction house liked the sign so much that it requested the production leave it after shooting finished . until 2001 christie s east a division that sold lower priced art and objects was located at 219 east 67th street . in 1996 christie s bought a town house on east 59th street in manhattan as a separate gallery where experts could show clients art in complete privacy to conduct private treaty sales . 7 christie s opened a beverly hills salesroom in 1997 . 33 as of january 2009 24 christie s had 85 offices not all are salesrooms in 43 countries including new york city los angeles paris geneva houston amsterdam moscow vienna buenos aires berlin rome south korea milan madrid japan china australia hong kong singapore bangkok tel aviv dubai and mexico city . in 1995 christie s became the first international auction house to exhibit works of art in beijing china . price fixing scandal edit in 2000 allegations surfaced of a price fixing arrangement between christie s and sotheby s another major auction house . executives from christie s subsequently alerted the department of justice of their suspicions of commission fixing collusion . christie s gained immunity from prosecution in the united states as a longtime employee of christie s confessed and cooperated with the u.s. federal bureau of investigation . numerous members of sotheby s senior management were fired soon thereafter and a. alfred taubman the largest shareholder of sotheby s at the time took most of the blame ; he and dede brooks the ceo were given jail sentences and christie s sotheby s and their owners also paid a civil lawsuit settlement of 512 million . 34 35 36 notable auctions edit pontormo portrait of a halberdier 1528 1530 . sold by christie s for us 35 . 2 million in 1989 . j. paul getty museum los angeles this section needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message in 1987 during the royal albert hall auction christie s famously auctioned off a bugatti royale automobile for a world record price of 5.5 million . in may 1989 pontormo s portrait of a halberdier was sold to the