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Christie's, the 211 year-old auction house, might well be on the verge of being under the control of one of its major shareholders, according to rumours propagated in .
Such speculation was fuelled when Christie's shares went up by 40% in the space of a week on the London Stock Exchange market. The « Times » newspaper suggested that an attempt to take control of Christie's was probably under way.
The mysterious group interested in taking control of Christie's might in fact be its major shareholder financial tycoon Joey Lewis based in the Bahamas who already holds some 30% of its shares. However, other shareholders members of Christie's board might also be behind the Stock Exchange move to protect themselves against such take-over.
Christie's recorded a total turnover of US $ 1,602 billion dollars just ahead of Sotheby's US $ 1,6 billion but after-tax profits only reached US $ 53,6 millions, US $ 14,6 millions less than Sotheby's.
Christie's is trying to achieve new targets, notably in South America, Asia and Paris where it has acquired the Artcurial premises on avenue Matignon in order to organise sales when foreign auction houses are due to obtain a go-ahead from French authorities in about six or seven months from now. One thing is for sure : the art market is now about to be back on its feet after the severe crisis which resulted from the Gulf War in 1991.
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