Alex Rotter has been appointed Christie’s global president, the latest senior staff shuffle at the auction house. Rotter previously led the 20th- and 21st-century art department. In his new role, Rotter will keep those responsibilities and work collaboratively across categories to “develop innovative strategies for auction and private sales”, according to a Christie’s announcement.
“It is a privilege to be entrusted with this new role and responsibility and I am excited to work even more closely with my talented colleagues around the world,” Rotter said in a statement.
Rotter joined Christie’s in 2017 and redefined the auction house’s strategy by creating the “20/21” department whose remit spans art from the contemporary, post-war, modern and Impressionist categories, which Christie’s said in a press release reflects clients’ evolving desire to collect across categories and movements.
Since joining Christie’s, Rotter’s career highlights include overseeing the record-breaking sales of the $91.1m (with fees) Jeff Koons Rabbit, and Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, for $195m (with fees). It was also Rotter who was on the phone with the winning bidder of the painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi, for $450.3m (with fees).
Rotter was appointed by Christie’s chief executive Bonnie Brennan, who replaced longtime boss Guillaume Cerutti when he stepped down early this year to oversee cultural activities for the firm’s holding company, Artémis. Brennan previously served as Christie’s president of the Americas. In March, the auction announced that the role would be filled by Julien Pradels, the then-global head of operations.
The leadership shuffle comes as Christie's and its competitors prepare to hold their marquee spring sales in New York amid a uniquely challenging context, from a contracting art market to macroeconomic uncertainty and recession fears spurred by US President Donald Trump's global trade war. Even so, Christie's has lined up some significant trophy lots for its upcoming auctions, including a Jean-Michel Basquiat triptych expected to fetch between $20m and $30m, a work from Andy Warhol's series of electric chair canvases that could bring upwards of $30m and a Claude Monet riverscape the firm has tagged with a $30m to $50m estimate.
The Warhol and Monet will go under the hammer at Rockefeller Center on 12 May, when Christie's kicks off the spring auction season in New York.
