Auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen to leave Christie's after 38 years
October 25 2023
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News has broken that Christie's Global President and long-time auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen will be leaving the company in December to become an independent art advisor. He has been with the auction house for 38 years, and has taken the majority of Old Master Paintings Evening Sales in some time.
According to Artnews:
Pylkkänen’s final Christie’s sale will be an Old Masters auction slated to take place in London on December 7. The house said in its announcement that he will still preside over the marquee 20th-century art evening sale in New York this November.
Some of the most expensive works of art ever sold at auction have hit the block during live sales conducted by Pylkkänen. In 2017, he took the rostrum during the sale of Salvator Mundi, a painting the house credited to Leonardo da Vinci. That work sold for $450.3 million, and still holds the record for the priciest piece ever sold publicly at auction. In 2022, he facilitated bidding for a $195 million Andy Warhol painting of Marilyn Monroe; the buyer was dealer Larry Gagosian.
