What's it worth? - Christie's exhibition



I recently discovered - on the very last day - that famous auctioneers Christie's hold annual exhibitions of selected items from upcoming sales, so off I shot then and there. I found the premises had that "no expense spared" feel that you would expect, but I hadn't expected quite so many big names on show:

Drawings by: Goya, Lucien Freud, Picasso, Watteau, and a print by Kirchner

Paintings by: Picasso again, Poussin, Peter Doig (guide price £4/6 million, very high for a living artist), Miro, Reubens ("from a princely German collection"), Kandinsky (a 1909 painting and the highest guide price, probably because it showed showed a stage in his transition from figurative to abstract), de Stael, Canaletto, Boeschaert, Modigliano, Lichtenstein, Dali, a Titian "fragment", Lowry, Millais, Lawrence, Signac, Benjamin West (Milkmaids in St James Park - ah, those were the days!), a wonderful Jan de Steen called Easy come, easy go, depicting himself guzzling oysters in his own home, being fawned on by his household (difficult to imagine any but a Dutch artist sending himself up in that way).

Sculpture by: Rodin, Moore, Hepworth, Elizabeth Frink, a Leighton bronze (I didn't know he did sculpture) plus one or two ancient pieces

As well as examples of exceptional silverware, porcelain, Chinese art and furniture, and an amazing wall hanging by someone called El Anatsui, which looked like rippling multicoloured and gold cloth, but was actually made of aluminium bottle tops and copper wire.

As you will gather, Christie's managed to provoke exactly the kind of slack-jawed wonder that no doubt they aim for (well, they have been in the game a long time), and if I had a much larger bank balance I'm sure it would have been much smaller by the time the sales are over. The effect was enhanced by the calm, unhurried atmosphere that made all those noughts seem quite natural. Although anyone who goes to exhibitions in public galleries comes into close contact with very valuable works, they don't have price tags on them, so it feels quite odd to be standing within inches of something which has been valued in hundred of thousands, or even millions, of pounds. (There are plenty of large men hanging around by the way, quite apart from less obvious security, so don't get any ideas.) It was this that really distinguished this show from the RA summer exhibition (also a selling event of course, but the price tags are only in the catalogue) - no need to disguise the fact that art follows the money at this address.