Modern Art Paints 2006 Portrait of Christie's

Auction House Credits Art Sales for Big 2006

It was a good year for Christie's, thanks to robust sales of impressionist and modern art. The London-based auctioneer sold $1.26 billion of impressionist and modern-art pictures in 2006, including four Gustav Klimt paintings recovered by Nazi victims' heirs. That total is an 82% rise over last year, according to a story published in Bloomberg today.

Closing the market-share gap with rival Sotheby's, Christie's won most of the top lots for November's New York sales by way of key alliances with sellers and innovative incentives such as minimum prices, according to Christie's CEO Ed Dolman. Klimt's portrait of the Vienna hostess Adele Bloch-Bauer (pictured) sold for $87.9 million.

Beyond the big art sales, Christie's has also had success with rare but lower-priced lots. This month, the Givenchy dress Audrey Hepburn's wore famously in the 1961 film "Breakfast at Tiffany's" took $922,299 at Christie's in South Kensington, setting a record for a gown made for a movie.