The year coming to a close and all action behind us, I’m very proud to report that Christie’s in 2017 has been the market leader in the African and Oceanic Art market. Our four sales combined (three in Paris and one in New York), we sold for a total sum of about € 30 million (against € 27 million at our closest competitor). Furthermore, we had the most successful sale of a single-owner collection sale in a decade in Paris with the sale of the Vérité collection, which achieved € 16,7 million, and broke the world record for the most expensive Oceanic art object ever sold at auction: the Hawaiian God statue from the Vérité collection selling for € 6,3 million. Our innovative new sale calendar, our strengthened team, our concept of tightly curated sales, and our top notch catalogues, all were pivotal for this unparalleled success – and there’s still a lot room for growth! We have already been working hard on our next sale in Paris, on April 10th, which will include two exciting fresh-to-the market collections. And there’s much more in the pipeline, not yet to be revealed…
I want to thank you all for the continued support and hope to see you again at Christie’s in the new year. But for now, let me wish you some magical holidays and a great 2018!
Very best,
Bruno
ps above my favorite view of the year, with four of the Oceanic masterpieces of the Vérité collection in one picture; I’m very grateful to have had the chance to work with these objects. The success at work unfortunately has come at one small price; it has never been so quiet on this blog before, for which I apologies – although you know to what I’ve been up to :)