What Happened to Gigaweek?

Early this year Sotheby’s announced it would hold its Spring New York sales in one week instead of the traditional two weeks. Staking out a claim to the week of May 9th, the auction house was responding to Christie’s recent penchant for bigfooting the auction calendar with special sales and its own Gigweek strategy. Instead of claiming the week before as its own to better take advantage of Frieze opening on Randall’s Island, Christie’s has scheduled all of its May sales in the same week as Sotheby’s and Phillips.

Indeed, once again, Phillips finds Christie’s playing on its turf as two sales take place on Sunday May 8th.

Eventually, it would seem, the industry will follow Phillips in having only one Evening sale a season of the marquee works from Impressionist, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary categories. On occasion, when the house has a big single-owner collection or a special theme, there might be an additional evening sale. Or not. Who knows?