One last tidbit from Kelly Crow’s story last week on the ways in which the auction houses are cultivating new markets:
In India, Christie’s joined with a luxury hotel chain to tap its Rolodex two years ago, in exchange for giving occasional art lectures at several hotels. Christie’s said its roster of clients interested in Indian art has since ballooned from a few hundred people to at least 4,000, attributed in part to the hotel deal. […] Paul Hewitt, Christie’s managing director of growth markets, said at least 300 Indians registered for the house’s inaugural auction in Delhi last December, and a third of those were brand-new names to Christie’s. For the most part, Christie’s said these collectors were interested in buying Indian modern artists—but six months later, he said he was surprised to learn that a handful had also bid on paintings in Christie’s Impressionist and modern sale in London, including a Monet. “That felt out of the blue,” he said.
Sotheby’s and Christie’s Race to Find New Art Collectors (WSJ)
