Alex Rotter has been appointed Christie’s international president, the most recent senior workers shuffle on the public sale home. Rotter beforehand led the Twentieth- and Twenty first-century artwork division. In his new function, Rotter will preserve these obligations and work collaboratively throughout classes to “develop modern methods for public sale and personal gross sales”, in line with a Christie’s announcement.
“It’s a privilege to be entrusted with this new function and duty and I’m excited to work much more intently with my proficient colleagues all over the world,” Rotter mentioned in a press release.
Rotter joined Christie’s in 2017 and redefined the public sale home’s technique by creating the “20/21” division whose remit spans artwork from the modern, post-war, trendy and Impressionist classes, which Christie’s mentioned in a press launch displays purchasers’ evolving need to gather throughout classes and actions.
Since becoming a member of Christie’s, Rotter’s profession highlights embrace overseeing the record-breaking gross sales of the $91.1m (with charges) Jeff Koons Rabbit, and Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, for $195m (with charges). It was additionally Rotter who was on the cellphone with the successful bidder of the portray attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi, for $450.3m (with charges).
Rotter was appointed by Christie’s chief government Bonnie Brennan, who changed longtime boss Guillaume Cerutti when he stepped down early this 12 months to supervise cultural actions for the agency’s holding firm, Artémis. Brennan beforehand served as Christie’s president of the Americas. In March, the public sale introduced that the function could be crammed by Julien Pradels, the then-global head of operations.
The management shuffle comes as Christie’s and its opponents put together to carry their marquee spring gross sales in New York amid a uniquely difficult context, from a contracting artwork market to macroeconomic uncertainty and recession fears spurred by US President Donald Trump’s international commerce warfare. Even so, Christie’s has lined up some important trophy heaps for its upcoming auctions, together with a Jean-Michel Basquiat triptych anticipated to fetch between $20m and $30m, a piece from Andy Warhol’s collection of electrical chair canvases that would deliver upwards of $30m and a Claude Monet riverscape the agency has tagged with a $30m to $50m estimate.
The Warhol and Monet will go below the hammer at Rockefeller Heart on 12 Might, when Christie’s kicks off the spring public sale season in New York.
