Christie's to hold first mainland auction

Christie’s International will be the first international auction house to hold a branded event on the mainland when it conducts a sale in Shanghai this autumn, Bloomberg reported. China has granted the London-based auction house a license to operate independently on the mainland, the company said in an emailed statement. China is the world’s second-largest market for art and antique sales with US$13.7 billion in sales in 2012. “The art market continues to grow at a tremendous rate due to burgeoning interest, in particular in Asia and China,” Christie’s CEO Steven P Murphy said in the statement. Christie’s has had an office in Shanghai since 1994.