The email was posted to X by Belgian art collector Alain Servais. A Christie’s representative confirmed the authenticity of the email.

The May 9 attack was characterized by Christie’s as a “technology security issue” before being claimed as a hack by the cyber-extortionist group RansomHub in a message on the dark web this past Sunday. The hack forced Christie’s to shut down its website just days before the marquee auction sales in New York, which many hoped would lend clarity to a more than usually opaque art market. 

In the email posted by Servais, Christie’s described the hackers as “an unauthorized third party” and said that they accessed their IT network “for a limited period of time” and downloaded certain client data from Christie’s internal client verification system that houses information relating to client ID checks they are required to retain for compliance reasons. The data included personal information from photographic identification documents like passports and drivers licenses; it did not include photos, signatures, contact details, financial data, or transaction-related information, the email said.

Christie’s said further that it has taken steps to secure their systems, and have informed authorities. They have not yet found evidence of data misuse related to the attack. 

As a result of the attack, Christie’s is offering clients one year of free identity theft protection and has recommended vigilance against phishing and fraud. They also recommended that clients monitor their accounts for unusual activity, use strong passwords, and “be alert to the risk of phishing and any related fraud including any emails asking you to enter login credentials, provide financial information or give up any other personal data.”

Despite the attack and lack of a traditional website during the May auction week, Christie’s fared well, bringing in $114.7 million for the Rosa de la Cruz and 21st Century sales and $413 million during its 20th Century evening sale.

Before the Blade helicopters disembark Friday for a Memorial Day of rosé and white linen Out East, this week provides time for reflection now that the marquee New York auction sales are over. These few weeks before Art Basel—when the art world decamps for Switzerland for what is widely considered the world’s most important fair for modern and contemporary art—are typically a time for considering how the market is doing. And, while top collectors (and dealers) head to the evening sales to make their big purchases, the day sales are a far better instrument for measuring the market’s current temperature and spotting upcoming squalls.

At Christie’s, the postwar and contemporary day sales had 296 lots—almost 30 more than this past November’s sales—with an aggregate estimated total between $66.5 million and $99.8 million. The final hammer price for the collected works was $59.7 million, just below estimate. With premiums, that climbs to $77.7 million, a figure comfortably in the estimated range. Add in a healthy sell-through rate of 84 percent, a few ticks lower if including the withdrawn lots, and the picture is that of a functional market. Sotheby’s contemporary day sale proved even more successful: the aggregate total for its 345 lots (compared to 338 last fall) was just over $78 million with fees, against a $63.8 million–$90.8 million estimate. Sell-through rates there reached 83 percent, again, a few ticks lower including lots withdrawn.

With their lower values, day sales may not be as sexy as evening sales, where artworks regularly sell for tens of millions, but they carry indicative trends. As we noted in January, Indigenous art is seeing a long-overdue rise in recognition, which the market is reflecting. That’s one reason to explain why, even as numerous market stars have struggled in recent seasons, Emmi Whitehorse’s Canyon Lake I  (2001) sold for nearly 10 times its $18,000 high estimate, to bring in $177,800 with fees at Phillips modern and contemporary day sale.

But this season, as a dealer told me earlier this week, wasn’t so much about setting records—though a couple were set—but rather living to fight another day. It’s been clear since the lots were announced last month that specialists at all three houses were scrounging to find the best work they could to auction and, given the number of guarantees and irrevocable bids at the sales, fighting just as hard to sell them.

“What you saw this season was a defensive posture, where the houses decided to trade the possibility of breakout bidding and competition for certainty and security,” Alex Glauber, an art adviser and president of the Association of Professional Art Advisors, told ARTnews. “Sure, there isn’t a lot of appetite for risk right now, but this isn’t two or three years ago.”

There have been a lot of high-value estates coming to market in the past few years, from the $1.5 billion Paul Allen sale at Christie’s in 2022 to last year’s sale of Emily Fisher Landau’s collection at Sotheby’s. But this season’s big prize, to the extent there was one, was the modestly valued Rosa de la Cruz collection: that put pressure on the houses to source works, which drove consigners to think hard about the economic lay of the land before putting up a work. The houses accurately took the temperature of a collector class that was finally coming down to earth after riding a low-interest-rate wave into the stratosphere, and wisely responded with reasonable reserves and estimates that resonated with those collectors happy to spend if the price was right.

“The market relearned the value of a dollar,” Glauber said. “People, I think, are much more thoughtful about the value of their money and what they can do with that and what they can get.”

The takeaway from many advisers and market-watchers seems to be that, in place of the frothy post-Covid market, we now have a more cerebral collectors’ market shorn of the finance and tech bros who treat artworks more as commodities and points on a stock chart. It’s worth wondering, then, if or how this new line of thinking will affect galleries in the near future, especially for those dealers who jacked up primary prices for early and midcareer artists amid the 2021 and 2022 secondary-market bonanza.

“Galleries and artists need to understand that three or four stellar auction results don’t mean the price should automatically move up. You need to play this a little more like a chess game,” art adviser Ralph DeLuca told ARTnews. “Often you see younger artists go to bigger galleries, and prices go up because they’re used to selling at a higher price point and they have more overhead. But I don’t know if that’s the best thing for a younger artist’s career in most cases.”

The one major estate on sale this season, that of Rosa de la Cruz, did admirably, and it included real cornerstones of contemporary art history like Felix Gonzalez-Torres, whose 1992 work“Untitled” (America #3) hammered at $11.5 million ($13.6 million with fees).

Of course, there were casualties this season too. At the last moment, Christie’s withdrew its top lot, Brice Marden’s Event(2004–07), which was estimated at $30 million to $50 million and had been set to break the artist’s $30.9 million auction record. After the sale ended with a $114.7 million total, Christie’s chairman of 20th- and 21st-century art Alex Rottersaid that decision was made by the house.

“It wasn’t Brice’s evening, and we’re not willing to jeopardize the market of an artist like that,” Rotter said in the post-sale press conference.

Some pointed to the withdrawal of the Marden as a sign that the market was still suffering from post-Covid-induced anxiety fueled by a lack of masterpieces and collectors willing to part with the cash. In short, the estimate may have just been unrealistic.

“Often, there are aspirational estimates which come from the houses trying to meet a consignor’s aspirational expectations,” one insider told me. “This season’s estimates were much more reasonable, but in this case the market pushed back.”

If the market is in a malaise, you wouldn’t have known it from the sale of Leonora Carrington’s 1945 painting Les Distractions de Dagobert, which went for $28.5 million with fees this past Wednesday at the Sotheby’s modern evening sale, a record for the artist and a wonderful price for a painting that was universally praised as brilliant.

“For every example of a weak market, there’s an example to prove the opposite,” Sara Friedlander, deputy chairman of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie’s, told ARTnews. “There were surprises this week across all three auction houses, and that’s the magic of the auction.”

Friedlander pointed to the sale of a 1964 Andy Warhol “Flowers” series painting—auction sales of which there have been many—that hammered at $30 million, its high estimate, with four bidders competing. With premium, the price totaled $35 million.

Christie’s deserves special mention for dealing with a “technology security issue” (that’s hacking, folks, most likely a targeted cyberattack) that may have unforeseen ramifications. No one would have begrudged a delayed sale or two on the house’s part, but they soldiered on. And rightly so. These houses are in the business of making consignments and selling art. Not every sale can be a blockbuster. It’s impossible. And comparing year-over-year to the recent past, when it was effectively free to borrow money—and the world was going through a (hopefully) once-in-a-lifetime crisis—seems callously dishonest.

“In the most public way possible, all three auction houses had to do some very heavy lifting to answer the question that’s been asked over and over again, ‘Is there a still market?’” art adviser Gabriela Palmieri told ARTnews a few days after the sales, when everyone had caught their breath.

“The simple answer, against all naysayers, is yes. In many cases the houses were able to sell works that had been sitting on the market and hadn’t sold because of different expectations and prices. They found the buyers. At the end of the day I really believe that people need to look at the fact that now we’re back to establishing trends, and stop focusing on outliers.”

THE HEADLINES

STEADY GROUND. Christie’s evening sales on Thursday fell firmly within estimates, bringing in $413 million, reports Daniel Cassady for ARTnews. While bidding was not as fast and furious as a few years ago, the event suggests the art market is holding steady amid legitimate questions about its health for most of the last year. “The posture of all the auction houses has been more defensive than offensive,” said Alex Glauber, president of the Association of Professional Art Advisors. “If they can’t show strength, they can at least show that the market is healthy and functional.” That included top lots by David Hockney, Vincent van Gogh, and Georgia O’Keeffe’s Red Poppy (1928), a stunner that sold for $16.5 million with fees. It was also a day for “bargains,” if you will, with paintings such as Picasso’s 1971 Femme au chapeau assise “scooped up” for $19.9 million with fees, estimated to cost $20 to $30 million.

RIP PORTAL. The “Portal,” an art installation that linked Dublin to New York City in real-time, was shut off due to “incidents,” like mooning and a whole lot of fooling around. So much so, that it even inspired a bit by the comedians at The Daily Show. As soon as it was turned off, and without missing a beat, a makeshift sign that read, “RIP The Portal,” was laid at its base in Dublin, along with flowers. But the artwork’s creator, Benediktas Gylys, told The Guardian he was taking the situation more seriously, and would continue with the project he hopes will connect people across the world. This, despite Benediktas never expecting such a rowdy response to what was supposed to be a “family-friendly” cultural experience. Still, the Portal may be back up soon, equipped with automatic censorship mechanisms. “We are building this project as a bridge to a united planet … I can’t control behavior and I do not want to, but it’s my dream to expand the portal network,” said Gylys.

THE DIGEST

Painter Katherine Porter has died at her home in Santa Fe, N.M. She was 82. Porter is known for her colorful expressionism paintings that drew from abstraction, tantric art, and Mexican muralists. [Artforum]

Scientists may have finally figured out how the ancient pyramids were built, thanks to the discovery of a long-lost, hidden ancient branch of the Nile River that ran right beside most of Egypt’s pyramids, including the Giza complex. The river, now buried under desert and farmland, would explain how ancient Egyptians were able to transport large building blocks and materials to where the pyramids now stand. [BBC]

Pro-Palestinian student demonstrators from the University of the Arts London (UAL) have taken over the reception area at Central Saint Martins art school. Students are demanding that the university call for an immediate ceasefire, to “withdraw from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism; protect the right for free speech and the right to organize for Palestine; disclose and dissolve all affiliations with Zionist institutions,” among other actions. [The Art Newspaper]

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the vandalism found on Paris’ Wall of the Righteous Holocaust Memorial, on the outside of the Holocaust Museum on Tuesday. Stencils of red hands were found painted across the wall featuring the names of 3,900 people who risked their lives to save Jews from Nazi extermination. Meanwhile, an armed man was killed by French police today after he set a synagogue on fire in Rouen. [DW/AFPand Le Parisien/BBC]

Chilean authorities repatriated some 117 rare, 400-million-year-old fossils from Morocco earlier this week. The paleontological artifacts were confiscated by Chilean customs between 2017 and 2022. [Hespress]

The southern French eco-music festival, Le Bon Air (Good Air) canceled one of its headlining performances by DJ I Hate Models, because the artist had planned to attend the festival on a private jet. The organizers reminded followers on social media that “this means of ultra-polluting transportation consumes 50 times more CO2 than a train.” [Le Figaro]

THE KICKER

DANCING TO THE LOUVRE. The Louvre in Paris is celebrating the Olympics with exercise and dance classes held for paying customers, right inside its palatial walls. And while some purists might cry sacrilege, others are simply having the time of their lives. Catherine Porter, writing for The New York Times, was one of the lucky 60 who made it into the Louvre’s hour class of dance and exercise held before the museum opened to the public. As the instructor in the Salle des Cariatides shouted to the students to “point and point,” Porter struck her “best John Travolta poses and pointed around the room,” at the Grecian statues. It would have been hard not to. They were all around. “Over the years,” she writes, “I have felt many things in the world’s most-visited, and arguably the most-famous, museum … This time, I felt joy.”

THE HEADLINES

MOVING MONA. Should the Mona Lisa just get a room? That is the question the Louvre is seriously asking. In a meeting earlier this month, Louvre President Laurence des Cars pointed to a photo of the typically jam-packed gallery where Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait sits at the end of a lengthy, switch-back line. “We host visitors poorly in this room, so as a result, we have the impression we are doing our jobs poorly,” she said. “Moving La Joconde [as it is called in French] to a room apart, could put an end to the public’s disappointment,” she added. A recent online poll by CouponBirds found the Mona Lisa was seen by tourists as “the most disappointing artwork in the world,” though most feel they have to see it at least once in their lifetime. So if moved, where would she go? The Louvre is looking into creating a new entrance to the museum, as part of a future “Grand Louvre” renovation, that would bypass the glass pyramid entry, and lead directly to underground rooms, one of which would house the Mona Lisa.

WILD WARDROBE. 200 items from punk fashion designer Vivienne Westwood’s wardrobe will be auctioned at Christie’s in London to benefit several organizations in June, reports WWD. The iconic British designer passed away in 2022 at 81, and the sale proceeds are earmarked for the Vivienne Foundation, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and Médecins Sans Frontières, among other philanthropies she supported. Westwood’s widower Andreas Kronthaler selected the clothing for sale, including a sweeping taffeta skirt and corset top, and clothing from the Propaganda collection.

THE DIGEST

The direct descendants of the Danish magnate Lars Emil Bruun (1852-1923) can finally sell his 20,000-piece coin collection worth some $72 million, which was locked in a will that prevented it from being auctioned for 100 years. The monumental coin and medal treasure will be sold by Stack’s Bowers, with the first lot offered this fall. [Bloomberg]

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has acquired a major Bartolomeo Manfredi painting once attributed to Caravaggio. Christie’s had estimated the painting, A Drinking Musical Party (1619-20), was worth $4 to $6 million when it was offered in 2022, and it has gone on view this week at the museum’s East Pavilion. [The Art Newspaper]

An audit has determined the Centre Pompidou in Paris “does not have the financial means to finance it development and investment projects itself.” The museum is set to begin an ambitious renovation project that will see the institution shuttered for five years, beginning in 2025. [Le Monde]

A rare exhibit at the Hoam Art Museum in South Korea looks at the complex, more active role of women in ancient Buddhist art than is commonly known. The show encompasses artworks from Korea, China, and Japan, including paintings, sculpture, and embroidery from 27 global collections, and underscores how women advanced the production of Buddhist art as both creators and influential patrons. [The South China Morning Post]

PEN America has scrapped its awards ceremony after about half the nominated writers and translators withdrew their books from consideration in protest of “failure to confront the genocide in Gaza.” Awards will still be granted to those who wish to participate. [NPR]

An immersive exhibit recreates the Nova Music Festival campgrounds in Re’im, Israel, which were attacked by Hamas on October 7. Located in a 50,000 square-foot space in Manhattan’s Financial District, it includes objects from the site including burned cars, and bullet-pocked portable toilets. [The Art Newspaper]

THE KICKER

FIRST IMPRESSIONS. The Impressionist movement is being celebrated around the world on its 150^th anniversary, pegged to the first art exhibit in Paris associated with what was an emerging new painting style in 1874. But there is much the public misunderstands, and doesn’t know about what these artists were doing, and why they began making such radical paintings. For Art in America, Kelly Presutti looks at five books that show how Impressionism “was diverse in its reckoning with changing social dynamics.” It was also not limited to Europe, spreading to Japan, South Africa, and Brazil, per “Globalizing Impressionism: Reception, Translation, and Transnationalism,” edited by Alexis Clark and Frances Fowle. “No one artist or nation lay claim to Impressionism, and there is no fixed definition of the movement,” summarizes Presutti.

THE HEADLINES

CLEAR DIVIDE. CLEARING, the gallery which began in New York and expanded to Brussels and Los Angeles, has split. Following word of a schism reported in February, the gallery announced in emails on Wednesday that “after twelve years of transatlantic relationship, … the American and European entities of the gallery are going separate ways.” The Brussels gallery will be run by its former director, Lodovico Corsini, and will operate under his name. Corsini emailed another, “personal message” that avoided references to a separation, confusing those who had not read the first joint statement, and appearing to positively soften the news by saying the gallery was “transitioning under Ludovovico Corsini,” while remaining in the same Brussels space, “under [his] continued leadership.” CLEARING in the US will remain under the leadership of its founder, Olivier Babin.

THE DIGEST

META-GALLERY FAIL. Beleaguered NFT website digitalbasel.io has shut down after it provoked the ire of Art Basel, along with galleries and the Art Basel franchise, who claimed it had infringed on the copyrights of artists. The one-year-old project “faced misunderstandings and baseless accusations of fraudulent activities,” that hindered its progress, stated the company in an email sent Wednesday. In March, 2023, Art Basel sent a cease-and-desist letter to Digital Basel.

Christie’s pulled four ancient Greek vases from an auction, after allegations came to light that they were linked to Italian dealer Gianfranco Becchina, who was convicted of art trafficking in 2011. [The Guardian]

Archaeologists have uncovered new frescoes in Pompeii, considered among the finest ever to be found. A near-complete mosaic floor, and mythical Greek scenes adorn the newly revealed, black-painted walls of a Roman banquet hall, from what is reportedly the largest dig in a generation. [BBC]

Brazilian curator Adriano Pedrosa talks about the pressures he is up against, and his vision for the Venice Biennale. It opens to previews next week amid worries over Italy’s rightwing politics, international conflicts, and criticism of the contemporary art exhibition’s inclusion of 55 percent dead artists, a notable high. [The New York Times]

Changing demographics and digitization has meant China’s young, ultra-wealthy are reshaping art and luxury spending, said experts at an HSBC Hong Kong conference. Mainland China is projected to see a 47 percent rise in “ultra-high-net worth individuals” by 2028, according to the Knight Frank Wealth Report, and thanks to online bidding and sales platforms, young Asian buyers are increasingly engaged in Christie’s global auctions. [South China Morning Post]

One of three prints from the original, 1924 negative of the iconic Le Violon d’Ingres photograph by Man Ray heads to Christie’s in Paris, along with 200 works by the artist, from the collection of his friend, Marion Meyer. [The Guardian]

Alumni Tod and Cindy Johnson have donated $10 million to Carnegie Mellon University to support public art just as it prepares to build an expanded and renamed Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Pittsburgh. [The Art Newspaper]

THE KICKER

VENICE MIXTAPE. The photographer Eric Scaggiante has made you a mixtape. Specifically, one to listen to while wandering the increasingly packed walkways of Venice, as the city rushes to prepare for the Biennale opening next week. Offered on Frieze’s website, the soundtrack is not a bad method for keeping calm amid the crowds, while also offering a little hint of the magical Italian city for those who aren’t able to globe-trot to every far-flung art event. The photographer’s images of Venice life are featured in Frieze Magazine’s special Venice issue as well. Scaggiante says the playlist is “an ode to the hidden and invisible art of Venice, made by artists of different generations, from Venice and/or based around the island.” There are some beautiful pieces to discover here, including the uplifting Barabbas by Mantovani.