Christie’s website down, victim of apparent cyberattack

Now offline for more than three days, it is not known if client’s data has been breached or how many sales will be affected. However, Christie’s chief executive officer Guillaume Cerutti issued a statement this morning confirming that all eight of the major live auctions in New York and Geneva this coming week will take place much as scheduled.

The auction house website lost much of its functionality on the morning of Friday, May 10 and by the afternoon viewers were being redirected to a placeholder page listing a ‘general enquiries’ email address and the phone numbers for its offices in London, New York, Paris and Hong Kong.

By Saturday afternoon the website address was being redirected to a makeshift site featuring catalogues from the flagship 20/21 auctions in New York (May 14-18) with links to YouTube videos and page-turner catalogues. Two auctions of important watches and jewellery in Geneva will also proceed much as planned, with the watches sale moved from today (May 13) to tomorrow (May‌ 14‌). 

The auction house has not elaborated on the nature of the cyberattack but Cerutti's statement read: “As you may know, Christie’s has experienced a technology security incident. I want to assure you that we are managing this incident according to our well-established protocols and practices, with the support of additional experts.

"This included among other things the proactive protection of our main website by taking it offline. I am pleased to reassure you that our clients for these sales will be able to bid securely in person, on the phone or via Christie’s Live.”