The news came after an article in the Evening Standard last week highlighted a complaint by a US dealer about a rival’s involvement in advising Christie’s on a recent sale of film posters.
The complaint brought to the fore the general principle of using outside experts, who might bid on lots in a sale, to advise on cataloguing and pricing items in it.
Christie’s, who told the Antiques trade Gazette they were already looking into the policy when the complaint arose, are thought to be assessing whether the use of such experts would compromise the auction house’s obligations to their vendors.
Consultant experts, who are often dealers, can be privy to information not normally available to bidders. Whether this would allow them to gain an advantage on rival bidders should they decide to compete for items at the sale is not clear, since they would still be subject to competition from those bidders and therefore could not control the price at which a lot was sold.
If Christie’s, who already bar company employees involved in sales from bidding on lots in them, decide to extend that policy to outside consultants, it could make experts think twice about undertaking such consultancies if they wanted to bid. In turn, this could restrict the auction house’s ability to bring in the best outside advice in drawing up sales catalogues and reserves.
But it is not just Christie’s who have to face this issue. Many auction houses employ outside consultants to advise on specific areas, particularly in more specialist or arcane fields of collecting.
Tony Nourmand who part-owns the Reel Poster Gallery, a specialist shop in Westbourne Grove, London, was the expert brought in to advise Christie’s on the film poster sale in question, a role he has undertaken for several years.
He declined to comment on the complaint reported in the Evening Standard.
Responding to the allegations last week, a Christie’s spokesman said: “We take any suggestion of a conflict of interest very seriously. We are looking into this matter carefully. However, to avoid any confusion in future this consultant and his company will not bid on any property in which he has had any involvement.”
Complaint brings forward Christie’s review of policy on consultants
Other auction houses may soon have to follow suit: Concern over the possibility of conflicts of interest has put Christie’s review of their policy on the use of outside consultants at the top of the company’s agenda.
