Less than 12 days after acquiring 29,1% shares of the British auction house Christie's, French businessman François Pinault offred on May 18th 1998 to take full control of the 232-year-old institution. François Pinault made an offer to buy all Christie's shares through his holding, Artemis, for some US $ 1,17 million. Christie's shares rose by over 25% on the London Stock Exchange when the announcement was made. François Pinault, a keen collector of modern and contemporary art works, intends to boost Christie's activities in France in view of forthcoming auctioneering reforms here which will allow foreign groups to carry out sales on French territory. As a result, only 25% of French auction associations are expected to survive as only a few have the capacity to resist the offensive already launched by Christie's and Sotheby's in Paris. A bloody battle seems on the way for the control of the Paris auction market and many French auctioneers are now at a loss as to whether they should form alliances in order to have enough financial potential to deal on equal terms with Christie's and Sotheby's. The French flavor given to Christie's is a terrible blow to the Drouot and most groups of auctioneers are now left without arguments regarding what they called a foreign invasion of their territory. Under French control, Christie's might well toll the knell of Drouot's hopes to survive at the highest level in Paris with enough ammunitions.
Artemis offered to buy all Christie's shares at 396 pence per unit on the London Stock Exchange market and such offer was backed by Christie's administrators who advised all shareholders to accept it. François Pinault said that in his view Christie's had an enormous potential because world art sales were still in significant progress. Christie's centered its activities on New York and London with a 95% progression between 1991 and 1997 though France has the world's biggest reservoir of works of art and paintings meaning that the auction house will not only be able to sell in Paris but also have the opportunity of laying hands on important pieces which will be sold back in the U.S where vendors can benefit from better tax arrangements.
Set up in 1766, Christie's joined the Stock Exchange in 1973 and Artemis' offer has already induced SPO which manages a U.S fund to sell its 9,1% participation in the company. The other big shareholders were Schroder's and Mercury Asset Management of Britain which held 6,3% and 5,7% of Christie's shares while Toronto Dominion was the fifth with 4,6%.
François Pinault started his career in Brittany by running a wood cutting company and then worked in the banking sector before taking control of the Printemps-Redoute chainstores which include Le Printemps, Conforama, Fnac and the big mail order company la Redoute. He recently acquired Guilbert, the leading European group of office stationary. All the more, Artemis has set foot in the property sector with the acquisition last month of the real estate group Sefimeg and has bought the weekly magazine Le Point. The company is also quite active in the U.S where it owns the Converse sport shoes firm, the Samsonite luggage group, the Culligan water purification concern, several real estate firms as well as the Vail ski resort. However François Pinault did meet some failures during his career notably when he tried to get into the financial sector with a bid to take over the diversified Worms group and its insurance branch Athena from which he was evicted six months ago by the Someal (a French branch of Agnelli) and AGF insurance group alliance. He has also been in the midst of a financial dispute with the CDR, a public organization which has bought back certain assets of the Credit Lyonnais bank. François Pinault is notably trying to buy the 26,1% shares the CDR holds in Artemis but both parties disagree on the buying price.
His offer to take control full control of Christie's occurred just after after a meeting at the National Gallery in London of a panel of experts in charge of determining whether Van Gogh's «Sunflowers» sold by Christie's to the Japanese insurance group Yasuda for over US $ 44 million in 1987 was genuine. A serious controversy arose five years ago about the authenticity of the painting and an entire day of intense debate between specialists was not enough to lift doubts. Mr Yasuda might well sue Christie's if experts failed to agree on this issue and such action would probably cast a shadow on Christie's reputation and also cause a fall of the value of the company shares which rose by exactly 26,7% after May 15th 1998. Christopher Davidge, Christie's present chairman said he was pleased with the take over and added he was confident that Van Gogh's « Sunflowers » were genuine. «François Pinault knows the art market well and I am certain he carefully weighed his decision», he stressed. Mr Davidge praised François Pinault whom he described as a passionate collector of modern and contemporary art pieces. «I am proud of our British heritage and the arrival of François Pinault is simply a proof that the art market is fully international. I have already known him well as one of our main buyers,» he added. «As soon as the French market will be opened, we will organise sales in Paris and I see no reason to pursue our activities in Monaco which in our view was a substitute market», he said. Mr Davidge refused to compare François Pinault with Alfred Taubman, the Michigan promoter who acquired Sotheby's in 1983 saying that the Frenchman represented a different generation and originated from a different social class. «He is a great collector of modern and contemporary art pieces, a sector which will be incredibly booming during the next decade,» he noted. Analysts said Christie's had still much do to consolidate its leadership after being on top of Sotheby's during the past two years. Despite some much publicized great auctions and reforms taken within the company, such as staff cuts, salary and catalogue costs are still high while activities in the financial and property sectors which are much of François Pinault's competences are poor compared with those of Sotheby's. It is therefore likely that François Pinault will concentrate most of his efforts to fill that gap. Adrian Darmon
Less than 12 days after acquiring 29,1% shares of the British auction house Christie's, French businessman François Pinault offred on May 18th 1998 to take full control of the 232-year-old institution. François Pinault made an offer to buy all Christie's shares through his holding, Artemis, for some US $ 1,17 million. Christie's shares rose by over 25% on the London Stock Exchange when the announcement was made. François Pinault, a keen collector of modern and contemporary art works, intends to boost Christie's activities in France in view of forthcoming auctioneering reforms here which will allow foreign groups to carry out sales on French territory. As a result, only 25% of French auction associations are expected to survive as only a few have the capacity to resist the offensive already launched by Christie's and Sotheby's in Paris. A bloody battle seems on the way for the control of the Paris auction market and many French auctioneers are now at a loss as to whether they should form alliances in order to have enough financial potential to deal on equal terms with Christie's and Sotheby's. The French flavor given to Christie's is a terrible blow to the Drouot and most groups of auctioneers are now left without arguments regarding what they called a foreign invasion of their territory. Under French control, Christie's might well toll the knell of Drouot's hopes to survive at the highest level in Paris with enough ammunitions.
Artemis offered to buy all Christie's shares at 396 pence per unit on the London Stock Exchange market and such offer was backed by Christie's administrators who advised all shareholders to accept it. François Pinault said that in his view Christie's had an enormous potential because world art sales were still in significant progress. Christie's centered its activities on New York and London with a 95% progression between 1991 and 1997 though France has the world's biggest reservoir of works of art and paintings meaning that the auction house will not only be able to sell in Paris but also have the opportunity of laying hands on important pieces which will be sold back in the U.S where vendors can benefit from better tax arrangements.
Set up in 1766, Christie's joined the Stock Exchange in 1973 and Artemis' offer has already induced SPO which manages a U.S fund to sell its 9,1% participation in the company. The other big shareholders were Schroder's and Mercury Asset Management of Britain which held 6,3% and 5,7% of Christie's shares while Toronto Dominion was the fifth with 4,6%.
François Pinault started his career in Brittany by running a wood cutting company and then worked in the banking sector before taking control of the Printemps-Redoute chainstores which include Le Printemps, Conforama, Fnac and the big mail order company la Redoute. He recently acquired Guilbert, the leading European group of office stationary. All the more, Artemis has set foot in the property sector with the acquisition last month of the real estate group Sefimeg and has bought the weekly magazine Le Point. The company is also quite active in the U.S where it owns the Converse sport shoes firm, the Samsonite luggage group, the Culligan water purification concern, several real estate firms as well as the Vail ski resort. However François Pinault did meet some failures during his career notably when he tried to get into the financial sector with a bid to take over the diversified Worms group and its insurance branch Athena from which he was evicted six months ago by the Someal (a French branch of Agnelli) and AGF insurance group alliance. He has also been in the midst of a financial dispute with the CDR, a public organization which has bought back certain assets of the Credit Lyonnais bank. François Pinault is notably trying to buy the 26,1% shares the CDR holds in Artemis but both parties disagree on the buying price.
His offer to take control full control of Christie's occurred just after after a meeting at the National Gallery in London of a panel of experts in charge of determining whether Van Gogh's «Sunflowers» sold by Christie's to the Japanese insurance group Yasuda for over US $ 44 million in 1987 was genuine. A serious controversy arose five years ago about the authenticity of the painting and an entire day of intense debate between specialists was not enough to lift doubts. Mr Yasuda might well sue Christie's if experts failed to agree on this issue and such action would probably cast a shadow on Christie's reputation and also cause a fall of the value of the company shares which rose by exactly 26,7% after May 15th 1998. Christopher Davidge, Christie's present chairman said he was pleased with the take over and added he was confident that Van Gogh's « Sunflowers » were genuine. «François Pinault knows the art market well and I am certain he carefully weighed his decision», he stressed. Mr Davidge praised François Pinault whom he described as a passionate collector of modern and contemporary art pieces. «I am proud of our British heritage and the arrival of François Pinault is simply a proof that the art market is fully international. I have already known him well as one of our main buyers,» he added. «As soon as the French market will be opened, we will organise sales in Paris and I see no reason to pursue our activities in Monaco which in our view was a substitute market», he said. Mr Davidge refused to compare François Pinault with Alfred Taubman, the Michigan promoter who acquired Sotheby's in 1983 saying that the Frenchman represented a different generation and originated from a different social class. «He is a great collector of modern and contemporary art pieces, a sector which will be incredibly booming during the next decade,» he noted. Analysts said Christie's had still much do to consolidate its leadership after being on top of Sotheby's during the past two years. Despite some much publicized great auctions and reforms taken within the company, such as staff cuts, salary and catalogue costs are still high while activities in the financial and property sectors which are much of François Pinault's competences are poor compared with those of Sotheby's. It is therefore likely that François Pinault will concentrate most of his efforts to fill that gap. Adrian Darmon
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