The Christie’s website and app are now up and running again, the auction house confirmed. This comes following a 10-day outage that sparked concern among art advisers and collectors amid a busy season of sales.
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.”
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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.