Christie’s Spring Auctions Bloom Record Sales Despite Cyber Attack

Andy Warhol’s “Flowers.” Photo: Christie’s

A security breach brought Christie’s auction house website down on the evening of May 9, just days before a week of important art auctions. While staff raced against time to solve the issue, a temporary website was set up for prospective bidders to view the auction lots. On May 19, CEO Guillaume Cerutti issued a statement confirming that the website and app were back online and apologizing for the inconvenience.

While the five online-only auctions scheduled for that week had to be postponed, the highly anticipated live auctions were still held—and still successful. Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale on May 16, featuring art by such famous figures as David Hockney, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Claude Monet, was a special standout, with bidders around the world bringing high prices, including some artist records.

Emily Kaplan, co-head of the sale, called it “a testament to the lasting power of Pop.” Sure enough, the top lot was Flowers by Andy Warhol, whose name is practically synonymous with Pop Art. After five minutes of bidding, it sold for $35.5 million. Van Gogh’s Coin de Jardin Avec Papillons was close behind at $33.2 million.

Van Gogh “Coin de Jardin Avec Papillons.” Photo: Christie’s

Three records were set at the auction. The photograph Satiric Dancer, 1926, sold for $567,000, setting an auction record for André Kertész. Alexander Archipenko’s sculpture Woman Combing Her Hair sold for $5.1 million, almost doubling the artist’s previous record set by Christie’s in 2005. Rene Magritte’s Les Grâces Naturelles sold for $3.6 million, a record price for a sculpture by the famous surrealist.

The auction brought in a total of $413.3 million.

All told, despite the cyber-attack, Christie’s concluded a successful series of six live sales for its spring marquee week of 20th/21st-century Art sales on May 18. The sales, which were led by the 20th Century Evening Sale, the 21st Century Evening Sale, and The Rosa de la Cruz Collection Evening Sale, delivered a market-leading performance, realizing a combined total of $640,219,290.

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Cyber-attack Cripples Christie’s Website on Eve of $840 Million in Art Auctions

Hackers took down the website but couldn’t stop the season’s most important auctions, including the sale of works by van Gogh, Picasso, and Basquiat.

Facade of Christie’s auction house, with flags and doorman visible, in Manhattan,
New York City, New York, September 15, 2017. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

Christie’s is one of the world’s leading auction houses, famous for its sales of fine art, jewelry, and historical artifacts. And yet days before the auction house was expected to sell as much as $840 million worth of art via various auctions this week, it was crippled by a cyberattack that shut down its website and raised concern about control of sensitive client information.

On Friday, May 10, The New York Times broke the news that Christie’s website had been hacked and had shut down the previous evening. In a statement, Christie’s spokesman, Edward Lewine, confirmed what had happened and stated the auction house had brought in a team of technology experts to address the problem and would provide further updates to clients.

“A cyberattack like this is the 21st-century equivalent of a hand grenade in a small room,” art market lawyer Thomas C. Danziger, who often represents clients at auction, told The New York Times. “Twenty-five years ago, it would have been a flood or a hurricane.”

The cyberattack will likely have little impact on eight of the major live auctions in New York and Geneva this week, events featuring paintings by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, because serious bidders will have other channels to work through. Yet the great unknown is whether critical client data has been breached in the cyberattack.

A person looks at US artist Andy Warhol’s “Flowers” during a media preview
at Christie’s, ahead of their May 14 21st Century Evening Sale, on May 3, 2024,
in New York City. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP) (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)

Christie’s has not elaborated on the nature of the attack but Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Cerutti said in a statement: “I want to assure you that we are managing this incident according to our well-established protocols and practices, with the support of additional experts.

“This included among other things the proactive protection of our main website by taking it offline. I am pleased to reassure you that our clients for these sales will be able to bid securely in person, on the phone or via Christie’s Live.”

As of Wednesday morning, the website was still not fully functional.

The 20th Century Evening Sale, taking place Thursday, May 16, and featuring art by famous figures like Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Georgia O’Keefe, is expected to experience $500 million in sales.

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