Last December Christie’s named Patricia Barbizet, the longtime adviser to the auction house’s owner, French billionaire Francois Pinault, as chief executive officer, replacing Steven Murphy.
Christie’s was acquired by Pinault’s holding company, Artemis SA, in 1998. The auction house, which doesn’t report revenue or profit, releases sale totals twice a year.
Using a sales-weighted exchange rate, Christie’s 2.9 billion pounds in sales translated into $4.5 billion, the company said. Christie’s said that while purchases in the first half increased, the conversion to dollars shows zero percent growth from the $4.5 billion total in the first six months of last year. Christie’s attributed the difference to the weakening of international currencies against the U.S. dollar.
The gain in the first six months didn’t keep pace with the 12 percent increase in the same period in 2014 over the previous year. Brooks said he doesn’t see stirrings of a decline in the global art market or at Christie’s.
“We’re at the highest levels we’ve ever seen,” Brooks said. “It’s pretty solid, consistent growth across a range of regions and types of art.”