Christie’s Appoints Andrew Fletcher to Head Global Old Masters Sales – RisePEI

A number of months after asserting his departure from Sotheby’s in Could, Andrew Fletcher has been appointed as Christie’s international head of the home’s Outdated Masters division. He might be based mostly in London.

“After 20 years there, it was time for one thing new,” Fletcher informed ARTnews.

Fletcher joins Christie’s after practically 20 years at Sotheby’s, the place he most not too long ago served as head of the Outdated Masters portray division in Europe. Throughout his tenure there, he additionally helped develop the Outdated Masters market in Asia.

Amid the disruption to the market introduced by the pandemic, Fletcher spearheaded a London night sale at Sotheby’s in 2020 that featured a gaggle of works spanning a number of centuries, together with a Rembrandt self-portrait that bought for $18 million. The sale introduced in a complete of $198 million. Fletcher had additionally confirmed integral in serving to the Outdated Masters division, whose gross sales had nearly all the time been provided in particular person, transition its choices digital throughout the pandemic.

Previous to the pandemic, the Outdated Masters class at public sale was rising stale, however as of late, efforts to highlight work by big-name artists like Botticelli and Rembrandt have given the class a lift. Although gross sales of megawatt Outdated Masters work usually happen through personal gross sales, public sale homes started bringing trophy works to their marquee night gross sales as a strategy to entice consumers throughout the pandemic.

In 2021, Christie’s generated $141 million from the class’s public sale gross sales throughout its international headquarters. The home is now aiming to develop that quantity.

It stays to be seen whether or not or not Fletcher’s transfer will carry a cross-category taste to his division at Christie’s, however Fletcher hinted at future developments in that regard, saying, “I feel it’s all the time key to creatively adapt to new circumstances as they come up.”