New technology and popularity of the Internet in the past two decades have upended the retail, news and music industries, to name only a few. The world of high-end art auctions has been relatively immune. Buyers paying as much as millions of dollars for an object like to see things first-hand and talk to an expert before bidding. “We call ourselves an industry,” said CEO Guillaume Cerutti in a wide-ranging interview in Shanghai. “But we are craftsmen and we are selling a unique object and interacting with a limited number of clients. We are protected by these parameters.”
Yet today’s global launch of online education courses by Christie’s underscores how the web is gradually making a mark in a traditional business. The new English- and Chinese-language courses will particularly help the company reach out to art fans and collectors in China, a country where the government restricts the activities of foreign auction houses and educators. The new content will raise anew the number of people that come to a Christie’s website that these days generates a full third of its new customers. Though online sales account for a slim 1% of Christie’s business, they “have been a fantastic channel because its easier and less intimidating for this generation of new clients and collectors,” Cerutti said.
Christie’s knows of what it speaks about art. The company held $3 billion of global auction, private and digital sales in first half of 2017. The London-headquartered company organizes around 350 auctions annually in over 80 categories, including all areas of fine and decorative arts, jewelry, photographs, collectibles and wine. Prices range from $200 to over $100 million. The company, now owned by French billionaire Francois Pinault’s Group Artemis, has a history that backs to 1766. Group Artemis also controls storied labels such as Chateau Latour and Gucci.
But times are changing in the art world. Some 35% of Christie’s business in the first half of the year came from Asia buyers, underscoring the globalization of the business. Notably, too, 13% came from mainland China, now home to the world’s second-largest number of billionaires after the United States. Another second shift is in taste: More people today collect 20th century and contemporary art categories than classic ones; 10 years ago the breakdown between categories were more balanced. To keep up, Christie’s has had to add new experts while trying not to lose its experience in fields currently less popular, Cerutti said.
A final big change is the Internet. Its impact isn’t in the amount of online auction business. “People don’t want to buy without the experience of talking to a specialist or seeing the piece in the flesh,” Cerutti said. There’s another big difference between buying art and an e-commerce site: return policies. “When you buy something on Amazon or eBay, you can return the product. With a work of art, it doesn’t work like this.”
Instead, the online sites are important for the customer leads they generate. “These new channels – the online sales—for auction houses and galleries have become more and more important because it is a way to recruit a new generation of clients who sometimes are intimidated by the auction rooms and the theatre around the auction, or could be intimidated by crossing the entrance of a gallery. They go directly on the Internet.” The challenge to Christie’s from that growing audience is “to transform curiosity into a commercial participation” in a sale.
Christie’s new online education program started today likewise involves an area in which it has experience. The company offers degrees in both London and New York covering antiquity to contemporary art, as well as master’s degrees in art, law and business. It also has a wide range of short courses, for experts and as introductions to the art world, in London, New York, Hong Kong and Dubai.
The new program will also bring the company directly in contact with even more of those online visitors that have been a good source of new business and help compete with rival Sotheby’s, itself active in Asia. The first online course, “Inside the Global Art World,” runs five weeks and aims to give an in-depth understanding of the global art world and its ecosystem of artists, private dealers, galleries, collectors, auction houses, art fairs, biennials, and museums. Wang Wei, co-founder of the Long Museum in Shanghai, was interviewed for the Mandarin version. “It’s easier today to talk to Mandarin speakers” on an online platform “than to launch a degree here in China because there are restrictions about education,” Cerutti said. What’s more, there are a lot of mainlanders online: more than 700 million as of last year, tops in the world. “We think it’s a good route, and we hope the program will be successful,” he said.
Christie’s also faces restrictions on its core auction business. At present, foreign auction houses can only sell post-1949 pieces. Nevertheless, Christie’s decided five years ago to take the plunge and open an auction business in Shanghai. “It has been our strategy to be where our clients are,” he said. “To date, we are the only international auction house operating on its own with auction sales in mainland China because we strongly believe that it’s part of the future of the art market that is (being) written here in China.” Records fell in September in Shanghai at a Christie’s auction near its city headquarters in Rockbund near the historic Bund. (See related stories here and here.) “Shanghai is establishing itself as a hub with museums. At this stage of development of the auction market in China, Shanghai is the relevant place to be,” Cerutti said. Eventually, he hopes that “demonstrating our good will for China and resilience will convince the Chinese authorities progressively to open up the market.”
Cerutti believes China will ease up because he has seen the French government do something similar nearly two decades. “I’m a French man, and I’m in a good position to remember that France 15 years ago had more or less the same regulations as China. The market was open to international auction houses like Christie’s only in 2001. Since then, the French market has been growing. The fear of course of the people that were against the liberalization of the market was that the international auction houses would eventually dry up the market. The exact opposite happened. It was the possibility of attracting international sellers.”
“We have been growing the market there,” he said. “We think we could grow the art market in China and be a real cultural player if we were allowed to sell cultural relics, and if the regulation was slightly softened. That’s our hope. We know that in China it’s often a question of the long term, and we’re ready for a long march toward the opening.”
--Follow me on Twitter @rflannerychina
