Business booming for big auction house

Christie's reports 'explosion of interest in art' by collectors worldwide, writes Michael Parsons

INTERNATIONAL fine art auction house Christie’s this week reported financial results for 2011 and announced worldwide sales of £3.6 billion (€4.3bn) helped by “the explosion of interest in art, fuelled by globalisation, facilitated by the technology that increases access to information and images”.

The auctioneers said turnover was up 9 per cent compared with 2010 and that it had sold 719 works at auction for over $1 million (€759,000), a rise of 18 per cent on 2010. US and European clients accounted for 77 per cent of sale registrations, with 13 per cent from “greater China”.

The growing importance of the Internet in the international art market was underlined by news that 29 per cent of bidders had “transacted online”. And Christie’s said its website had received “77 per cent more unique visitors than the previous year”.

The most important auction of 2011 was the sale of Elizabeth Taylor’s jewellery collection – for $157 million (€119m) – which attracted bidders from 36 countries with every one of the 1,778 lots sold.

Overall, Christie’s strongest category was post-war and contemporary art. Two paintings by Irish-born artist Francis Bacon featured on the list of the top 10 lots sold worldwide. Other Irish-interest items which contributed to Christie’s success were pieces of art deco furniture by Eileen Grey, the Co Wexford-born designer, at auction in Paris and art and antiques from the estate of the late Dr Tony Ryan, founder of Ryanair, at auction in London.

Top 10 Christie’s best selling paintings of 2011

I Can See the Whole Room!...and There's Nobody in it!, 1961 Roy Lichtenstein $43.2m

Andy Warhol Self-Portrait, 1963-1964 Andy Warhol $38.4m

Gimcrack on Newmarket Heath, 1765 George Stubbs $35.9m

Untitled No. 17, 1961 Mark Rothko $33.6m

Femme assise, robe bleue, 1939 Pablo Picasso $29.1m

Study for a Portrait,1953 Francis Bacon $28.6m

Andy Warhol Self-Portrait,1986 Andy Warhol $27.5m

Three Studies for Self-Portrait, 1974 Francis Bacon $25.2m

Les Peupliers,1891 Claude Monet $22.4m

Paysage de banlieue,1905 Maurice de Vlaminck $22.4m