In this Bloomberg story (click on image for video) on the London auctions, Christie’s Jussi Pylkkannen points to new buyers from the “Middle East, Asia and Russia” as the most enthusiastic buyers. He says 25% of the buyers are new to the auction house in the last 12 months. He adds that Christie’s has 800,000 clients. (Surely the 800,000 client number is from a longer period than the last 12 months, no?)

The rest of the story tries to address the so-called “Magpie” collectors who are looking for investment return from the best pieces regardless of genre or artist.