Christie’s, leading Auction House in the world, founded in London in 1766 by James Christie, today has more than 50 offices in 32 countries around the world and has just successfully concluded the big Old Masters Auctions Summer session in London.

Among them, the Old Master Drawings sales achieved more than £16 million and included the IQ Regteren Van Altena Drawing Collection, which, as stated by Benjamin Perronet (Old Master Drawings International Head), has doubled the forecast maximum estimate with top lots by Peter Paul Rubens, Hendrick Goltzius and Jacques de Gheyn II.

Ketty Gottardo, Director of Drawings Department at Christie's Paris

Ketty Gottardo, Director of Drawings Department at Christie’s Paris

Ketty Gottardo, Italian born but Parisian by adoption, Paris Drawings Department Director for the last six years, reveals to us that the auction success was due to the perfect synergy between Christie’s history of drawings experts located in the different drawings Departments worldwide – among which there are Perronet Benjamin (London) and Jennifer Wright (New York) – who collaborate to provide four auctions a year: New York (January), Paris (March ) and London (July and December). After a first fundamental phase of selection and study of the artworks proposed to Christie’s by owners, the experts choose the best location to better sale them according to collectors’ interest. The Italian Renaissance art, for example, finds more favor in London, while the Seventeenth century French school has more success in Paris. Such a cooperative work requires the use of advanced computer systems that allow real time data exchange between multiple locations. For this reason two different storage systems have been set up, but that are closely related to each other. The first is devoted to recording the items proposed to Christie’s and it follows a particular cataloguing criterion according to different objects. The drawings archive records the author, the iconography, the size, the techniques, the bibliography and provenance. At this , a second storage program is linked. This gathers information about the collectors who bought and sold at Christie’s, with the artworks details. Essential, both for experts and for the public, is the Christie’s web-site, which provides future sales and auction results information, with the sold lot details only. Christie’s policy choice does not intend to disclose the unsold information, only accessible for the experts by Christie’s intranet, through a record system of “lot finder”.

Collectors can also use the website for the online bid, by Christie’s live. This purchase method is present all over the world and opens the doors to the emerging Asian market which can virtually interact during sales.
Christie’s experts have a challenging, rigorous and continuing study role, but the auction organization gives always great satisfaction. Finally, with eyes full of emotion, Mrs Gottardo opens herself about the best moment of her career which was in Paris in 2010 at the Maurice Fenaille Collection sale. Here she attended the sale of a Boucher pastel with a Female nude preparatory to Venus of the dove, estimated € 50,000 / € 70,000 which reached ten times the estimated price reaching € 601,000.

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