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Bloomberg

Auction house Christie’s will acquire classic car seller Gooding & Company, the companies announced on September 12.
The deal for the Los Angeles-based car consignor is said to be Christie’s largest in more than two decades.
The purchase will help diversify Christie’s offerings as the art market weakens.
In the first six months of 2024, Christie’s auction sales declined 22 per cent year on year, to US$2.1 billion (HK$16.4 billion) – roughly half the US$4.1 billion achieved during the same time period in 2022.

The auction house exited car auctions in 2007, although it has continued to sell cars as part of specific collections.
Simon Kidston, an analyst and consultant who founded the K500 Index of classic car data, called the deal a perfect match.
“Christie’s financial firepower and network should help take the company forward beyond its limitations as a family concern,” he says.
I see this as good news for both buyers and sellers wanting a fresh auction approach
Simon Kidston, founder of the K500 Classic Cars Index
Even competitors are calling the consolidation a smart decision.
“This is great news for the auction industry,” says Rob Myers, chairman and chief executive of RM Sotheby’s, a subsidiary of Sotheby’s auction house that deals in classic cars.
“There’s certainly enough room in the market for both of us. Having other players at the top of their game fosters healthy competition and raises the standard across the industry,” he adds.
The deal announcement comes after months of cooling sales and vicious competition between car auction houses as consumers tighten their purses.
“Oversaturated” is the word collectors and brokers have been using to describe the current market.

Too many cars are coming to market, and auction houses have been all too eager to capitalise on that glut, but the result has been too many similar cars being offered at the same time.
“I see this as good news for both buyers and sellers wanting a fresh auction approach which combines professionalism and passion with global coverage,” Kidston says.
“Consolidation is probably overdue, with too many auctions chasing too few fresh cars.”
David Gooding, president of Gooding, worked for Christie’s in the 1990s; the 258-year-old auction house led the classic car market for years with record-breaking sales like that of the 1931 Bugatti 41 Royale at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1987.

He founded his eponymous company with his wife, Dawn Ahrens, in 2003. Gooding will retain his position after the deal closes, and the company will maintain its Los Angeles headquarters, a spokesman said.
Founded in 1766, Christie’s maintains offices in 46 countries and territories throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Asia-Pacific, with international sales hubs in New York, London, Hong Kong, Paris and Geneva.
The auction house is owned by Artémis, the holding company of the Pinault family.


Mark Rothko painting sells for 30% less than in 2015, showing Hong Kong market challenges

The Little Prince typescript, hand-corrected by Saint-Exupéry, on sale for US$1.25 million

Humanoid robot’s artwork of Alan Turing sells for US$1.3 million

How a dinosaur fossil in Hong Kong shows the big problem with auctioning skeletons

Auctions

Christie’s purchase of classic car dealer amid art market slump hailed as ‘great news’

The 1962 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider Gooding & Company sold for US$18 million in 2023. Photo: courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd.


The 1970 Porsche 917K Gooding & Company sold for US$14 million in 2017. The classic car seller announced on September 12 that it had agreed to a merger with Christie’s that even competitors are praising. Photo: courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd.


The 1967 Toyota-Shelby 2000 GT Gooding & Company sold for just over US$2.5 million in 2022 as the most expensive Japanese car sold at auction. Photo: courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd.

The 1937 Talbot-Lago T150-C-SS Teardrop Coupe Gooding & Company sold for US$13.4 million in 2022 as the most expensive French car sold at auction. Photo: courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd.

The 1995 McLaren F1 Gooding & Company sold for a record-breaking US$20.5 million in 2021. Photo: courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd.

5 must-see shows and Mid-Autumn Festival events in Hong Kong, September 13-19

Mid-Autumn Lantern Carnival at Victoria Park displays traditional Chinese lantern installations. 

The Urban Mid-Autumn Lantern Carnival at Victoria Park is one of our culture and music event picks for September, which also include the Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance, the Tai O Lantern Festival and music concerts. Photo: Chinese Culture Festival

Members of the Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance team spin balls of joss sticks as the “dragon” winds through Tai Hang on September 29, 2023. Photo: AFP

Visitors walk under lanterns at the Tai O Lantern Festival on September 11, 2021. Photo: Winson Wong

A poster for Death Metal Dungeon. Photo: @theundergroundhk

Guitar Wolf will perform for the first time in Hong Kong, at the Fringe Club Dairy. Photo: @basswolfgotz, @fxxkin_yamanaka 

Asian art specialist leaves Christie’s Hong Kong for Pace Gallery to focus on new artists

Evelyn Lin, who worked in the auction world for 26 years, is leaving Christie’s Hong Kong and joining the city’s Pace Gallery as president for Greater China. Photo: Akira Yamada

Evelyn Lin at a media briefing on Chinese master Zhang Daqian’s Crimson Lotuses on Golden Screen, in 2002, when she was Sotheby’s Chinese painting specialist. Photo: SCMP

A visitor views Zeng Fanzhi’s The Last Supper (2001) at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in 2013 ahead of its sale by Sotheby’s. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Chinese artist Yin Xiuzhen’s exhibition Everywhere, which was held at Pace Gallery Hong Kong from November 25, 2022 to March 9, 2023. Photo: courtesy Pace Gallery

Installation view of the exhibition Correspondence: Lee Ufan and Mark Rothko at Pace Gallery, in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: Sangtae Kim

Young naked women are their canvas – nude art of 2 anonymous Hong Kong artists challenges city’s conservative attitudes towards sex

Lousy’s body paint on a nude woman. The anonymous Hong Kong graffiti artist paints bold designs on young, naked women then photographs them in erotic poses. Photo: Lousy                                                         

Another of Lousy’s “kissfaces”, on Queen’s Road West in Hong Kong. Photo: Lousy

Lousy’s photobook “Yook”, published in 2020. Photo: Lousy

Matsushimaon’s body art on a nude woman. Photo: Matsushimaon

Professor Sonia Wong says there is not a lot of space in erotic or explicit artistic disciplines for women to express their sexuality, especially in Hong Kong. Photo: Professor Sonia Wong

Artist Lousy’s portrait. Photo: Lousy

Lifestyle

Arts & Culture

Motoring

Business

Companies

With art sales down, the auction house’s merger with Los Angeles-based Gooding & Co is expected to breathe life into the classic car market


With art sales down, the auction house’s merger with Los Angeles-based Gooding & Co is expected to breathe life into the classic car market.


Luxury cars

United States