No auctions will be held at the West London premises throughout the fair’s duration from October 15 to 18.
The latest satellite event to target the influx of contemporary art buyers to London for the Frieze Art Fair in Regent’s Park, Multiplied represents a significant departure for Christie’s from their core auction business.
It will also evoke memories of 2001 when Sotheby’s offered their New York premises as an eleventh hour venue for the International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show in the aftermath of 9/11.
On that occasion, the event was scrapped after strong protests from the trade.
However, Christie’s international head of prints Richard Lloyd, who has developed the Multiplied project, believes there will be no similar conflict this time around.
“There would be strong friction if we held a fair in every other area of the market,” he told ATG. “But the key difference here is that all the material will be new works by contemporary artists. This is all about the primary market, not the secondary market, so the tension with the trade is taken out.
“Everyone benefits from a vibrant arts scene, and giving galleries an opportunity to promote themselves and their artists is our way of putting something back.”
He said that they had already achieved their target of signing up 35 dealers and, indeed, now have a waiting list.
“The idea is to give a platform for galleries that publish new editions of both two-dimensional and three-dimensional works. Frieze vacated this space by allowing editioned works on dealers’ stands but letting out few stands to contemporary publishers.
“Our stands are very competitively priced, entry to the fair will be free and Christie’s isn’t taking any percentage of the sales.”
The event will be the first of its kind in the UK. Mr Lloyd said the idea came to him following a visit to the annual Editions/Artists’ Book Fair in New York last winter after which a plan was then presented to Christie’s management.
“Since our October contemporary art auction moved to King Street, there was space in South Kensington during one of the most important weeks in the calendar,” said Mr Lloyd. “It was just too good to miss.”
Christie’s have been holding these October contemporary sales in King Street since 2005, but the calendar remains relatively quiet at this time for South Kensington. During Frieze week last year they held only one auction which was a Travel, Science and Natural History sale.
The Multiplied event, which the auctioneers hope will become an annual fixture, will be promoted to both Christie’s clients and the exhibitors’ clients. It will have its own website as well as its own section on Christie’s website.
By Alex Capon
