Christie’s Hit by System Malfunction Days Before Major Auctions

James Tarmy and Andrew Martin, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- The auction house Christie’s said Friday that a technology security issue has affected some of its systems, including its website, just ahead of major auctions.

“We are taking all necessary steps to manage this matter, with the engagement of a team of additional technology experts,” Christie’s said, in a statement. “We regret any inconvenience to our clients.”

A Christie’s representative declined to provide further details, including whether the outage was caused by a cyberattack. The website wasn’t fully functioning on Friday at 1:30 p.m. in New York.

During the major May auctions in New York next week, Christie’s plans to sell artworks valued between $578 million and $846 million. Its evening sales on May 14 and May 16 could yield as much as $656 million alone, according to auction house estimates.

The auctions come at a delicate time in the art market. Global sales of art and antiques were down last year by about 4%, according a report from UBS and Art Basel, and Christie’s itself reported a 25% decline in sales by value.

“It’s certainly annoying and probably frustrating for the consignors and Christie’s staff, but it’s great for the buyers who already know what they want to bid on,” said the art adviser Jacob King. “I don’t expect it will have much effect as long as they get the website up and running by Monday.”

But he added, “If it’s down next week, that’s a disaster for them.”

Last year, the auction house inadvertently published location data on its website that revealed the location of wealthy art collectors, according to the Washington Post. Some photos of artwork on the company’s website included GPS coordinates for where the shot was taken, a vulnerability that was disclosed by security researchers and ultimately fixed.

Other cultural institutions have been disrupted by cyberattacks in recent years. For instance, in December 2022, a cyberattack at the Metropolitan Opera in New York disrupted its website, box office and call center. A year later, a cyberattack against software provider Gallery Systems caused online outages at cultural organizations including the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, according to the New York Times.

(Updates with additional information in the last two paragraphs.)