Christie's controversies
Controversies tied to this brand in public sources. A listing is not a finding of fault.
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2023
Heidi Horten collection provenance criticism
A jewelry collection belonging to Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten achieved approximately CHF180 million at Christie's, but the sale drew criticism because Horten's fortune was connected to the Nazi-era forced sale of Jewish-owned businesses. Jewish organizations and charities objected to the provenance of the wealth and declined to accept related proceeds; Christie's later cancelled a planned second sale.
2020
Hobby Lobby sues Christie's over Gilgamesh tablet sale
Lawsuit filed
Hobby Lobby filed a lawsuit against Christie's alleging fraud and breach of warranty over Christie's sale of an ancient tablet. The lawsuit claims Christie's represented that the consignor was legally entitled to sell the object and knew its provenance was fake; these are allegations, not a court determination.
Hobby Lobby filed a lawsuit against Christie’s alleging fraud and breach of warranty over Christie’s sale of an ancient tablet. The lawsuit claims Christie’s represented that the consignor was legally entitled to sell the object and knew its provenance was fake; these are allegations, not a court determination.
Company response
Investigation — Christie’s
we are reviewing all representations made to us by prior owners
Denial — Christie’s
Assertions within the filing that suggest Christie’s had knowledge of the original fraud or illegal importation do not comport with our investigation.
Source excerpt
Hobby Lobby, the Oklahoma-based nationwide arts and crafts chain whose family owners founded the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, is suing Christie’s auction house for fraud and breach of warranty for selling it an ancient tablet, inscribed with part of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, which US authorities say has been looted.
The lawsuit, filed today, claims that Christie’s offered assurances during a 2014 private sale that the consignor, who is only identified in the lawsuit as “a private art collector who resides in London”, was legally entitled to sell the ancient object, when the auction house knew its provenance was fake.
Christie's "knowingly made misrepresentations to Hobby Lobby that amount to both a breach of express warrant and fraud concerning the Tablet's provenance," the lawsuit states, "adopting and affirming a fictitious history created without basis in fact by a previous owner about a 1981 sale of the Tablet in the United States in order to disguise the illegal importation of the object into the United States after 1990."
2019
Tutankhamun bust provenance dispute
Christie's sale of a bust fragment of Tutankhamun for £4.7 million was challenged by Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities, which raised concerns that the object had been looted from a temple and removed from Egypt unlawfully in the 1970s.
2009
Qing dynasty zodiac sculptures controversy
Christie's auction of two imperial bronze zodiac-head sculptures from the Yves Saint Laurent collection prompted objections because the works had been removed from Beijing's Old Summer Palace during the Second Opium War. The controversy concerned cultural property, wartime looting, and the legitimacy of the sale.