Christie’s is being sued by the consignor of a painting (left) by Francis Bacon (the other Francis Bacon, not the English lawyer who was Sir Edward Coke’s rival in love and politics) after the international auction house allegedly reneged on a guarantee that the owner would get at least $40 million for the painting. The chronology of events isn’t clear, but the auction house allegedly refused to go through with the minimum price guarantee after the art market tumbled as part of the recession.
Is a global recession which leads to a downturn in the art market a “contingency the non-occurrence of which was a basic assumption on which the contract was made” which would excuse Christie’s? Or does the minimum price guarantee suggest that Christie’s accepted the risk of a collapse in the market?
[Frank Snyder]
