21st Century European Sculpture

With twenty years’ experience in valuing Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art, Peter Brown has overseen sales which have ensured Christie’s dominance of this market. As head of department, Peter has led a team which has achieved many world auction records for Victorian artists including those for Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Millais, Holman Hunt and Leighton. He was closely involved in securing and selling the Forbes Collection of Victorian Pictures in 2003, which sold for a total of £17 million – the largest ever auction of Victorian art to date, in which 65 auction records were achieved. In July 2013 he co-ordinated an auction of Victorian Pictures that realised £22,201,975 /$33,547,184 /€25,598,878, the highest total ever achieved for the category. The top price was paid for a masterpiece by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt., A.R.A., R.W.S. (1833-1898), Love Among the Ruins, which sold for £14,845,875/$22,432,117/€17,117,294, setting a new world record price for the artist at auction (estimate: £3 – 5 million) and becoming the most expensive Pre-Raphaelite painting ever sold at auction. In June 2000, he discovered an unsigned and previously unidentified work by Sir John Everett Millais. Estimated at £60-80,000, the picture sold for £157,750. (Christie’s, London, 14 June 2000, lot 11). Most recently he helped orchestrate the sale of the Setton Collection in December 2020 which saw many pictures double their pre-sale estimates and achieve world record prices. Peter Brown holds a B.A. from Durham University, and is a graduate of Christie’s Education. He has worked with Christie’s since 1992 and is a Senior Director and International Specialist.

Laura Lindsay began as a specialist in Old Master Pictures in New York in 1978. Returning to London, she continued working in the Old Master Department specialising in British pictures. In 1995, she joined the British & Irish Art Department. Laura has masterminded several successful theme sales with works by British artists, including the China Trade sales in Hong Kong (1989-1994) and the popular Visions of India sales which she inaugurated in 1995. Since 2001, she has helped run the biannual Arts of India sale, which includes a section devoted to British artists working in India. In 1999, she created the first-ever sale devoted to views of London through the ages, which totaled over £2 million ($3 million). A second sale with this theme followed in 2002. In the last 6 years, she has overseen the successful annual Scottish Sale in Edinburgh. Laura holds a Combined Honors Degree in History and History of Art from London University.