Episode 1 Sold! Inside the World's Biggest Auction House

'I'm sitting as an observer but not a bidder and I have an itch on

'my nose and I scratch my nose, might you not think I am bidding?'

You might be bidding.

It could be a very expensive night at Christie's.

With billions of dollars of sales going under this man's gavel

last year, Christie's is the world's largest auction house.

At the crossroads of art, taste and money,

it brings together great works of art...

So, you get, in a way, a lot of Monet for your money.

..fervent collectors...

Is it addiction, passion, compulsion,

obsession or have you just got to have it?

..world-beating prices...

-50 million.

-Whoo!

..and the fine art of the sell.

Price range is between 25 and 35 million.

And it's a good way to start.

This year, this great British brand celebrates its 250th anniversary.

To mark it, Christie's have taken the unprecedented step of allowing

our cameras into the back rooms, boardrooms and private parties.

Over the course of a year, we will have access to

a company which is at the epicentre of a secretive and private world.

There are only, I think, three people in Christie's

who know who bought that painting.

We watch them use every weapon in their arsenal

to entice the rich around the world.

-You've been looking for a Mounir for some time.

-Yes.

And actually, one that would go well with your collection.

But auctioneering is a precarious business.

In its time, Christie's has weathered slumps and in 2016,

there were signs of a downturn in the art market.

We have turmoil in financial markets.

It's difficult to predict how the art market will perform.

You don't have to buy a picture.

And sold at 1,350.

So, will they stay at the top of their £5-billion-a-year game?

Or, thanks to storms in the global economy,

will this anniversary year see their fortunes turn?

39. 40 million.

Would anybody else like to come in?

This programme contains some strong language

Christie's was started 250 years ago in 1766

by a Scotsman, James Christie, here in St James's,

one of the poshest parts of London.

But perhaps surprisingly, anyone can just wander in,

although you are unlikely to be shown around

by the global president.

I haven't actually been upstairs yet,

so it'll be nice to see what's on view

and who's in the rooms.

Finnish-born Jussi Pylkkanen is the man who personally auctioned

over 3 billion worth of sales last year

and, more than anyone else,

the success of Christie's anniversary rests on his shoulders.

What's going on today? What's on view?

So, today, we have the view for our fine Chinese ceramic works of art.

Christie's used to get the goods they sell

by what's known as the three Ds.

'There was death, divorce and debt.

'The three Ds was traditionally the way in which we looked at

'our business. Of course, that's all changed today

'because we proactively go to people saying that,

' "The art market for a particular type of work of art is very strong.

' "You know, would you consider selling your work of art?"

We chase works of art based on

the amount of interest there is from, perhaps, Chinese

or from Asian, Russian, Middle Eastern

or European, American collectors in a particular field.

And we say, "Look, you owned this for 20, 35 years,

"now's your opportunity to make a fabulous price."

The gentleman is looking at a very rare vase...

Beautiful? Important?

-The colour is incredible.

-Is that what you're looking for, the colour?

Will you be bidding, gentlemen?

You'll be bidding for this in the sale?

Maybe? Good. Good luck. I will not be the auctioneer,

so you'll have every chance of buying it.

When James Christie founded his firm,

George III was on the throne

and there were 200 competing auction houses in London.

Now it's overtaken its only real rival, Sotheby's,

to be the biggest auction house in a global art market,

worth 64 billion a year.

In your job, you can say, "Oh, I can see this is coming through

"I'd like it in my office for three weeks." Is that how it works?

Yes.

This is a fantastic Stubbs from 1778 and the reason it's here is

that's two years after Christie's was founded

and I'm very interested in the history of the firm.

And whenever we see these great works from the same period,

I'm intrigued to live with them for a while

and understand a little bit about what it must've been like

for James Christie when he was running the firm.

So, this is James Christie at the rostrum

and, as you can see, very little has changed.

He's got his glasses on the top of his forehead

as opposed to on his nose as I wear them,

but he's holding the gavel, very similar to my own and, you know,

he's got his auctioneers' book and his notes in front of him.

And it just shows you how little has changed.

In fact, a lot has changed

but what they've always done is follow the money.

From the Arab sands of the Middle East came oil

and that meant wealth - lots of it.

So, ten years ago,

Christie's became the first art auctioneers to open up in Dubai.

Now, the Dubai sales week in March kicks off the main auction season

and is seen as a barometer for the year ahead.

With even the rich subject to the current economic storms,

Christie's are leaving nothing to chance

and have flown in a team of 50

and transformed the ballroom of one of the best five-star hotels

into their saleroom.

110, the gentleman's bid centre-left.

Sold at 580,000. 78.

Jussi is showing this senior government minister

one of tonight's star attractions.

He was explaining to me that the Arabic script here reads...

"The misery of the Muslims in the world, is there an end to it?"

Children actually fighting. The dagger.

An extraordinary work of art.

Jussi and his colleagues knew that opening here was risky.

The culture of the souk is to haggle down

and they were worried that the idea of bidding up would be resisted.

'We were very concerned when we came here as to whether it would be

'culturally apposite to compete in a public arena,

'one with the other, to acquire works of art.'

I went to the Dubai Gold Cup,

which is this extraordinary racing event which takes place annually,

and it was famous for being the richest horse race in the world.

'And when you go to the racecourse, there's no betting on the course

'but the sense of competition and the will for different horses,

'belonging to different owners, to win the race was extraordinary.'

So we discovered that actually there's a tremendous sense

of wanting to compete one with the other.

650,000.

-700 with me next. With me.

-Bidding, sir.

700,000 back to Valerie. Anybody else want to jump in now?

An extremely important work.

-It's at 700,000.

-Bidding, sir.

-750 now.

-Bidding, sir.

-800,000. That's not a bid here, sir?

That's just a point. A dangerous thing to do.

800,000 with you, Valerie. And I'm selling...

The battle is not just between people in the room,

but clients bidding distantly via Christie's employees.

-Bidding, sir.

-900,000.

-Bidding.

-950,000. We know what's next.

Shake of the head! At 950,000.

We're selling here at 950,000.

Sold at 950,000.

We've got the jewellery sales here...

Christie's don't just wait for buyers, they go after them.

Private sales for the jewels.

This collector from Bahrain

started by being interested in jewellery,

but then Christie's Isabelle de la Bruyere

came in to his life.

Unique work, which actually will go well

with pieces in your collection already.

For the last seven years, she has been charming,

indeed, encouraging him to buy evermore expensive art.

So, it's quite an extraordinary piece from 1974.

-You've been looking for a Mounir for some time.

-Yes, for a while now.

Almost impossible to find.

It's, today, at 180,000 to 240,000

and actually one that would go well with your collection.

I head up the client advisory department

for Europe, Middle East, Russia and India.

That means really working with private buyers,

multi-category buyers

'and helping them to put together a collection.

'I get to know their taste. I get to know what they like.'

So, very often, I'll see things for them they may not have seen

and I'll...show it to them.

Obviously, considered to be one of the great grandfathers

of modern Egyptian art.

It's in Nubia. The feluccas, going down the Nile,

the reflections of the desert into the Nile.

It's all about the landscape.

The colours are beautiful. It's very vibrant and it's very him.

This should definitely sell well. I would say probably for 100,000.

There was an auction where there was an estimate of...

it was a contemporary Iranian artist,

10,000 to 15,000.

We ended up paying much more for it.

Probably 50. And today, it's probably worth, like, 300, 400.

And this is only three years, four years, so...

-INTERVIEWER:

-'300,000, yeah?'

Thousand, yeah. So, yeah.

And at the time, when we paid the 50, everybody thought,

you know, "You're crazy. You know, this is a..."

And I remember, I called Isabelle... I always have this.

I always call her after the sale. "How did I do this? This is a lot."

-Buyer's remorse.

-Buyer's remorse every sale.

"How did I do this? This is crazy."

And she's like, "Don't worry, don't worry."

'There's also a huge element of trust and that takes years to build.

'You know it takes a long time. I've been at Christie's...'

17 years now and it's...

You know, many of the clients I have and still work with today

are clients I've actually met 17 years ago.

THEY GREET EACH OTHER IN FRENCH

One Bahraini client may have graduated from jewellery

to fine art thanks to Isabelle,

but Christie's know that there's still plenty of money

to be made from luxury goods.

You have two types of watches -

flashy or classy, you know what I mean?

-So, I mean...

-'Which are you into?'

I... Ooh.

I'm going to lie by saying classy.

'Do you have many?'

-Define many.

-THEY LAUGH

I might actually go for this one,

which is a Patek Philippe 5960P, platinum.

There's just something about this watch. It just sings to me.

-'It sings to you?'

-It just sings to me.

-'How? What's the tune?'

It moves me, it's something I love and it's a statement.

'So, let's see how the auction goes.

'The piece that I was interested in,

'seems like there's a lot of interest,'

so it's going to be very aggressive.

'Although, I always say I'm going to control it, but I mean,

'let's be honest, it never really lasts long before you're like...'

..pulling up the paddle, really. You know, speaking of that.

-Devil's number.

-'Let's have a look.'

-'Is that by choice or...?'

-Yeah, by choice.

I...I'm a bit of a metalhead, so a bit of Iron Maiden,

you know, Number Of The Beast.

Kind of one of my things. I kind of like the numbers.

# 666

# The number of the beast

# Sacrifice is going on tonight... #

19,000, the gentleman sitting here on my right.

20,000.

Could you please try at least 21?

No? Sure?

Thank you very much. 21,000 now.

Back to the gentleman seated here, in the room, in Dubai.

No? No further interest?

Thank you anyway for your bidding. So, it is yours at 21,000.

Thank you, it's yours at 21,000 and your paddle number is...? 666.

-You should have stopped at 15.

-I should have,

but I progressed to 21.

THEY LAUGH

So, it is a dangerous game.

Before their main sale, Jussi has popped into Dubai's art fair,

which coincides with Christie's week,

and suddenly morphs from seller to buyer.

I think the shapes are beautiful, I love the surface,

the texture is superb, the balance is wonderful.

I think this is one for me. I would like to buy that.

Tell me what the price is.

It's beautiful. This is going to Christie's.

This will sit on the middle of the table.

Eight, of course, is the lucky number.

-You know why eight is a lucky number?

-Tell me.

-Lot number eight

was the lot number of the Modigliani that we sold.

Lot number eight was the number

of the Francis Bacon triptych that we also sold

and lot number eight was the number of the Picasso that we sold.

So, the three most expensive pictures

in the history of the art market at auction,

so you've got to go for number eight. It's the lucky number.

It's funny, when you find an art work,

whether it's at auction or in a gallery,

you do have this sort of relationship

which you establish immediately with it and you just have to commit.

It's like falling in love. If you find a woman that you think

is absolutely the right person for you, for God's sake,

don't hesitate cos somebody else will come up and scoop her up.

With just hours to go, nothing is left to chance.

Jussi consults his team, who have been gathering intelligence

about who might be bidding tonight.

Yesterday, at the art fair, we went a bit early,

so I couldn't really judge how many people there are in town.

I'm hoping that more of the Iranian collectors are coming to town.

-Mike, have you heard anything on it?

-Yeah, but they're all here.

-They're all here.

-They are all here?

I was with them last night. They're coming.

Can we just literally run through the 40 lots

and say where there's plenty of interest

or where you feel that we are a little bit soft?

Lot two is selling in the room.

-Lot three is selling in two to three places, at least.

-Yeah. I'm on it.

-Eileen is on it.

-Great.

You know, we don't like to go into an auction

not knowing what's going to happen.

I can tell you the only time that happened was ten years ago

with the first auction here in Dubai,

where it was truly one of those rare moments

where we had no idea what was going to happen.

There were no bids no bids in the book, very few telephone lines,

so when we went to the auction room and it was a packed audience

and the first lot came up and it flew above its presale estimate,

I remember the sigh of relief around the room when that happened.

I had a significant client ring me last night.

Isabelle is going to be talking to them today about a piece

which they haven't seen, but they...

Well, they certainly can go all the way and further.

Well, there's a bit of work to be done. Good, you've got a few hours.

I believe that the advent of Christie's in 2006

was the tipping point that internationalised and globalised

the Middle East art market.

The fact that a huge and respected art auction

with all the industry that comes behind it,

having arrived here in Dubai alerted the world.

If Christie's is there,

that means there must be something interesting going on.

I can take out, maybe, 50% of these works

and go to any international museum and just hang them on the wall.

They'd feel right at home.

INTERVIEWER: Are you intending to buy 50%?

If I can raise the funds in the next half an hour, sure.

It is buzzing.

The Dubai buzz has started, the anticipation in the saleroom.

Well, we've got a lot of Iranians.

Quite a few from Egypt,

a few that have flown in from London and France.

Good luck to all of you bidding tonight.

There'll be a lot of competition for the best works,

so gird your loins. Here we go.

So, lot number one is El-Gazzar.

We start the bidding here at 110,000.

-110,000.

-Bid!

-120 with Isabelle.

130 against you. 140 against you.

Auction houses need connections, of course,

but it's still a bit of a surprise

that the Queen's nephew, Viscount Linley, mans the phones.

He is titled Honorary Chairman

for Europe, the Middle East, Russia and India.

In the past, I have spoken to

people from Russia and... woken them up.

I've spoken to people from Hong Kong,

I was speaking to people from Canada, New York.

Bid here, sir.

The complications can be that you ask them a question at 100,

and they take an enormously long time to reply

and you say, "Do you wish to bid?" And they say...

"Yes." And by which time, it's gone to 200.

200,000 is here.

Isabelle is on the phone, bidding for an apparently absent client.

But suddenly it becomes apparent that

the Bahraini gentleman she'd been showing the mirrored picture earlier

is in the room, and in strange synchronicity, on the phone.

-At 300,000.

-310.

-And 10, I'll take. 310,000.

It can be part of the game to appear disinterested to mask your bidding.

310 with Isabelle. At 310,000.

Are you all done, sir? Last chance. Selling here.

-HE BANGS GAVEL

-310 to Isabelle.

The market has begun, the season has begun, is how I feel about it.

It's great to get out of the traps, and we're running.

-HE BANGS GAVEL

-You have it, sir.

It's yours, sir. Sold to you, sir.

Yours, it is.

Every detail of the successful Dubai sales will be sent back here,

to Christie's London headquarters.

Four floors down below street level lies their archives

that record everything they've sold in the last 250 years.

Knowing the history of a work helps authenticate it,

and that makes Christie's more money.

The provenance is basically the history,

the journey of a work of art.

And if we can provide...

If we can harvest the information that we have here,

we're able to provide specialists with the history of the piece

that they're hopefully about to sell.

This is a catalogue of rich household furniture

of a person of fashion.

And here we've got Mr Christie's name and the date of the sale.

So, it's 17 March 1773.

This is a household sale,

so we have amazing mundane things like a mattress,

a large blanket and white cotton counterpane,

some elegant elbow chairs.

That's Mr Christie's handwriting.

The mattress sold for the princely sum one pound and eight shillings

to somebody called Jenkins.

That's quite expensive.

That's quite an expensive mattress. Absolutely.

On the second day of the sale, we can see there's a Rembrandt.

The Rembrandt, which was lot 26, sold for...

one pound, eight shillings.

That's not much more than the mattress.

-SHE CHUCKLES

-That's true.

Oh, it's style of Rembrandt. OK.

That's why it went for one pound, eight shillings.

He knew how to promote his sales,

he sold his catalogues in coffee houses,

and he promoted his sales

by advertising in The Morning Chronicle.

Thomas Gainsborough was his neighbour and a great friend,

and he was great friends with a number of dealers.

So he relied on other people for the expertise in the cataloguing.

Christie had such a great name

that people wanted to consign with the auction house.

Here we've got some pictures,

consigned from abroad from Count Bruhl, deceased.

He was the Prime Minister to the late King of Poland.

On the first day of the sale, we have a Titian,

painting of St Jerome.

And lot 24 sold for £105 to Mr Walsh.

I mean, that's a very decent price to get for a 1770 sale,

considering that an annual salary was £20 a year.

MUSIC: Rhapsody In Blue by George Gershwin

After 100 years of essentially selling to rich Brits,

Christie's discovered a new set of customers

in the middle of the 19th century -

rich visiting Americans.

But it wasn't until the 1970s

that they opened up auction rooms in New York,

now located at this swanky Rockefeller Plaza address.

Traditionally, Christie's sold them classic European art.

But now, as tastes change, they're having to work harder

at selling what could be called "old art".

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,

and welcome to our sale, here, of antiquities.

The first sale...

This is the morning antiquities sale,

and the atmosphere is distinctly listless

compared to the buzz in Dubai.

Proof that, in the classics, the sell isn't always easy.

1,000. Somewhere.

Anyone want this at 1,000? 500?

Is bid! Austria, welcome.

At 500. 600 from New York.

All on the internet. Any more?

At 750...

-HE BANGS GAVEL

-..is sold.

Some sellers are so desperate that bargains can be had.

At 15,000.

But most put a reserve price below which the auctioneer cannot sell,

and it becomes a pass.

Is a pass.

At 11,000...

-HE BANGS GAVEL

-..is a pass.

When lots are unsold,

Christie's, working on commission, make no money.

So in a struggling market,

Christie's tries to persuade sellers,

even at the last minute, to lower their reserves.

Is a pass.

Behind the scenes, Jussi wants to know

the results of those conversations.

141. Now, this is the one where we may change the reserve

based on what happens earlier in the sale.

-Right, yeah.

-But we will take a 100K hit.

So 1.7 now.

-112.

-Yeah.

-35.

-35?

-Yeah.

That's come down another notch, cos I had 40 already.

109.

We're going to take 50K discretion,

so it would be 550 right now, but we may get that reserve down.

280,000 with you. At 280,000...

But auction houses have another tactic

to get bidders up to the reserve price.

Before that point, they can create

the appearance of interest in the room to push up the bids,

and it's quite legal.

We often say that auctioneers are failed comedians,

and, you know, one of the fun things of doing,

when you're up on the rostrum, is faking it.

You are not able to sell the picture at the price below the reserve -

you therefore have to create a counter bid.

And that's when, you know, you have to give the impression

that this counterbid may be real.

85,000 only. Start me off at 85. 90,000. For 90,000...

'So that whoever is in the game'

will continue bidding because he wants it.

95,000 now. For 95,000.

'My goal is going to be to give the feeling that

'this bid could be a real bid

'by someone who's actually possibly about to buy the picture.

'My only hope is that this client in the room

'will continue bidding to the reserve'

when I will legally be able to sell it.

At 95, it is. Fair warning.

But sometimes the tactic doesn't succeed.

At 95, then. Pass.

This sleight of hand is within the rules.

But 20 years ago, Christie's went beyond the rules,

fixing commissions with apparent rivals Sotheby's.

It became a massive scandal.

The men who ran the world's two most famous auction houses

have been charged with fixing prices.

Sotheby's former chairman, Alfred Taubman,

and the man who ran Christie's, Anthony Tennant,

both deny running a conspiracy

which cheated sellers in the US out of nearly £300 million.

20 years ago, a different management team had made a terrible error

and looked at the sellers' commissions

that were being charged to people selling

and tried to fix the fees that people would be paying

for the sale of a particular object.

Fortunately that's all behind us.

It wasn't a great moment for the art world in general,

certainly not... Nothing that we're proud of.

CLOCK CHIRPS

With the classics not doing so well, Christie's have come up with

a new strategy for pre-20th-century items -

The Exceptional Sale.

A veritable best of the best to seduce rich collectors of

sculpture, furniture, glass, clocks, Chinese jade, and Russian gold.

-It's magnificent.

-INTERVIEWER: Are you thinking of buying it?

-No.

-Why not?

Well, I don't think I have a couple of million to spare.

There are just 36 lots,

and Christie's sculpture specialist is particularly pleased

that one of the collectors he's made it his business to cultivate

has been persuaded to part with a real gem -

once Christie's had put together its history.

In here is the most exciting sculpture of the week for us.

It is a life-size model figure of Andromeda

just before she is saved by Perseus.

This is particularly exciting

because it was a very famous Ciriaco Mattei,

who was a Roman nobleman, commissioned this in the 1580s

for his garden in Rome.

In the 1750s, she disappears

and shows up very briefly in an auction in 1987.

The present owner bought her then,

put her in packing blankets and wrapped her up

and put her in a castle in upstate New York.

And there she has remained ever since.

MUSIC: La Noyee by Yann Tiersen

The sellers of Andromeda have stored her for decades

in their tower upstate.

But they live and work behind these doors in the Lower East Side.

-I thought that was in there.

-No, evidently not.

I have to check the proposal.

83-year-old Maurice Margules and his partner Antonie Reinhard

run what is nominally an antique store...

but it rarely opens

and the owners seem to have little interest in selling anything.

This place...it's akin to Tombstone, Arizona.

That was the town too tough to die.

This place, we don't even know why it's still here. Nobody gets it.

We're the worst people in the world to sell you the greatest things.

I thought your job was to sell art.

Yeah, but what is art?

What is it? Somebody tells you this is art?

Somebody tells you, "Well, this is by Picasso."

Therefore, it's art?

Nuh-uh.

I realised that almost everything we buy

there's a small chance you sell it in one day,

but generally, it'll be 10, 20 years.

Emotionally, that's not easy for her because...

why is it just sitting here not doing anything?

And I can always say, "It's not it's time now."

-I didn't mind it with Andromeda.

-Well...

She's a piece of ass.

-Let's face it.

-Oh, come on!

-Come on, let's face it.

That is the most sensuous statue I really ever seen.

From every... Well, every aspect of it.

Miraculously or not, all of her clothes have disappeared

when she's got chained up to a rock.

You've got these fantastic tendrils coming down her neck.

The chain, obviously, is incredibly sexy.

Basically, she's in almost perfect condition,

which is... I mean, she's 450 years old,

so if we can look so good at her age.

I was the only one who at least had a desire to get her. 30 years ago.

I don't own her.

She might have owned me.

She was in, what you call, like, a sleeping beauty.

She had to wait till the right prince

was going to plant a nice little kiss on her.

We'll see tomorrow.

Maurice has put Andromeda up for sale

to pay for the upkeep of their storage tower

but he hasn't come to the auction, as he can't bear to say goodbye.

Here it is, then, at 450.

480 is bid.

-One more?

-Yes, sir.

500,000.

Will, would you like 550?

-520.

-Yes, of course, 520,000.

Can you take 540?

There it is, 540.

-550.

-Ah, 550.

Do you want to have a go?

And selling against you here at 550,000.

Will has it and I'm selling it.

-Fair warning.

-You're out.

OK.

Sold at 550.

So where is Andromeda now heading?

Actually, that's a difficult question to get an answer to.

Andromeda has a new home.

-INTERVIEWER:

-With whom?

We'll have to see if the buyer will make that public.

Maybe we'll see her again, maybe we won't.

-INTERVIEWER:

-You know she's chained to a rock

so what are you about to do?

We're going to free her!

The Exceptional Sale did exceptionally well,

which is good news for Jussi and the team

who have to report back to their ultimate boss,

chief executive Patricia Barbizet.

She's the right-hand woman

of the man who bought Christie's 20 years ago,

the art loving French billionaire Francois Pinault.

Most weeks find her later calling in at the London HQ,

but she's not an art expert, her background's finance.

I was already with the Pinault group

and when we acquired Christie's,

I was actually the one who signed the cheque.

It was for, what I remember, £700 million.

-INTERVIEWER:

-Is the cheque you signed?

-Oui.

-And is worth a little bit more now?

-I'm sure it is.

A lot more now! And even a lot more in the future.

But is that value now going to essentially a French company?

Is Christie's no longer a British brand?

British company, British roots,

worldwide company, British headquarters still,

global presence all over the world - 50 countries.

'So it's a very, very English, British-rooted company.

'But in the company we have so many different people

'coming from everywhere.'

So it's a truly international company.

Patricia Barbizet is building the empire

and the troops know what they have to do.

Her number one objective is to get as many buyers as possible.

What that means is that you are

looking at the global world,

saying that art has become an asset

and attempting to coax 7.2 billion people

to build collections of art.

It's unlikely the whole world's population is going to collect art

but on Tuesday night in South Kensington,

Christie's use their smaller sale rooms to entice, they hope,

the next generation.

In, of course, a very Christie's way,

over a glass of wine and strawberries and cream.

The majority of people coming through the door

it's their first time at Christie's,

so it's a real discovery for them.

We sell things here at Christie's South Ken

from as little as £1,000 upwards.

I think there's a perception from people outside,

"Christie's is too posh to shop."

You know, "It's exclusive, it's not for me."

-How much?

-£46,000.

-A mere snip.

Yeah, no, it's not too bad, now that you've mentioned it.

I'm interested in art. I don't know a lot about it

so I like coming here because they have the talks as well,

so I can try and educate myself a bit.

I've bought a few things on eBay in the past

but this is the first time I've actually come pre-auction.

There's amazing pieces.

I would definitely spend money on art.

I think it mirrors a lifestyle, who you are.

I want to have something that represents me in my household.

You can really see some interesting pieces.

The Lucian Freud portrait.

I always like the sketchy side of artists' unfinished works.

-INTERVIEWER:

-Might you come back and bid for it?

-One day. I'm...

Just got to improve the bank balance.

The young people today will be, potentially,

the wealthy people in the future so if you target us at our age now

and we fall in love at this age

then subsequently we will be those people

who will go on to buy that art.

So catch them while they're young.

-INTERVIEWER:

-Have you been caught?

-We're going to find out.

I'll tell you in 20 years!

A month after the mixed results of Classic Week,

Christie's are back in New York.

This time it's the rich buyers of contemporary art that they're after.

To create a buzz in this increasingly lucrative field,

they've come up with a bold, even risky concept -

the brainchild of their star signing from Sotheby's, Loic Gouzer.

I came to the board and I introduced this idea and they said,

"What's the title of your sale?" And I said, "Bound To Fail."

That was not a... It's not an easy sell.

Loic Gouzer is a genius who looks at the art market

in a very particular way.

What he's done is he's put together

a group of really challenging works of art

that are all chosen on the basis

that at the time they were executed,

they were so avant-garde

that people slightly found them absurd.

So they sailed very close to the wind

in terms of what people thought was good art and bad.

The art is something that is...

That by definition generates discussion and people collect art

to talk about it, to... It's something that opens your mind.

Of course there's financial discussions with the client,

but a lot of it is artistic.

If I call a client,

sometimes I'm going to discuss in ten minutes the deal

and then we're going to talk about other artists for another two hours.

This basketball tank is something that became almost iconic

the second it was made in '85.

You see this ball which is floating like by magic,

although it's science.

It's physical but it's also conceptual.

Damien Hirst - what he did with his sharks and all that

comes straight from that.

This had a huge influence.

In a market where antiquities can be had at bargain prices,

how do you put a figure on a work featuring potatoes?

The bigger question for Loic is has he guessed right for the market?

So we move to the Jeff Koons. Lot 21, The Equilibrium Tank.

11 million with Loic.

12 million.

13 million is yours.

At 13 million and selling to Loic. Once again.

INAUDIBLE

Of course, 13,500,000. Sold to you.

They're works of art where the artists

are really challenging conformism,

like Kippenberger behind me here, the crucifixion piece.

These are tough subjects and subjects which perhaps at the time

would have caused a great stir.

The Kippenberger - the Pope actually denounced as being sacrilegious

and here it is in a sale in New York

making a record for the artist for a sculpture.

1,100,000.

These works were produced in the last 20 to 30 years

and many of them are symbolic of particular moments in time.

Whether it be HIM by Cattelan, the small Adolf Hitler,

which was just a sensational work of art.

And we can open the bidding here at 8,800,000.

'Times change and tastes change but the one thing that's interesting

'about artists is that their responsibility'

is to create challenging, innovative works of art

and our job is to sell them.

14,800,000.

15 million.

15,200,000.

15,200,000.

You have it. 15.2. 1576.

Interestingly, the only piece that didn't sell was the potatoes.

Christie's are now hoping that this much talked about evening

will boost the 20th Century Week's main sales that follow

and they have a star centrepiece by an artist of the 1980s, Basquiat,

whose work also raised the question at the time,

is this really art?

30 years on, the question now is how much will it go for?

Post-war and contemporary art now accounts for one third of

Christie's sales, so the next few days are crucial.

This will be showtime.

This is when really the great collectors of the world

convene in one place and it really is the barometer of the whole

of the art world for the year.

The May sales in New York are quintessentially what people

hold on to and say, "Is the market healthy or not?"

But there's a problem for them.

When Sotheby's across town held their Impressionist and Modern

sale last night, it did badly, with a third of pieces going unsold.

The overall reporting in the paper

was that the sale was 66% sold

and that immediately sent shivers

into the marketplace.

If you take away that confidence,

no-one wants to be the last man or last woman standing.

A large part of what we did this morning

was to try and get back into the minds of the collectors

how important these individual objects are.

SHE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

-She's really grateful for your introduction.

-Oh, thank you.

Rumoured to have the personal numbers

of 200 of the world's top collectors on his phone,

Brett Gorvy's job today is to work his connections

to ensure they keep buying.

He has high hopes for Wang Wei,

whose husband bought the famous Modigliani Reclining Nude

at Christie's New York last year for 170 million.

This is Richard Prince, one of the Cowboy pieces.

TRANSLATION:

The art is a fantastic language.

You can break through many different barriers

on the basis of a great work of art.

You don't have to speak the same language as the client,

but the painting speaks the same language.

When I stand in front of a painting,

I immediately understand its commercial value

as much as its art historical value.

Then what comes in my mind is a whole list of potential buyers

for that work.

But to hook the big buyers, you need to get your hands on the art

and for that, Christie's go far and wide.

Seven years ago, they got wind of three sisters from the Midwest

who were left an Alexander Calder mobile by their uncle.

He became a friend of Alexander Calder

and he didn't have children, so we inherited his art collection.

-INTERVIEWER:

-How wonderful.

-Very wonderful!

Where should I open this? At 1 million.

There's an art adviser who works in the Midwest

who I'm fairly close with and she happened upon these sisters.

When you're working in the Midwest as an art appraiser,

you bump into some pretty wild things.

Slowly over time, we developed a relationship together

with the sisters, and you can become a bit of an adviser.

So over the last seven years, I have been just that.

1.2 million. 1,200,000...

He would come to our house and appraise and then reappraise.

We've had current appraisals each year.

"Do you think it's time? Should we sell now?"

He said, "Yes," and we trust Jonathan.

1.5 million.

But this means a lot to us.

This is our children's college fund and our retirement.

We're not playing here. This is real for us.

1.7 million right up front here.

With the estimate at 1.5 to 2 million,

the sisters are on tenterhooks.

1.8 million is here, then. Anybody else now?

1,850,000.

1,850,000, I'll take that, thank you, is in.

1.9 million's in.

Sold at 1,900,000.

We're satisfied. We're pleased. It sold at the high end of the range.

We want to go down and see Leonardo DiCaprio.

-INTERVIEWER:

-Is he here?

-Yeah!

-Yes!

Up in a booth, so we want to go see him outside.

Getting the Calder to the point of sale took Christie's seven years.

But sometimes getting someone to buy takes just seconds.

This Chinese businessman arrived, spotted this Yves Klein Blue

in the auction room and suddenly thought, "Why not?"

It's Yves Klein. All done. Selling here at 2,800,000.

You have it, sir. Do you have a number?

I just came here to observe but, you know,

-it's not a plan to buy this one.

-INTERVIEWER:

-Really?

-Yeah.

-He just arrived from Hong Kong.

-Uh-huh.

Like, one hour ago.

So he was rushing to the Christie's auction room.

The colour is very distinguished, and also very simple.

Most of the art, they have different colours.

This one, nothing else.

It's just as simple as you can imagine. It's so pure.

It's like a diamond in the middle of the ocean.

Having never seen the Yves Klein Blue close up,

Mr Zeng now wants to see the work he spontaneously dropped around

3 million on, but where is it?

-The Yves Klein.

-The blue...in the middle.

-It's back in gallery one.

-It's still there?

-It was put back.

-It was on the stage.

Yes, it's back in gallery one.

-Wow!

-Wow.

I am not a professional collector. It is my first time.

I knew Christie's when I became a student in New York

about 20 years ago.

My job was try to deliver some art for...

-They gave me one dollar...

-Deliver charge.

-..tips.

The whole of my life - the first tips in my life.

So this time I came here to try to understand more.

In the future, we're thinking about setting up an art fund.

This is only testing the water, yeah.

1,800,000. 2 million.

2,200,000 already. At 2,200,000...

Christie's, over the last three years, has probably done more

than anyone else to push the upper limits of what a work of art

can achieve in terms of price and in terms of recognition.

People who are entering come because they see big prices,

they see all of this hoopla taking place

and they want to be a part of it.

And we see a lot of new buyers from around the world

who may have made fortunes in recent years

wanting to enter not at the bottom and work their way up

but come in straight at the top of the market.

Works over 10 million accounted for almost 30% of the total value

of Christie's sales in 2015.

In New York, they build special hidden boxes

for high rollers who want to watch the action but not be seen,

and this is the piece that Christie's think

they will definitely want to buy - the massive painting

by the Haitian-American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat,

who died in the late '80s of a heroin overdose, aged 27.

We're very conscious of who owns which particular masterpieces.

So given that the market is very strong for a particular artist

or particular work, we will go to collectors

that have works that we know are going to capture the moment

and going to capture the appetites of our top buyers,

and clearly, Basquiat, at the moment, is one of those.

I've been approached by every punter, every auction house,

every auction executive, every dealer, every private dealer,

of course I have.

I go to the person that I trust, the person I think

is going to do a good job for that property.

Brett's super professional, and he delivered

the last Basquiat record as well.

So you go back to the watering hole where...

Like, they've already proven that they can do it.

It does have a huge estimate on it. It has a 40 million estimate on it.

The reason that this Basquiat is estimated so high

is that there is a precedent.

A couple years ago, another Basquiat sold for 48.8 million.

However, the problem is that this was bought by

a pudgy financier from Malaysia called Jho Low.

He was sitting in a light box, apparently with a takeaway pizza

and a bottle of vintage wine and a lot of his friends,

and he was bidding like crazy.

It's conceivable that that price was what you might call an outlier.

Shall we see that sort of price again? I don't know.

Possibly not.

So we move to the Basquiat of 1982.

Where shall we open this? At 32 million. 32 million.

Brett Gorvy, on the phone, encourages his client

to bid as high as they can.

43 million.

Back to Brett at 43.

It is about being their partner and trying to tell them

what's going on in the room, but at the same time, you know

that there's a point where they are going to break.

They're going to lose focus, they're going to lose confidence

in what they're doing, and I often say one thing to them, which is,

"It's the next morning, you wake up, you don't own the painting.

"How much does that hurt?"

Because that is going to be your cue as to how much you're going to pay.

44 million.

No hesitation.

-Brett, what would you like?

-Five.

-45 million.

Many collectors, when you talk to them, they have two collections.

They have the collections on the walls and they have the collections

which are deep in their brains which hurt so much

because those are the paintings that got away.

48 million.

At 48 million.

-Fair warning, Brett.

-Another half.

48.5. 49.

Brett? 49 is the bid on my left for the Basquiat.

-50.

-50 million!

-CHEERING

50 million is bid.

Will that do it? 50 million.

-At 50 million with Brett Gorvy.

-51.

51 million.

Brett, at 51 million.

You have it at 51 million. Congratulations!

With buyer's premium, the mystery Japanese bidder

is paying 57.285 million.

A new world-record for a Basquiat.

But the seller, who just made 45 million profit,

doesn't seem to be carried away.

Now it's been, like, broadly embraced by the overall world

that art is an investment.

It's an investment but, you know, might not be a good investment.

I mean, the world is very fickle.

Things come in and out of fashion, prices go up and down.

I mean, nobody needs art.

You know, it's not real estate, it's not manufacturing.

I mean, art is this intangible thing. What is art worth?

Who knows?

At the end of the Basquiat sale, Brett Gorvy's client lost out,

but for Brett, this is a new opportunity -

he still has a client with 50 million.

The bidder was there at the 50-plus million mark on a Basquiat.

So how do we now service that client?

What else can you supply for him while he's got the money

burning in his pocket, but also while his heart is so focused?

So what you're able to do is really take advantage of that moment.

The same things with sellers - you've just made 50 million,

maybe it's time you should be buying again.

Perhaps in the final big sale of the week

of Impressionist and Modern art,

traditionally a bestseller for Christie's,

and clients who have shown a willingness to buy on a whim

are, of course, also to be encouraged.

One of Brett's colleagues, Giovanna Bertazzoni,

is showing paintings to Mr Zeng which are a step up

from the mere 3.3 million that he spent on the Klein last night.

The price range is between 25 and 35 million.

Do you think this is going to auction in New York or London?

-This is coming up tomorrow night, OK?

-That's fine.

So if we want to think about...

think about it, we have to discuss today on how we make it happen.

It's exactly the right estimate

and it's a good way to start,

-and it will look good with your Klein.

-Klein.

Indeed, at 25 to 35 million,

where better to start one's Impressionist collection?

France was still at war...

Christie's function is to establish prices,

to show trends, to be able to give buyers and sellers confidence

that something they buy today will have value tomorrow and next year,

five years and ten years from now.

The estimate is very, very inviting.

-It's 12 to 18 million.

-Wow.

-Which is...

-Much, much cheaper.

Christie's have been taking soundings for tonight's sale,

and they're worried that potential buyers aren't coming forward,

so Giovanna has been hitting the phones to consignors to encourage

them to be more realistic.

A beautiful Monet at 8 million to start with.

We really worked hard on reserves and making sure that

we continue our responsibility towards selling well and selling...

Selling!

We advised sellers to reconsider the reserves.

The question tonight is whether it's going to be enough.

10 million.

Your bidder, 10 million.

10.5 million is mine. 11 is yours, sir.

11,250,000.

Thank you, sir.

Many are not reaching the low estimate.

6 million. 6,500,000 now.

7 million. Sold to you, sir. Thank you.

And we start...

Mr Zeng hasn't come to the auction, and the competition

for the Monet Water Lilies that Giovanna tried to interest him in

also isn't strong.

At 24 million.

And selling to you, sir, at 24 million.

Thank you, sir.

Paddle number 342.

I bought a Monet Water Lilies here

about five years ago, and I paid 39 million for it,

and that was... That's equally as good as that.

It was very quiet in there tonight,

and it was the right place at the right time.

So the great New York week has ended on a bit of a disappointment

with a sale that's a whopping 30% down by value on last year's.

The great household names that Christie's have relied on -

Picasso, Monet - are not selling like they used to.

And among those here this week was an Englishman who came to sell

a Modigliani drawing and left with an even lower opinion

of what's happening in the art market.

I'm selling the drawing, which I've had for 15 years,

because I think the prices of the artist in question

have gone absurdly high

and I feel unhappy about earning something at that value,

and if it fetches a good price,

one or other of my charities will do very nicely.

Lot 1,008 is the wonderful Modigliani.

They're bits of paper or bits of canvas.

They have no "intrinsic" value, and it's all emotion.

320,000.

But here, of course, in New York, where there are only five things

that matter - money, money, money, money

and the greed to make more money than you need -

you have the investors.

-1 million.

-1.1.

1,100,000.

If you've got, you know, 3 billion burning a hole in your pocket,

you will have your forestry, you will have the real estate,

you'll have your horses, and the new category of investment is art.

-Bidding...

-1,200,000.

1,250,000.

-1,300,000.

-1,300,000 is bid.

-INTERVIEWER:

-What do you think that does morally to art?

It prostitutes it.

It takes it right down to the gutter.

1,300,000. Last call.

Christie's have achieved a top price,

over twice the estimate for their client,

but he remains contemptuous.

There are always those people

who've got, I might say, more money than sense.

-Montigliani, yes.

-INTERVIEWER:

-Do you like it?

Yeah, it's a nice painting. It's beautiful.

What do you think of the price?

-Price...

-HE GASPS

Art handlers Basilio and James may not have the money,

but they get physically closer to more great art

than most collectors ever dream of.

It tells you to be calm.

You know, sit in your house and just...

You know, glass of wine and just think of being there.

I mean, who wouldn't want to be there?

You know. You don't see that in New York.

To some people, that's nothing.

To me and other people, it's one of those...

HE GASPS

You know. That's what that is.

-INTERVIEWER:

-So what do you think of this one?

-I like this one. Picasso.

-You like it?

-Yeah. It's nice.

I don't know, my grandmother used to tell me that drugs are bad.

But, you know, that's Picasso. I mean, you know... It's beautiful.

This is more of a piece that you stand around and you talk about it.

What was he thinking? What was he...?

His state of mind at that time?

That's what you would do with this one,

you would try to figure it out.

The colours. Whose face was he thinking about when he did it?

The great thing about working here

is that where else could you handle this?

You go to a museum, you've got to stand behind glass

or you've got to stand behind rope.

This is stuff you read about.

You know, you've got to enjoy it.

Who can hold 12 million?

When I first started here, I didn't know too much about it,

but then you start learning about stuff and you listen

to the specialists explain, and it's really cool,

because it's just not a painting, there's a story behind it.

You know, behind a canvas that's plain, there's a story,

and that story sells.

We want our country back!

Next time, will one of the greatest political upsets

of a generation make things worse for Christie's

in their big anniversary year?

It's a pass at 1,750,000.

It's a pass at 2,600,000.

Will this great painting be their world record success of the year?

Reluctantly, yes. 32 million.

Will Christie's pursuit of the new rich of China pay off?

People who have no knowledge of arts but have loads of cash.

SHE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

..150,000. Last chance.

And the mystery buyer who paid a world record 57 million

for the Basquiat is revealed.

Were you the auctioneer at that time?

-I was the auctioneer at that time.

-Ohh! I know you! I know you!