Christie's International plc

Christie's International is one of the world's largest auction houses (neck and neck with Sotheby's). Christie's appraises, prepares, and sells items such as art, collectibles, wine, stamps, and motor cars. The company holds auctions worldwide and offers an educational art program, a mail-order book service, a fine arts image library; it also provides real estate services. Christie's entered online auctions in 2006, six years after the company dropped its initial Internet auction plans. Artemis, the holding company of French art collector Francois Pinault, owns Christie's.