Christie’s Adds Classic Car Auction House to Its Luxury Portfolio

With the art market running on empty, Christie’s is turning to cars.

The venerated, high-end auction house said Thursday that it has agreed to buy Gooding and Company, a classic auto auction house. That will open up its luxury offerings to the machinery parked in its customers’ garages.

Restart Your Engines

McDonald’s, Baja Fresh, Wetzel’s Pretzels, General Mills, and Kraft Heinz — dealers in grub for the common man — all said this year that consumers have finally had it with inflation and are cutting back costs in a weakening economy. The upper-class dilettantes have had it, too: Christie’s said auction sales fell 22% in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2023. Rival Sotheby’s reported a 25% drop.

When the weight of the world is on your shoulders, it doesn’t matter whether they’re draped in off-the-rack Calvin Klein or fitted Armani. With less money coming in from its traditional art and luxury item core business, Christie’s took the chance to splurge for new customers:

• People “who collect art or other luxury items … also collect cars,” Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti told the Financial Times — a duh statement, but one that Christie’s turned away from when it left the vintage auto market in 2007. Among vehicles Gooding has sold this year are a 1933 Bugatti Type 43A roadster, which went for roughly £2.9 million ($3.8 million), and a 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider, which went for $14 million. According to classic car magazine Magneto, 14 of the 50 most expensive vintage car auction sales were made through Gooding.
• Previously, Christie’s had left the classic car market not long after an embarrassing episode in which it had to withdraw an incorrectly classified Auto Union D Type Grand Prix car. Santa Monica-based Gooding’s executive team will remain intact with the purchase, leaving its expertise in place to restart the auction house’s engine.

Reserve Price: Christie’s did not disclose the price tag for Gooding, only saying it was the auction house’s priciest acquisition in 20 years. If it ever entertains a rebrand, given the frequency of Beetles sold, they could call it the Old Volks Home.