James Christie (auctioneer)

Art auctions, London. Christie, a former naval officer, held his first sale in Pall Mall in 1766 and made the auction room a fashionable social event, handling the contents of grand houses and, in 1778, Robert Walpole's paintings for Catherine the Great. Trust in the auctioneer's catalogue and judgement was the asset. Christie's and its later rival Sotheby's became the global infrastructure of the art market.