Katya Kazakina posts the news of what may be a meaningful change in strategy at Christie’s.

Lori Hotz, a top Christie’s executive in its postwar and contemporary art department, is leaving the auction house in the latest exodus of senior employees amid declining sales.

Hotz is scheduled to exit at the end of this month from the world’s biggest auction house by sales, she confirmed Tuesday in a phone interview. Christie’s declined to comment.

Hotz has worked at christie’s for four years, precisely the period during which became the most aggressive guarantor of Contemporary art work.

The strategy produced extraordinary results but also a Contemporary art department filled with competitive tensions that have threatened to boil over. As Kazakina points out, at least 20 senior staffers have left Christie’s in the last two years. Christie’s management has been under pressure to resolve these tensions.

Christie’s Staff Exodus Continues with Departure of Lisa Hotz (Bloomberg)