Quick Hits: Christie’s Celebrates a Grand Opening in LA

Photo Credit: Adrian Tiemens 

Christie’s has finally come to L.A.! The world-famous auction house has launched its new Los Angeles flagship at 336 North Camden Drive in Beverly Hills. The 5,400 square-foot space—as designed by wHY, the team behind the Marciano Art Foundation, CalArts and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art—will host public exhibitions, social events, educational programming and live-streams of global auctions.

Photo Credit: Adrian Tiemens 

There will also be private meeting areas and offices where clients and specialists can discuss appraisals, advisory projects, or buying and selling opportunities. Additionally, a large rooftop courtyard and green space provides an outdoor space for hosting events, parties and performances under the stars.

Photo Credit: Adrian Tiemens 

To herald its opening, the house is hosting a special exhibition of more than 60 paintings, sculptures, photographs, and works on paper, as well as a selection of jewels, watches and private sale items from now through April 28 including “Three Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer,” the first triptych Francis Bacon painted of his great muse; “Leda and the Swan” (1962) by Cy Twombly; and “Femme assise dans un fauteuil” (1917-1920) by Pablo Picasso, A Cubist portrait of the artist’s first wife, the Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova. The exhibition was curated from the auction house’s signature May sales of Impressionist, Modern, Post-War, Contemporary and Latin American art, which take place in New York, and was designed to create an engaging visual dialogue between the major artists of each era, from Europe to the Americas.

Photo Credit: Adrian Tiemens 

The grand opening exhibition marked the first time that the Twombly, Picasso and Bacon—museum-quality masterpieces—were exhibited together in public in the United States. This kind of unique exhibit is the house’s goal moving forward. As Christie’s LA Managing Director Sonya Roth says, “This is Christie’s moment to shine in L.A.”