The incident, which Christie’s had previously referred to as a “technology security incident,” shut down its website for ten days before and during the house’s marquee New York sales.

The cyber-extortion group RansomHub claimed responsibility for the cyberattack on May 27. A dark-web message from the group also said it “attempted to come to a reasonable resolution,” but the auction house cut off communication halfway through negotiations. Christie’s emailed its clients on May 30 acknowledging the cyberattack, but said only identification data, not financial or transaction data, had been stolen.

The complaint filed in the Southern District of New York on June 3 alleges that Christie’s was unable to protect the “personally identifiable information”, or PII, of its clients, of which is estimated to be at least half a million current and former buyers in its databases. The complaint describes the breach as “a direct result of [Christie’s] failure to implement adequate and reasonable cyber-security procedures and protocols necessary to protect consumers’ PII from a foreseeable and preventable cyberattack”. The complaint filed also alleges that “data thieves have already engaged in identity theft and fraud and can in the future commit a variety of crimes” using the stolen information, which it said includes full names, passport numbers, as well as other sensitive details from passport scans, including dates of birth, birth places, genders, and barcode-like “machine-readable zones” or MRZs.

The complaint alleges the breach of data resulted in multiple “concrete injuries,” including invasion of privacy; lost time and opportunity costs from “attempting to mitigate the actual consequences of the Data Breach.”

The lawsuit also states that Christie’s clients are also at risk of multiple forms of identity theft, including the possibility of bad actors opening fraudulent financial accounts and loans in the names of exposed individuals; illegally securing government benefits, or even acquiring identification with alternate photographs and “giving false information to police during an arrest”.

The only plaintiff currently named in the class-action lawsuit is Efstathios Maroulis, who is defined in the complaint as a resident and citizen of Dallas, Texas. Profiles on Instagram and LinkedIn matching Maroulis’ name and location said the individual was the founder and CEO of dental enterprise software company Jarvis Analytics, as well as the founder and CEO of digital marketing company Mesa Six. Jarvis Analytics was acquired by dental and medical supply company Henry Schein in 2021.

Messages from ARTnews to the Instagram and LinkedIn profiles believed to belong to Maroulis did not result in a response.

Maroulis’s complaint also argues that hackers with at least two forms of PII can use those illegally acquired details in combination with publicly available data found elsewhere to “assemble complete dossiers on individuals” with “an astonishingly complete scope and degree of accuracy”. The Art Newspaper, which first reported the lawsuit, noted that these dossiers, called “fullz” in hacker circles, “typically bring considerably higher prices on the dark web than partial records thanks to their considerably higher utility in perpetrating identity theft.”

The lawsuit’s definition of the scope of alleged harm as a result of the cyberattack also includes data brokers. Maroulis’ complaint alleges that clients affected by the data breach at Christie’s can no longer voluntarily sell their own personal data at full value as a result of its exposure from RansomHub, and that information “may also fall into the hands of companies that will use [it] for targeted marketing” without their consent or permission.

According to a document filed on June 5, United States District Court Judge Jesse M. Furman has ordered that counsel for all parties appear at a initial pre-trial conference at the court on September 10.

The auction house also filed a breach notification with the office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta. The letter states that Christie’s discovered it was the victim of a cybersecurity incident on May 9, engaged external cybersecurity experts, and notified law enforcement. The letter also states the auction house is offering a “complimentary twelve-month subscription to CyEx Identity Defense Total,” an identity theft and fraud monitoring service which would notify any changes to Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion credit reports.

The letter is signed by Christie’s chief operating officer Ben Gore. CyEx’s website states the reference value of “Identity Defense Total” at $19.99 per month.

A Christie’s spokesperson declined to comment to ARTnews on the lawsuit. When asked whether other breach notifications had been filed, a spokesperson wrote in an email, “Breach notifications have been issued to the appropriate authorities in line with continued compliance with GDPR and other relevant national and state regulations.”

Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman, the law firm representing Maroulis, also had not responded to a request for comment from ARTnews by publication.

Despite the cyberattack, the auction house was still able to generate $114.7 million for the Rosa de la Cruz and 21st Century sales and $413 million during its 20th Century Evening sale in New York through bids by phone, in-person, and its online platform Christie’s Live.

News of the class-action lawsuit was first reported by The Art Newspaper. Brett Callow, threat analyst for the New Zealand–based cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, first posted news of the breach notification with the California Attorney General’s office on X.

The sales included plenty of guarantees and several works by artists whose momentum has cooled amid higher interest rates, ongoing geopolitical conflict, and concerns over the upcoming US national election.

While Phillips’ spring evening sale in Hong Kong had only 24 lots, the auction house managed to ride the ongoing wave of demand for Jean-Michel Basquiat by selling Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari for HK$99 million or U$12.6 million, the highest amount for the season across all the auction houses and categories in Hong Kong. The work carried an estimate of HK$90 million to HK$120 million.

Phillips was also the only auction house to consign a work by Banksy. The popular street artist was absent from this past New York spring auction season but The Leopard and Lamb sold at Phillips Hong Kong on May 31 for HK$36.8 million or $4.7 million on an estimate of HK$18 million to $28 million.

Phillips said its Modern and Contemporary art spring sales in Hong were 22 percent higher compared to last season, with works by Zao Wou-Ki, Yoshitomo Nara, Yayoi Kusama, and Andy Warhol accounting for six out of the top ten lots.

Christie’s said in a press release that its Asia Spring auctions on May 28 and 29 generated a total of HK$963 million ($124 million), with “close to 90% sold by lot and by value and over 40% of lots sold over high estimate.” However, last year Christie’s spring auctions in Hong Kong generated HK$1.24 billion ($159 million), indicating a drop of 22 percent in sales including fees.

Other declines included the number of works which sold for above HK$10 million ($1.3 million) compared to last year (22 for 2024, versus 36 for 2023). There were also fewer lots (81 in 2024; 88 in 2023) in this year’s 20th and 21st Century evening sales compared to the 20th/21st Century and Post-Millennium evening sales, as well as more works that did not sell (14 in 2024; 12 in 2023).

A bright yellow acrylic and silkscreen Flowers painting from 1965 by Andy Warhol was the top lot, at HK$66.625 million with fees ($8.5million USD), on an estimate of (HK $62.8 million – HK $92.8 million). Other top sellers included Zao Wou-Ki’s 10.01.68 for HK $63.175 million, or approximately $8.13 million (estimate of HK$68 million to HK$ 98 million), Yayoi Kusama’s 83-inch tall sculpture Pumpkin (2012) for HK $48.775 million, or $6.28 million (estimate of HK$40 million to HK$60 million), and Rene Magritte’s 1944 painting of a rose L’Invitation au voyage for HK $42.725 million or just under $5.5 million (estimate of HK$28 million to HK$38 million).

Eight of the top ten lots across Christie’s four sales on May 28 and May 29 had guarantees, with the exception of Yoshitomo Nara’s Portrait of AE (2009) and Rock You! (2006).

It’s worth noting that Paul Cezanne’s La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue des Lauves (circa 1902-1906) sold for HK$22.16 million or $4.5 million, on an estimate of HK$20 million to HK$30 million. That figure was a drop from when the consignor purchased the work in June 2014 from Christie’s in London for £3.55 million or about $6 million.

The selling price for Zao Wou-Ki’s 10.01.68 was also lower than when it previously appeared at auction at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in November 2018, when it sold for HK$68.9 million or $8.8 million, as the lead lot for a sale of Abstract artworks in the house’s Brushwork series.

Breakout results included a Salvo for HK$3.2 million (estimate HK$1 million to HK$1.5 million), a Marina Perez Simao painting for HK$2.1 million (estimate of HK$700,000 to HK$1.2 million), and a Ben Sledsen work for HK$1.6 million (estimate of HK$200,000 to HK$400,000). Works by Michaela Yearwood-Dan, Miriam Cahn, Lee Bae, Xia Yu, Katherine Bernhardt, and Sholto Blissett also sold above high estimates.

Christie’s said world auctions records were also set for Rhee Seundja, Nguyen Tu Nghiem, Skygolpe, Ay-o, Sholto Blissett, Jeong Young-do, Son Dong-Hyun, Daniel Correa Mejia, Jeon Hyun-Sun and Kim Su-Yeon.

Notably, two works by Nicholas Party did not sell (one had an estimate of HK$22 million to HK$28 million, or $2.8 million to $3.6 million), as well as a Wayne Thiebaud (estimate of HK$30 million to HK$40 million, or $3.8 million to $5.1 million), which had the third highest estimate of the house’s 21st Century sale.

Christie’s also officially announced at the end of its sales that it would hold its inaugural auctions at its new Asia Pacific headquarters at The Henderson building in Central district on September 26 and September 27, starting with sales of 20th and 21st Century art.

THE HEADLINES

MONET’S POPPIES VANDALIZED. Claude Monet’s famous 1873 bucolic Impressionist painting of a woman and child walking through a field of red poppies that all but engulfs them was vandalized Saturday at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris by a climate activist from the group Riposte Alimentaire [Food Response], reports Francesca Aton for ARTnews. A young woman from the group stuck a poster of a burnt-red landscape onto the center of the painting, and glued her hand to the wall beside it, before stating to the visitors in French: “This nightmarish painting in front of us is what awaits us if no alternative is put into place. At over 4 degrees (Celsius) hell is what awaits us.” The French government predicts a four-degree Celsius increase in global temperatures by 2100. However, contrary to a mistaken report by The Guardian, the Monet painting was protected by glass. As a result, it was unharmed, confirmed the museum to ARTnews. After careful inspection, the painting was placed back on view later the same day.

SHOCK CLOSURE. The University of the Arts in Philadelphia has suddenly announced it will close on June 7, and many, including its 1,149 students and about 700 faculty and staff, only learned of the news from a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer as late as Friday, or on social media, reports The New York Times. Reasons include “a fragile financial state,” as well as declining enrollment, revenue and rising expenses, stated the school on its website. A “space for questions and concerns,” is set to take place today at a town hall meeting and may address what exactly led to such an urgent financial crisis, a question which the Inquirer reported has not been sufficiently explained, though rising major infrastructure repair costs appear to have been the tipping point. The school’s Board of Trustees formally voted on June 1 to close the school after the Middle States Commission on Higher Education revoked the University’s accreditation. “We know that the news of UArts’ closure comes as a shock,” said the school in a Friday statement. “We could not overcome the ultimate challenge we faced: with a cash position that has steadily weakened, we could not cover significant, unanticipated expenses. The situation came to light very suddenly.”

THE DIGEST

RansomHub, the gang behind the Christie’s hack and ransom of client information, has claimed it is auctioning off the stolen data. Christie’s told clients their names and some personal identity information was compromised, but had no evidence financial or transactional records were taken. Apparently unable to extort a ransom, RansomHub posted: “Let us sell the data by auction. We abide by the rules of RansomHub and only sell once… Find something you like in the sample, then contact us.” [Artnet News]

Paris officials have linked three men suspected of planting five coffins at the foot of the Eiffel Tower on Saturday to a group with ties to Moscow, which is also suspected of being behind the vandalism of the Paris Holocaust Memorial museum’s Wall of the Righteous in May. Five coffins filled with plaster, draped with the French flag, and bearing the message, “French soldiers of Ukraine,” were discovered near the Eiffel Tower Saturday morning, and three people were arrested. [Le Monde]

The suicide of French curator Vincent Honoré was ruled a “work accident,” by France’s public health organization, Caisse primaire d’assurances maladie, following a three-month investigation, according to Le Quotidient de l’Art. Honoré served as head of exhibitions at the MO.CO Montpellier museum, which reportedly “vigorously contests this decision and has filed an appeal.” Meanwhile, Honoré’s family has the possibility to seek criminal charges against the museum. [ARTnews]

Pro-Palestinian protestors demonstrated at the Brooklyn Museum Friday, calling for the institution to condemn the deaths in Gaza as a genocide, and to disclose and divest its financial ties to Israel. Towards the end of the protest, a group scrawled the slogans across Deborah Kass’ OY/YO installation: “Fuck Bullshit Museum,” and “NYPD KKK.” Arrests were eventually made. [ARTnews]

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) is planning an upgrade, by purchasing the building it occupies on East Seventh Street, incorporating residencies, and adding a café. [The New York Times]

Tate director Maria Balshaw discusses criticism ofenergy company BP’s new £50-million partnership with the British Museum in an interview with the Observer, saying “the issue the BM faces in taking BP’s money is that the public has moved to a position where they think it is inappropriate, and there’s a dissonance between wishing to be seen as extremely sensitive in the way we relate to other cultures and careful about the resources we consume, and then taking money from a company that has not yet demonstrated whether it’s really committed to changing.” [The Guardian/The Observer]

Arts workers in Edinburgh have warned in a petition of a pending cultural crisis ahead of the planned sale of a beloved arts venue called Summerhall. The 130,00-square-foot complex of galleries, theaters, and cinemas is one of the city’s most famous cultural hubs, but it has emerged that its owner, Oesselman Estates, has put it on the market. [The Guardian]

THE KICKER

SOUNDS OF JOSHUA TREES. Artist Scott Kildall talks about making music from Joshua trees and his recent sound installation “Infrared Reflections,” with NPR’s Christopher Intagliata. The piece “transforms near-infrared light bouncing off the iconic scraggly yuccas into a shimmering mosaic of otherworldly music – essentially turning the Joshua tree into an instrument,” writes Intagliata. Using a microcontroller with an infrared sensor about the size of a credit card, Kildall is able to capture light wavelengths invisible to the human eye, and then map that data into sounds that we can hear. “It’s kind of like magic,” says the artist. “And the magic is just revealing something that’s right beyond our levels of perception.”

Late this past Sunday, RansomHub, a group of cyber-extortionists, claimed responsibility for the apparent hack of Christie’s previously at perhaps the most inopportune time for the auction house: New York Auction Week.

In a message posted to the dark web, the group shared an image containing a sample of the data taken in the attack, which it said included “sensitive personal information” concerning the auction house’s rarefied clientele. The message also had a timer counting down to RansomHub’s threatened release of the data, set to hit zero by the end of May.

This is just the latest development in what CEO Guillaume Cerutti euphemistically termed a “technology security incident” earlier this month, which caused a shutdown of the house’s website. For the entirety of May’s marquee auctions, clients had to make bids in person, by phone, or through a temporary site. Luckily for Christie’s, the incident didn’t appear to derail the sales—all the auctions went on as planned and the sales totaled more than $640 million—and the website has since been restored.

“Subsequent to the breach, everything seems fine,” art adviser Mary Hoeveler told ARTnews. But, she added, a big question remains: What information, if any, did the bad actor collect?

In a statement published this past Sunday, a Christie’s spokesperson, Edward Lewine, confirmed that “there was unauthorized access by a third party to parts of Christie’s network.” However, he added, the company’s investigations found no evidence that the hackers had compromised “any financial or transactional records,” taking only “a limited amount of personal data.”

If that is truly so, it would explain why the auction house appears to have taken a hard line with RansomHub: a dark-web message from the group said it “attempted to come to a reasonable resolution,” but Christie’s cut off communication halfway through negotiations.

Like many sectors, the art market is facing a growing onslaught of cybersecurity threats. In the broader economy, the number of online attacks small businesses experienced in 2023, for instance, increased 28 percent from the year prior, according to a report by the nonprofit Identity Theft Resource Center.

“When it comes to data breaches and hacks, auction houses and galleries are no different from, say, financial institutions or car companies,” art market lawyer Thomas C. Danziger told ARTnews via email. “To a savvy hacker, the Monet consignor’s personal data may be worth as much as his bank PIN code.”

The incident at Christie’s is not the auction house’s first, nor is it the art and culture sector’s only recent tech threat.

This past December, Gallery Systems, a software company that museums use to display their collections digitally and to manage documentation, saw their operations suddenly cease in an apparent cyberattack. In 2021, dealers who exhibit at Art Basel received an email from the fair stating that its parent company experienced a malware attack that potentially exposed their data. And years before that, several galleries and individuals in the United States and overseas were targets in an email scam in which hackers hijacked invoices from galleries to clients, and collected on them.

What makes auction houses, museums, and galleries particularly vulnerable is their clientele: high-net-worth individuals with coveted financial information. Possessing sensitive details about those with immense wealth, some in the industry think art institutions and businesses should do more to safeguard against potential breaches.

“Unfortunately, what we see is … a degree of risk tolerance that you would never typically see in the physical security realm,” Jordan Arnold told ARTnews; a former Manhattan prosecutor, he is a cofounder and partner in the ArtRisk Group, a risk advisory and investigative firm focused on fine art, antiquities, and collectibles.

Arnold said most businesses functioning in the art sphere would never allow unlocked doors or windows in their spaces. Yet, some are doing the digital equivalent.

While large, private institutions usually have the capital to maintain robust digital security systems and teams, it’s a heavier financial burden for small, nonprofit, and state-run entities. Remigiusz Plath, a board member of the International Committee for Museum Security, told ARTnews that cybersecurity has been top of mind for museum members. But he added that hiring the most qualified people to lead cybersecurity teams is a challenge, given that the private sector offers higher salaries.

“The market is so competitive,” Plath said. “They are extremely hard to find, especially for museums and cultural institutions.”

Few doubt that large institutions, from museums to auction houses, already have some cybersecurity measures in place. But whether they and the larger art world have enough is another matter.

“I think they do the minimum required as they understand it,” art adviser Todd Levin told ARTnews. “I don’t know if they even fully understand what they might actually have to do.”

Cybersecurity has been a priority for Levin for years. His security practices for his own business include keeping a separate dedicated server for client information that isn’t connected to the internet and to which only he has access.

One reason clients decide to work with him, Levin said, is because “I don’t have multiple young employees and interns with access to clients’ private computer data, seeing what artworks they own, what they paid, when they bought it, where it’s located, what it’s insured for, et cetera.”

Hoeveler said she maintains similar practices, what she refers to as “good security hygiene.” She utilizes multi-factor authentication and makes sure staff is trained to detect phishing scams.

Simple and uncomplicated as they seem, basic precautions like educating employees to recognize email and online threats and to run regular backups go a long way. The number of attacks in which cybercriminals exploited system vulnerabilities—weak passwords, outdated web browsers, and design flaws—saw a 180 percent increase in a one-year period, according to Verizon’s 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report.

“Basically, if we just raised the bar for the bad guys, it would make it dramatically harder for them,” Jason Hong, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, told ARTnews.

Now that even semi-sophisticated cybercriminals can purchase ransomware at the touch of a button or employ a chatbot to write a compelling scam email, shoring up cybersecurity has never been more important.

While not intending to alarm, Arnold said that the reality is, it’s never been simpler to stage a cyberattack. “And it seems, with the advent of things like automation and AI, it’s only getting easier.”

THE HEADLINES

LIST OF DEMANDS. In a dramatic twist many had feared, a group of cyber-extortionists called RansomHub claimed responsibility Monday for hacking Christie’s earlier this month, and threatened to release “sensitive personal information” on about 500,000 clients, reports Daniel Cassady for ARTnews. Exactly what kind of personal information, and whether it includes financial data, remains unclear. According to the New York Times, RansomHub said it would release the data by the end of May if a ransom is not paid, and posted a countdown timer. The group also claimed they “attempted to come to a reasonable resolution with [Christie’s] but they ceased communication midway through.” However, Christie’s spokesperson Edward Lewine said only “some limited amount of personal data” for certain clients had been compromised, and that the auction house has no evidence the hackers have “financial or transactional records.” The auction house had earlier publicly downplayed the shutting down of its website during its marquee May sales as a “technology security incident,” though the NYT reported there was in-house “panic.” 

CANINE OUTCRY. A Nina Beier performance using live dogs at the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City has sparked an outcry from animal rights activists and dog lovers. Footage of the piece featuring a group of dogs playing dead, titled Tragedy (2011), has gone viral, leading many social media users and Mexican politicians to denounce the museum and the event. Mexico City governor Martí Batres Guadarrama called for an animal rights investigation, which the country’s PAOT organization has since launched. The museum has also issued two statements over the weekend condemning animal abuse and insisting dogs “are treated with dignity and respect.” No dogs were harmed or in distress, it’s important to note, as the trainer was blended into the crowd during the performance.

THE DIGEST

Artist Marc Camille Chaimowicz has died at age 77, announced contemporary art center Wiels, in Brussels, last week. The Paris-born artist was known for his large and richly chaotic installations that contended with Minimalism. [Artforum]

A lost and belatedly authenticated Caravaggio titled Ecce Homo, has gone on display following its renovation at the Prado Museum in Madrid, and after it was almost accidentally sold for just €1,500. The museum has called the work “one of the greatest discoveries in the history of art,” and will display it until October. [The Guardian]

The Wing Luke Museum in Seattle has remained temporarily closed following a reported 26 staff members walked out last week to protest the museum’s exhibit featuring “Zionist language” and “Zionist perspectives,” according to a social media post by demonstrators. “The Confronting Hate Together exhibit shares perspectives from the Washington State Jewish Historical Society (WSJHS) that conflate anti-Zionism as antisemitism,” argues the group in their post. [The Seattle Times]

Artists and legal heirs to artists’ estates have published a letter in Le Monde demanding a halt to the June 6 Christie’s auction of a portion of the modern art collection amassed by French automaker Renault. The collection was part of Renault’s former cultural program designed to introduce the arts to industrial workers. [Le Monde]

The Native Lenape people who lived in what is now Manhattan before emigrants from the Netherlands founded New Amsterdam in 1664 are demanding that the Dutch state formally apologize for ousting their people and offer compensation. Their request comes in time for the exhibition “Manahahtáanung or New Amerstardam? The Indigenous Story Behind New York,” at the Amsterdam Museum. [El Pais]

A pastel newly attributed to Edgar Degas has surfaced in Spain, first acquired by the Spanish artist Julián Bastinos (1852–1918). The work depicts two red-headed women in a brothel, as one powders her face; it corresponds to scenes the artist painted between 1875 and 1885. [Le Quotidien de l’Art]

The Eiffel Tower will benefit from an additional €15 million in public capital to help shore up expenses incurred by the Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, which manages the monument. The financial lifeline follows losses from Covid-related closures, additional maintenance and renovation costs, and strikes earlier this year by workers, protesting the monument’s alleged mismanagement. [BFM TV]

The Italian government has seized the villa where composer Giuseppe Verdi lived and composed La Traviata, and will turn it into a museum dedicated to him. Four Verdi heirs and owners of the decaying 19th-century property near Piacenza, had planned to sell it at auction for a reported €20 million, according to Corriere di Bologna, but are instead set to receive between €8 million and €9 million from the state. They have the right to oppose the seizure in court. [The Art Newspaper]

THE KICKER

IF YOU BUILD IT. Artist Heidi Schwegler was worried that she and her musician partner, Derek Monypeny, would be isolated out in the Mojave desert, where they moved to live and make art as close as they could afford to Los Angeles, while remaining accessible to art centers, the Los Angeles Times reports. It turns out she needn’t have feared. Heidi founded the Yucca Valley Material Lab, which has become a “landing place for out-of-town artists and people looking for a way to plug into the desert,” writes Angella d’Avignon. Every workshop at the Lab sells out, and it has become part of the region’s pull, as artists priced out of Los Angeles head east. “I built this program because I was really afraid I would become a total recluse out here, because I didn’t think anybody was out here,” Schwegler said. “Come to find out, it’s just like that saying: ‘If you build it, they will come.’”

According to sources on Twitter, including @DarkWebInformer and a threat analyst for the New Zealand–based cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, Brett Callow, RansomHub has said it has information about more than 500,000 of Christie’s private clients. An image containing a sample of the information to which RansomHub claims it was able to gain access during the hack was posted to the dark web along with a message saying that the hackers “attempted to come to a reasonable resolution” with Christie’s, but the auction house cut off communication halfway through negotiations. 

“It is clear that if this information is posted they will incur heavy fines from the violation of GDPR as well as ruining their reputation with their clients and don’t care about their privacy,” the group apparently wrote in the message.

GDPR refers to the European General Data Protection Regulation, a law in the European Union that governs how personal data can be used, processed, and stored.

Following the hack, Christie’s referred to the incident as a “technology security issue.” At the time the auction house released a statement saying “Christie’s confirms that a technology security issue has impacted some of our systems, including our website. We are taking all necessary steps to manage this matter, with the engagement of a team of additional technology experts. We regret any inconvenience to our clients and our priority is to minimize any further disruption. We will provide further updates to our clients as appropriate.”

With the website still down just hours before the season’s first sale on May 14, collectors and art advisers worried that the attack would disrupt what is arguably the most important season for the art market, especially since there was hope that the May sales would shed some light on an abnormally murky market following years of low interest rates and manic buying from the collector class.

Christie’s managed to cobble together a website and successfully navigate the New York sales, raking in $114.7 million for the Rosa de la Cruz and 21st Century sales and $413 million during its 20th Century Evening sale.

Will that be enough to pay off RansomHub? Will they even bother? It is not yet clear to what data RansomHub gained access, with Nimrod Kamer, a writer for Interview Magazine, arguing that it appears they gained access only to client ID and address information, not financial data.

In a statement, Christie’s spokesperson Edward Lewine said “our investigations determined there was unauthorized access by a third party to parts of Christie’s network,” adding that the hacker group gained “some limited amount of personal data” on certain clients, but that it had no evidence of “financial or transactional records” being compromised.

Lampley joined Sotheby’s in 2018 after having worked as a specialist at Christie’s where, in 2015, she began leading that house’s Impressionist and Modern Art team in 2012. Over her six years at Sotheby’s Lampley has helped real in marquee worthy consignments and estates, including the Macklowe collection and a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution in 2021 and, much to the chagrin of Christie’s, the Emily Fisher Landau collection in 2023.

When asked about the move Lampley said “after 20 years of auctions, I am excited to experience another side of the art world, and to learn from the very best. My love of art is what drives me, and I am looking forward to getting closer to artists and thinking deeply about the evolution of a body of work.”

Besides overseeing Sotheby’s Contemporary, Modern, Photographs, 20th Century Design, and Prints departments, Lampley was a driving force behind Sotheby’s robust private sales department and invariably has a rolodex full of contacts that will be greatly appreciated and put to good use at Gagosian.

“Brooke is a proven secondary market operator with strong client relationships. She has a drive and entrepreneurial spirit that I think will fit in well at the gallery,” Larry Gagosian told ARTnews.

Lampley is slated to start at Gagosian this fall and will continue to be based in New York.

Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart informed the auction house’s staff of Lampley’s planned exit via an email on Wednesday evening, a copy of which was shared with ARTnews. “We are grateful to Brooke for her many contributions to the company over nearly seven years,” the letter read, “…we wish her all the best and look forward to collaborating with her in her next endeavor.”

According to the email, people under Lampley will report to Sebastian Fahey, the global fine art managing director. The Modern & Contemporary Americas team will continue to be led by David Galperin in Contemporary, Courtney Kremers in Private Sales, Julian Dawes in Impressionist and Modern, and Scott Niichel across the middle market Modern and Contemporary categories, the email confirmed.

The website reportedly went down on the evening of Thursday, May 9, due to a “technology security issue.” Christie’s website was still offline on Friday afternoon, with a single webpage containing the message: “We apologise that our website is currently offline. We are working to resolve this as soon as possible and regret any inconvenience.”

In its report, the New York Times called the incident a “cyberattack” by hackers.

The auction house declined, however, to disclose whether the issue was due to hackers or a cyberattack. Christie’s also did not address whether any of the private or financial data it collects about its clients had been accessed or stolen.

Tensions mounted ahead of major May sales in New York—a crucial time for not only the auction houses, but also an important bellwether for the art market—with many involved speculating how the outage could impact private buyers who make online purchases.

As of Sunday, May 19, the Christie’s website and app are back up and running. A message from Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti apologized for the inconvenience and thanked participants for their patience, while noting the success of the auction house’s sales in Geneva and New York last week.

“Our website and App are now back online, through the efforts of the team, with full functionality. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to our clients for their patience,” a Christie’s spokesperson said in a statement.

Of the 64 lots, three were withdrawn before the auction began. Just over 37 percent of the lots came with a guarantee, a sign that there was at least some collectors were interested in the works on offer at Christie’s. Despite being filled with pieces by tried-and-true, blue-chip artists like Pablo Picasso, Gerhard Richter, Claude Monet, and Andy Warhol, a number of art advisers told ARTnews that the sale felt cobbled together. 

As auctioneer Adrien Meyer rattled off the protracted list of guaranteed lots before the sale commenced, the sales floor burst into a restrained laughter. “Don’t worry, it’s a good sign,” he said, with a raised eyebrow and wry smile. Interestingly, only one of those 24 lots, Frank Stella’s Untitled (Concentric Squares), was guaranteed by the house. Despite the artist’s death earlier this month, the work hammered after very little fanfare for $5 million ($6.1 million, with fees) against an estimate of $6 million to $8 million, going to a bidder in the sales room. (All prices are reported with buyer’s premium unless otherwise noted.)

The sale, which lasted about two hours, was filled with highs and lows. A record was set for André Kertész after a print of his photograph Satiric Dancer (1926) hammered for $450,000, or $567,000 with fees; that was just above its pre-sale estimate of $500,000–$700,000. The success of that picture, of an exquisite 1920s beauty contorting herself on a small sofa next to a similarly twisted sculpture, provides further evidence that early 20th-century photography has assumed its place in the marquee evening sales. That trend arguably began two years ago when Christie’s sold Man Ray’s picture of Kiki de Montparnasse for a record-breaking $12.4 million in 2022. 

Another record was set for a work by Alexander Archipenko after his sculpture Woman Comber Her Hair (conceived in 1915, cast in 1965) hammered for a stunning $4.2 million ($5.1 million with fees), more than double its $2 million high estimate.

As for the lows, only three lots were passed on: Isamu Noguchi’s jasper stone sculpture Untitled (1980), Richard Diebenkorn’s 1968 picture Ocean Park #12, and Joan Mitchell’s Crow Hill (1966). The evening’s 13th lot, Joseph Cornell’s Untitled (Medici Prince Variant), painted around 1952, was also passed on despite a bid of $480,000 on an estimate of $700,000 to $1 million. By the end of the sale, however, the consignor must have had a change of heart. The lot was brought back to the screen and swiftly went to a bidder on the phone with Emily Kaplan, the house’s co-head of the 20th-century evening sale, for $320,000 ($403,200 with fees). Interesting what a little time and post-sale perspective can do.

One of the first lots to receive bidding in depth (and a round of applause after it sold) was Georgia O’Keeffe’s Red Poppy (1928), which carried an estimate of $10 million–$15 million. Meyer noted that the work was the largest of O’Keeffe’s poppy paintings still in private hands. He started the bidding at $8 million. The low estimate was reached in less than 15 seconds and, after a back and forth bids between specialists Paige Kestenman and Katharine Arnold, went to Kestenman’s phone bidder for $14 million ($16.5 million with fees).

Hockney’s A Lawn Being Sprinkled (1967) was the first of the evening’s high-value lots to be offered up. With an estimate of $25 million–$35 million it was among the most expensive works in the sale, matched only by van Gogh’s Coin de Jardin avec papillons (1887). Considering that it had never before come to auction and had been given the primo cover of the sale’s auction catalogue, one would have thought that the picture would have drawn more attention, especially given its provenance in the Lear collection. 

But bidding lasted just over a minute with only two or three parties interested. The work sold to a bidder on the phone with Arnold for a hammer price of $24.5 million ($28.6 million with fees), just scraping by its low estimate.

The van Gogh work had a similar fate: a decent showing but one drained of the excitement that has become expected at an evening sale. (Both the van Gogh and the Hockney were among the evening’s guaranteed lots.) Meyer opened the bidding at $20 million then jumped to $22 million, after which he stalled for a moment, repeating the figure three times to an unresponsive room. The first phone bid came in at $24 million and again, for a few seconds the room was silent enough to be empty. After two more bids, to $28 million, a bidder on the phone with Alex Rotter, chairman of the house’s 20th- and 21st-century art department, offered not another $2 million but rather only $500,000. Surprisingly that was enough to scare off the other interested parties, and Rotter’s buyer took the picture for a hammer price of $28.8 million ($33.2 million with fees), just sliding past the low estimate of $28 million.

The health of the market has been called into question for the majority of the past year, and rightly so. Economically speaking the art market, and the country, exists in a different world that it did in 2021 or 2022. “People are spending money, perhaps not in the amounts they used to a few years ago, but money is being spent,” adviser Elizabeth Fiore told ARTnews. 

“There’s just no sense of urgency,” adviser Maria Brito said in a phone interview before the sale. “There are cute things, and beautiful things, but not many works that really give a collector that sense of urgency that makes you throw your hand up at an auction. Bidders will be looking for a bargain because, let’s face it, there’s not Carrington–level work at this sale,” she added, referring to the recording-breaking Leonora Carrington picture that sold for $28.5 million at Sotheby’s the previous evening.

And deals there were on Thursday. Picasso’s 1971 Femme au chapeau assise by Pablo Picasso was scooped up for a hammer price of $17 million ($19.9 million with fees) against an estimate of $20 million to $30 million. The picture is not one of his greatest portraits, but it’s dynamic and punchy, especially considering Picasso was 90 years old when he painted it.

“This season, the posture of all the auction houses has been more defensive than offensive,” Alex Glauber, president of the Association of Professional Art Advisors, told ARTnews before Christie’s Thursday evening sale. “If they can’t show strength, they can at least show that the market is healthy and functional.”

One of the most startling things I saw happen during the first two days of art auctions in New York took place before any bids had been made.

A few minutes before Sotheby’s ultra-contemporary evening sale, “The Now,” was set to begin, a cameraman tripped over a stanchion and narrowly avoided putting an entire palm into a large, untitled work by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol. Several staffers were clearly shaken by the near-disaster involving this collaborative piece from 1984, which carried a low estimate of $15 million. 

Thankfully, Lot 105 remained undamaged. It sold for $19.4 million, a record for a Warhol-Basquiat collaboration, and the fourth-highest amount for the night.

Even with a crisis averted, the mood throughout the first two days of sales of the New York May sales was filled with anxiety among buyers and consignors. “It didn’t feel exciting in the room,” art adviser Dane Jensen told ARTnews.

A sense of narrowly avoided disaster characterized two sales at Christie’s the following night, held after several days of the auction house’s website being down due to a “technology security issue.” The de la Cruz collection and the 21st century evening sale still managed high sell-through rates; a YouTube livestream went on as planned, and online bidding continued through Christie’s Live, the house’s online platform for remote bidding. But several art advisers told ARTnews it would be hard to know how many people were deterred from jumping in on the action, especially for an estate that was so well-known. “Even one less bidder can make a huge impact on the performance of a work,” Jensen said. 

A high number of guarantees and irrevocable bids helped smooth things over and raise sell-through rates, but many lots by notable artists went for sums below their low estimates. Other lots were withdrawn, and still some others did not sell at all. At Phillips, Frank Stella’s Lettre sur les sourds et muets II (1974), from the private collection of gallerist Marianne Boesky, was estimated to sell for $5 million to $7 million. It failed to find a buyer. And despite being described by Christie’s as “considered the most important and ambitious painting” of Mark Tansey’s career, Mont Sainte-Victoire #1 (1987), estimated to sell for between $8 million–$12 million, also went unsold.

Incremental bids from several specialists in pursuit of a deal also pulled down the mood, with auctioneers like Sotheby’s European chairman Oliver Barker exclaiming, “It’s like extracting teeth, my goodness.”

As a result, several art advisers who spoke to ARTnews immediately after the start of the marquee sale week in New York also noted the unevenness of the initial results. 

On Monday night, art adviser Ivy Shapiro told ARTnews that, while there were a few sales that “went through the roof,” for the most part, Sotheby’s was subdued. “It’s cautious, but it’s steady. And if people want something, they want it.”

Jensen said the spectacle of art auctions can blind people to noticing how long things haven’t been doing well in different areas of the art market, such as flat demand for established postwar artists. It’s commonly thought that artists’ prices rise once they die, but this isn’t always the case, as evidenced by Stella, who passed away on May 4. Ifafa I, a significant 1964 shaped canvas by him, came to auction at Sotheby’s with a $14 million low estimate and hammered only just a little above that. “It may be that there isn’t a reason” the painting didn’t sell, Jensen told ARTnews. “It’s just because the market has gone down.” 

There were still bright spots, especially for painting and sculptures by artists of color, queer artists, and women. At Christie’s, records were set for Ana Mendieta (twice over in the same sale), Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Reggie Burrows Hodges, and Diane Arbus. At Phillips, Kent Monkman tripled his record, bringing it to $381,000, for the 2020 painting The Storm. And at Sotheby’s, new records were established for Faith Ringgold, Justin Caguiat, and Lucy Bull, whose works all sold for more than $1 million. 

Sotheby’s extensive contemporary day sale on May 14 also saw several paintings far exceed their high estimates: Emmi Whitehorse’s #534 Untitled for $127,000 on an estimate of $15,000 to $20,000; Alex Katz’s May for $1.88 million on an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000; Salvo’s Senza Titolo for $406,400 on an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000; Olga de Amaral’s Pueblo X for $698,500 on an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000; and Antonio Obá’s Sankofa – Figura Com Alpargata for $228,600 on an estimate of $60,000 to $80,000. The works by Whitehorse and Salvo both did not have guarantees or irrevocable bids, and they sold for more than six times their high estimates. 

One of the most astute comments on the wobbly state of the art market came just as the week of sales was about to start. On the Nota Bene podcast, recorded last week and aired on Sunday, dealer Lock Kresler observed that we are seeing a very different scenario today than in the wake of the 2008 recession, when the art market made a pretty speedy recovery. “We haven’t seen a crash,” he said, “but we also haven’t seen anything resembling a window out.”