John Hays
Deputy Chairman, Christie’s Americas
New York
John Hays, who joined Christie’s in 1983, is considered the premier auctioneer of Americana sales and has presided over such landmark events as the auction of The Collection Mr. & Mrs. Eddy Nicholson (1995) and the unprecedented sale of the Nicholas Brown Chippendale desk-and-bookcase, a $12.1 million result which remains the world auction record for American Furniture (1989). In January 2006, Mr. Hays directed the highest selling single-owner collection of Americana - The Property from the Collection of Mrs. J. Insley Blair featuring the seminal portrait by Charles Willson Peale, George Washington at Princeton, which sold for $21.2 million, setting a work auction record for an American portrait. Another highlight included a Taunton, Massachusetts William and Mary diminutive paint decorated pine chest-of-drawers by Robert Crossman, which realized $2.9 million. Mr. Hays brings tremendous expertise and insight to the field of Americana. He is a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and holds a BA in Art History from Kenyon College.
