Christie’s Hit By Cyberattack Days Before Auction

Auction house Christie’s has announced it will go ahead with its spring art auction, despite being hit with a cyberattack that took down its website. 

Christie’s website has displayed a message since May 10 saying the site is currently offline, directing customers to a general email address and telephone numbers for its London, New York, Paris and Hong Kong offices, inviting bidders to register interest via phone or email. 

“We apologize that our full website is currently offline,” the message reads. “We are looking to resolve this as soon as possible and regret any inconvenience. Contact details below for help and registration including to register for online bidding.”

The cause and extent of the hack has not yet been disclosed, and it’s not yet known if any personal details have been compromised in the attack. 

This is not the first time Christie’s has been hit by a cyberattack, with a data breach reported last August that impacted images of artwork uploaded by customers for review. The attack revealed the exact location of where the photos were taken.

The breach was discovered by German cybersecurity research company Zentrust Partners.