For more than 255 years, Christie’s has been a cultural leader and, as such, we must challenge ourselves to be a leader in responsible culture as well. Across our business—from the experience of our workplace to the works we sell and celebrate, to the partnerships, people and philanthropic and educational initiatives we support—Christie’s is committed to building and sustaining equitable, diverse and inclusive experiences and perspectives. Respect has been, and always will remain a core value for our company and our values are clear: we condemn discrimination in all forms.

We believe it is our responsibility to actively use our position in the artworld, both as a global business leader and as an employer, to better amplify under-represented voices and support positive cultural change. This will enable us to continue to operate at the vanguard, protecting and rethinking the past, while working to shape the future so that we can best serve our clients, partners, employees, and the art community. 

While we are proud of the concrete steps we have taken, we continue to hold ourselves accountable to be better. We are listening carefully to our employees, clients, partners and artists to hear their ideas on how to further transform and innovate our organization as we move forward together.

Expanding our internal knowledge and thinking

While acknowledging that it will take time, our employees and senior leaders are energized and committed to creating positive change. Regional and global ED&I committees and employee affinity networks help to engage the organization through listening, facilitating discourse and advancing ideas on how to address issues relating to Gender, Disability, Ethnicity, LGBTQIA+ and Socio-Economic differences.

Training programmes help us to better understand the issues faced by groups and individuals and provide employees with tools to help drive behavioural change in the organization. Building on mandatory Unconscious Bias training in 2020, in 2021 we provided workshops on Covering, Active Bystander and Allyship and ran a pilot of Accidental Sexism to be rolled out in 2022.

We promote talent regardless of gender, age or ethnicity and have reviewed our recruitment processes to ensure equity across our hiring practices. Our global paid Internship programmes and UK Apprentice Scheme help us to engage with talent from broader cultural, social and economic backgrounds as well as with disabilities.

Diversifying the art we sell

Although we recognize we need to do more, over the last year alone we are proud to have increased the proportion of works we showcase by female and BIPOC artists. We have grown our partnerships with organizations and individuals whose missions and initiatives enable and promote more diverse engagement in the art world including our collaboration with the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair the curator Destinee Ross-Sutton to present the Say it Loud exhibition and sale series, creating Black, Bold, British curated by Aindrea Emelife and supporting NAACP, whose mission is to combat racism and discrimination.

Opening Discussion in the Art Market

Christie’s hosts, through internationally recognized academic institution Christie’s Education, a new global series of public panel discussions on Social Engagement and the Art Market— a platform to encourage open dialogue on intersectionality in race and gender within the art market. Presented globally in New York, London, Hong Kong and online, the series features scholars, artists, and market professionals.

In 2021, we launched The Christie’s Fund to:

• Broaden access to careers in the arts through investment in early exposure, education, career development and mentorship
• Use our brand, network and other resources to enable and develop emerging artists, accelerate their careers and help the world learn about their work.

We partner with key organisations focused on education, exposure to the artworld, mentorship and development. To-date the fund has collaborated with almost 30 organisations in the UK, Europe, the United States and across Asia including:

• Art History Link-Up is a  UK-based program which encourages broader engagement with the arts by providing free accredited art history courses for state school Sixth Form students.

• Change 100 is a flagship UK programme run by pan-disability charity Leonard Cheshire, to facilitate paid work placements for talented university students with disabilities.

• Art at a Time Like This supports artists and curators in the 21st century, presenting art in direct response to current events.

• The 10,000 Interns Foundation champions underrepresented talent and promotes equity of opportunity, across a range of UK industries. 

• The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York is the only dedicated LGBTQIA+ art museum in the world with a mission to exhibit and preserve LGBTQIA+ art and foster the artists who create it.

• Christie’s Heart for Art Scholarship at Hong Kong University has established five annual scholarships for socio-economically disadvantaged BA students in the HKU Faculty of Arts to pursue valuable experiential learning opportunities in the art world.

• Silver Art Projects is a non-profit organisation that provides artists with free, year-long studio spaces and career development opportunities that accelerate and enhance their artistic practice at 4 World Trade Center.

• Project For Empty Space is a woman-run, femme-powered, People of the Global Majority/BIPOC, Queer and unapologetically radical ecosystem for creatives based in New York.

• Manchester Metropolitan University First Generation Programme supports first generation students in the arts from the North West.

• As of 2023, The Fund sponsors the new Christie’s Award at the Royal Drawing School London for a graduating student.

• In 2024, Christie’s will support a scholarship at the Department of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Normal University (NUTU), with 100% of funding going to the student.

• Also in 2024, Christie’s will support A one-Year Art Education Program for one primary school in a remote village through the AAEON Foundation in Taiwan.

Working to drive positive change, we continue to seek out partners around the world, who can not only benefit from our financial support, but also from our resources, convening power and expertise.

Legislation in the UK requires all employers with 250 or more employees to publish annually the pay gap between men and women. The information relates to employees employed by Christie Manson & Woods Limited (our UK employing entity). Read our latest Gender Pay Gap report to learn more about our policy and commitment to fostering an environment where diversity of thought and background is embraced.

Download Gender Pay Gap Reports
2023 | 2022 | 2021