Word’s gone around that Christie’s owner and luxury goods magnate François Pinault will soon shed his interest in the venerable English firm, with the buyer Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani of the Qatari royal family. During his 12 year tenure as owner, M. Pinault has seen some profound ups and downs in the fortunes of the salesroom- mostly downs. The price fixing scandal with Sotheby’s, the experience of huge losses the result of unsold lots the salesroom had guaranteed, and, of course, the downturn in the luxury goods market the last couple of years has doubtless made ownership of Christie’s an expensive proposition.
While not everyone purchases art and antiques from Christie’s at the highest levels, one can’t be either a dealer or a collector or an interior designer without knowledge that, in the last few years, Christie’s has sought to be in effect a retail vendor, as well, through its frequent ‘Interiors’ sales conducted in New York and South Kensington, London. While the material on offer may be less vaunted, the cost to catalog and market even second and third rank material is not. Although Christie’s, and Sotheby’s, too, have sought to cut costs by pruning staff numbers almost in half- and raising buyer’s premiums to upwards of 30% of the hammer price- they nevertheless continue to operate a high overhead, sporadically profitable and sometimes highly unprofitable business in some of the costliest commercial neighborhoods in the world.
It’s interesting, the Sultan of Qatar had commented last week to the Financial Times that Christie’s would be a good adjunct to his own passion for art collecting. That was at least partly M. Pinault’s motivation, as well. Clearly, business sense- or necessity- is now overruling passion. Even for billionaires, there must eventually be a payday.