The art world has its sights set on this week’s Christie’s New York auctions, which could generate sales of up to $1 billion, but watch and jewellery collectors are in Geneva for events that include the sale of several watches owned by Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher.
At least I hope these collectors (or their representatives) are in Geneva, because placing bids online is still off the table as the Christie’s website remains offline following what the auctioneer describes as a “technology security issue has impacted some systems including the website”.
Zachary Small, who covers the art beat for the New York Times, has been leading an investigation into the causes and effects of what appears to be a hacking incident (Christie’s has not used this term).
On his Instagram page, he urges: “If you pay attention to one thing in the art world right now, it should be the Christie’s hack, which is not only jeopardizing their $840M sales season, but testing the loyalty of clients”.
Mr Small spent the weekend speaking to art collectors, most of whom were hearing about the hack for the first time.
His article for The New York Times on Sunday quoted unnamed sources within Christie’s saying that the auctioneer is is in a “state of panic” over the cyber security issue that forced it to shut down its website and block online bidding for the Only Watch Auction.
Since Christie’s was founded in London in 1766, discretion has been its watchword; a quality admired by its well-healed clientele over the centuries.
But in a digital age, information is power, and customers want to know that their private information is secure.
Depending on the extent of the intrusion at Christie’s, it is conceivable that personal banking information, purchasing history and details of clients’ collections has been stolen, and could be used to blackmail some of the wealthiest people in the world.
We simply do not know.
WatchPro asked Christie’s in Geneva for an update on Monday morning, but has so far had no response.
In the absence of information, the watch community is taking to Instagram to voice frustration.
Independent watchmaker Ludovic Ballouard, who made a unique watch for last week’s Only Watch charity auction, shared a post from a collector with the tag wrist_watch_ing on Instagram, who said he would have bid more than the CHF 100,000 hammer price for its Upside Down Blue Feather Ludovic Ballouard x Brittany Nicole Cox watch if Christie’s had got its act together.
The collector says Christie’s let the charity down with the last minute closure of online bidding, and was unresponsive when he or she tried to line up bids directly with the company’s auction team.
Will this affect the results of Tuesday’s sale at Christie’s Geneva: “Rare Watches
Including the Property of Michael Schumacher“? We may never know, but bidding will only be possible in the sale room, so buyers or their representatives will need to stay in town for another day after the auction was postponed from today to tomorrow.
It is worth stating that Christie’s appears to be the victim of a cyber attack, but sympathy for the company will wear thin if it does not come up with a complete explanation of what happened, who is affected, what is being done to ensure security and what the solution is to get its operation back online.