Hobbled by Cyberattack, Christie's Says Marquee Sales Will Proceed

People gathered at Christie’s New York on Saturday to view art and luxury items that are scheduled to be auctioned. They relied on printouts of catalogs after Christie’s lost control of its official website, which was brought down by a cyberattack. Officials at Christie’s auction house said on Saturday that the marquee sales that account for nearly half of its annual revenue would continue, despite the company having lost control of its official website last Thursday in a hack that is testing the loyalty of its ultrawealthy clients amid its spring auctions.

Christie’s experienced a technology security issue on Thursday, taking its website offline. On Sunday, the site was still down. This is the second breach the company has suffered in less than a year, after a data breach in August. Over the weekend, potential buyers gathered at the company’s galleries to view the expensive artworks. Christie’s employees assured some clients that its website would be fixed, but as of Saturday afternoon, the company had replaced it with another temporary site.