Department Smoke Test

Thomas Venning has been Christie’s lead specialist for autographs and archives since 1998, and Head of Books & Manuscripts in London since 2014.

As specialist and head of department, he has overseen many high-profile sales: an early favourite was The Albin Schram Collection of Autograph Letters (July 2007), described in 100-point type by one newspaper as ‘the greatest letters ever written’; but his favourite single lot is undoubtedly the wonderful autograph of J.S. Bach’s prelude, fugue and allegro for lute, BWV 998, which sold for just over £2.5m in July 2016. His fascination for the life and work of Albert Einstein, sealed when he sold Einstein’s iconic leather jacket in July 2016 (£110,500), led in September 2023 to the auction of Einstein’s autograph manuscript Altes und Neues zur Feld-Theorie at Christie’s Shanghai (CNY 9.375m / £1.05m), the first Classic Art lot to be offered by Christie’s in Mainland China. As head of department, he has led Christie’s to market leadership in London, a position founded on the success of the twice-yearly Valuable Books and Manuscripts sales, the most valuable regular auction series in the Books world, coupled with a stellar series of single-owner sales, including most recently the library of the late Charlie Watts and the autograph collection The Alphabet of Genius (both 2023).

Thomas is one of the UK’s leading specialists in the valuation and sale of archives: notable sales have included the original manuscripts for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the ‘A’ manuscript of the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, the archive and office of Stephen Hawking, the archives of prime ministers and politicians including George Canning, Arthur Balfour and Edward Heath, and papers of soldiers, scientists, industrialists and opera companies, as well as many family and estate archives. He has a particular expertise in the Acceptance In Lieu process.

A graduate of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Thomas speaks fluent English and French.

A recognised authority on early printing, Meg has handled rare books ranging from editio princeps of classical texts, beautiful botanical books, ground-breaking scientific texts, and great world literature, setting auction records in all these fields, with books such as Pacioli’s Summa de Arithmetica ($1.215m, 2019), Adam Smith’s own copy of The Wealth of Nations (£908,000, 2018), Besler’s Hortus Eystettensis, (£1.9m, 2016), and a deluxe vellum copy of the 1470 Virgil (£1.2m, 2013). She led the team in the record-breaking sale of a printed Columbus Letter ($3.9 million, 2023), an autograph manuscript with Isaac Newton's revisions of his Principia for the second edition (£1.7m, 2021) and masterminded the series of Beltrame and Braune science sales. She was responsible for the only auction coinciding with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death (Shakespeare, The Four Folios, 25 May 2016) and likes to think that she may be the only person since the 18th century to have sold 7 copies of the First Folio in as many years; she regularly features on documentaries about Shakespeare’s First Folio. Her rare book research has led to numerous discoveries and detecting books stolen from the Danish Royal Library.

Meg is the author of the two-volume catalogue of incunabula in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Amsterdam (1989); a contributing author to The History of the Book in Britain, vol. III (Cambridge University Press: 1999), and of numerous articles in scholarly journals. She has been an invited speaker at the Library of Congress, the British Library, the Grolier Club and elsewhere and has given bibliographic masterclasses at Cambridge University Library. Meg is a past-President of the Bibliographical Society, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a member of the Grolier Club and the Association Internationale de Bibliophilie, and she sits on the development board of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Meg speaks German fluently.

Eugenio Donadoni joined Christie’s in 2010, where he leads the manuscripts team with responsibility for the appraisal, researching, cataloguing and marketing of medieval and Renaissance and earlier western manuscripts worldwide.

Born in Florence and raised in Naples, he underwent a radical process of Anglicisation and ended up reading for an undergraduate degree, a Master’s degree, and a doctorate at Oxford University. His loyalties are still divided, especially come the World Cup. Highlights include the sale of the Rothschild Prayerbook ($13.6m, the world record at auction for an illuminated manuscript, January 2014); the Carolingian ‘Gospels of Queen Theutberga’ (£1.99m, July 2015); the only copy of the Ripley Scroll in private hands (£584,750, December 2017); the Middle English Audley End Lydgate (£392,750, July 2018); the lavishly illuminated Almanac Hours (£1.63m, July 2020); and a sumptuous Book of Hours by the Master of the Paris Bartholomeus Anglicus ($3.6m, April 2021).

Notable collection sales have included the Arcana Collection of Exceptional Illuminated Manuscripts (London, 2010-11); the stunning group of manuscripts in Yates, Thompson and Bright: a Family of Bibliophiles (London, 16 July 2014), the collection of Maurice Burrus (London, 25 May 2016); The History of Western Script: Important Antiquities and Manuscripts from the Schøyen Collection (London, 10 July 2019); the extraordinary illuminated manuscripts and printed books from the collection of Elaine and Alexandre Rosenberg (New York, 23 April 2021); and one of the finest Continental collections of miniatures in private hands (London, 2021-22).

Over the past 13 years Eugenio has negotiated a number of multi-million pound private sales of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts to clients in Europe, the UK and the Americas: most significantly the Clumber Park Chartier (now in the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library) and the Breviary of Saint-Louis de Poissy (now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France). Eugenio is one of Christie’s international auctioneers and takes sales in London, Paris and New York. He plays in a much-loved – if terrible – rock band, will offer unsolicited advice on anything food-related and is trilingual in English, Italian and French. He also reads Latin and Ancient Greek.

As Client Relationship Manager, Abigail Bisbee Dean provides bespoke support to Christie’s clients who have varied collecting interests. Abigail began her career at Christie’s in 2014 as the American Art Sale Coordinator, managing the department’s biannual live and online auctions and providing support with private sale transactions. She is also a charity auctioneer. Abigail attended Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service where she majored in Culture and Politics, receiving her Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service. Following her undergraduate career, she earned her Master in Art & Museum Studies, also from Georgetown University and received a certificate in Art and Business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London.

Julian has over a quarter-of-a-century’s experience in the antiquarian book world, and has worked for over 15 years in Christie's Books & Manuscripts department.

Julian’s first job as a Christie’s Specialist was to catalogue the Foljambe Collection of natural history. This included selling a complete subscriber’s set of John Gould’s magnificent ornithological books for £1,252,500 (April 2008). He has gone on to handle many other important natural history, science and travel books, including maps and atlases: in December 2022, he brought to market a fine coloured copy of the complete first edition of Gerard Mercator’s Atlas, 1585-1595 (£882,000). Julian has also been responsible for such rare and valuable lots as: a pair of John Russell’s extremely scarce prints of the moon (£125,000, December 2016); two copies of Mendel’s offprint on genetics and the laws of inheritance, Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden (£242,500, July 2016 and £287,250, July 2019); a beautiful example of the famous Chinese ‘Blue Map’, Complete Geographical Map of the Great Qing Dynasty (£137,500 December 2018); and Marx’s presentation copy of Das Kapital to his cousin (£344,750, December 2019).

He has also enjoyed being involved with non-book lots, and pioneered new markets for objects such as Apple-1 computers (£133,250, November 2010) and Enigma machines (£67,250, same sale), setting new world records at that time.

Over the past decade, Julian has grown and developed successful sales of photographs, maps, posters and other ephemera relating to major 20th-century geo-political events. This ties into his life-long interest with TE Lawrence.

Julian also has a fascination with paleontology, geology and the earth sciences, and has helped catalogue a major private collection on the subject.

Sophie joined the Book Department as a specialist in 2013, covering medieval and renaissance manuscripts, autograph letters and manuscripts, and archives. She is also Head of Private Sales for the International Books and Manuscripts department.

Mark joined the Books and Manuscripts department at King Street in 2017 as a specialist in printed books.

Responsible for the appraisal and cataloguing of all manner of books, he has nevertheless been able to fulfil his passion for literature by overseeing important sales such as Shakespeare and Goethe: Masterpieces of European Literature from the Schøyen Collection (December 2019), First Editions, Second Thoughts: An Auction in Support of English PEN (July 2022), and Charlie Watts: Gentleman, Collector, Rolling Stone (September 2023). He was a co-curator of the successful Private Selling exhibition The Art of Literature in 2022.

Mark holds a Master’s degree in English Literature (1700-1830) from the University of Oxford, where he specialised in the works of the Romantic poets, and has lectured on the life and poetry of his beloved John Keats.

After spending several years working for a well-known Manhattan rare book dealer specializing in literary archives and 19th- and 20th-century British and American literature, Heather joined Christie's in 2017. She quickly fell in love with working at auction and has already contributed to two record-breaking sales that reflect her wide-ranging interests and versatility as a specialist: Albert Einstein: The God Letter ($2,892,500, December 2018) and the New York Books & Manuscripts department's first online sale, Write Me and Tell Me Your Heart: Leonard Cohen's Letters to Marianne (100% sold, $876,000, June 2019).

Heather has over a decade of experience in the field of rare books and manuscripts. She holds an A.B. in English from Vassar College, where she concentrated in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. After Vassar, she cut her teeth in the hallowed halls of the Strand as cataloguer and buyer in the Rare Book Room before pursuing an M.L.S. from Pratt Institute with a certificate in Archives and a concentration in Special Collections. During that time studied descriptive bibliography at Rare Book School in Charlottesville, Virginia, and spent a semester as a graduate intern in the Rare Books Division of the New York Public Library.

A bibliophile since childhood, Heather collects books-on-books and is a member of both the Grolier Club and the Bibliographical Society of America.

Peter joined Christies in 2016 after twenty years working with manuscript Americana, spending the first portion of his career cataloging for, and later managing, a Connecticut auction house specializing in historical autographs. In 2005 he left that firm to pursue opportunities as a consultant, agent and dealer. Although his primary interests center on early America, especially the American Revolution and Early Republic, Peter has appraised, cataloged and sold a wide range of material from the 17th to the 20th centuries.

Since joining Christie's, Peter has worked with many important collections including the papers of the Marquis de Chastellux, The Private Collection of President and Mrs. Reagan, The Findlay-Wright Papers, the Roger Judd Collection of American Historical Autographs, the Louisiana Purchase Collection of A. J. Tullock, The Collection of Lee Bouvier Radziwill, The Private Collection of William S. Reese, The Birth of Wikipedia, The Papers of Richard N. Goodwin, and most recently, DJ Kool Herc and the Birth of Hip Hop and The Collection of André Leon Talley. Some of Peter’s more prominent auction records include the sale of the Albert Einstein God Letter, bringing $2.89 million—a world record for an Einstein letter at auction; the unique Ionic Original disc of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” (£1.48m); and most recently the Arizona Spike: one of four presentation spikes presented at the ceremony marking the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 ($2.22m). Peter holds a B.A. in History from Antioch College, and a M.A. in History from the University of Delaware with a certificate in museum studies. He has curated several exhibits including a major exhibition at Federal Hall in New York celebrating the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln in 2009.

Christina Geiger began her career as a Books specialist at Christie’s New York in 2000 and worked at Christie’s East and Rockefeller Center over a banner two years which included several landmark sales. She then spent four years at a specialty books and manuscripts auction house in California before returning to the East Coast in 2006 where she became Director of the New York Books & Manuscripts department for a leading international auction house. She became the principal specialist for both the highest-grossing single-owner sale in that department’s history, American Experience: 1630-1890 at $4 million; and the highest-grossing printed book, the 1476 Aristotle de Animalibus on vellum at $940K. Since rejoining Christie’s in 2016, notable sales in New York have included the world record-holding copies of both Newton’s Principia and Shakespeare’s First Folio, the Portland set of Audubon’s Birds of America, the Einstein “God Letter,” and the Columbus Letter sold in 2023.

She headed the auction sales of the Private Collection of William S. Reese, the late, renowned Americanist of New Haven. The Reese sales totaled over $20 million across multiple auctions in 2022 and 2023. She has also taken leadership roles in the auctions of the Martin Greene Library of Russian America and Polar Exploration; Illuminated Manuscripts and Early Printed Books from the Collection of Elaine and Alexandre Rosenberg; the Exceptional Literature Collection of Theodore B. Baum; Valuable and Important Books and Manuscripts from the Library of Edward R. Leahy; and Part One of the Magnificent Library of Norman Bobins.

While Christina finds the exhilaration of auction strategy and achievement to be deeply satisfying, she also relies on steady involvement with bookish not-for-profits to balance her business life. She is a past Council Member of the Bibliographical Society of America (2012-2016), a special event auctioneer for the Center for Book Arts, and an active member of the Grolier Club, America’s oldest and largest society for bibliophiles. She is a past Council Member of both the Bibliographical Society of America (2012-2016) and past Council Member and Secretary of the Grolier Club. She is a current board member of the Book Club of California.

If a picture’s worth 1,000 words, Sir Elton John’s extensive collection of photographs would equate to a 7 million-word anthology — and counting. ‘One year when I totalled what we had acquired, it averaged about 1.5 pieces a week,’ Newell Harbin, the Director of Sir Elton John and David Furnish Photography Collection, tells Christie’s. Totalling more than 7,000 works, it is one of the largest private collections of photography in the world. When Harbin began assisting John with his collection in 2010, he was already a voracious collector. The award-winning musician and philanthropist had fallen in love with photography in the early 1990s when, newly sober, he saw the medium in a fresh light. Over the years, as John’s understanding of the movements within photography grew, he assembled a world-class collection as diverse as his own talents and passions. ‘Within the photography community, Elton’s love for photographs was an open secret for a while. He collected at the masterpiece level and was behind a lot of great interest and collecting power during the ’90s and the 2000s,’ recalls Darius Himes, Christie’s Deputy Chairman and International Head of Photographs. In 1993, for example, John bought Man Ray’s 1932 image Glass Tears for $193,895, then the highest price for a single photograph at auction. The public came to know John’s impressive trove of photographs, which charts the rise of the medium from 1910 onwards, through the exhibitions Chorus of Light at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art in 2000 and The Radical Eye at London’s Tate Modern in 2016–17. Beginning 18 May 2024, more than 300 images from John and Furnish’s collection will be unveiled at the Victoria and Albert Museum in Fragile Beauty, the institution’s largest photography exhibition to date. ‘Within the photography community, Elton’s love for photographs was an open secret for a while. He collected at the masterpiece level and was behind a lot of great interest and collecting power during the ’90s and the 2000s,’ recalls Darius Himes, Christie’s Deputy Chairman and International Head of Photographs. In 1993, for example, John bought Man Ray’s 1932 image Glass Tears for $193,895, then the highest price for a single photograph at auction. The public came to know John’s impressive trove of photographs, which charts the rise of the medium from 1910 onwards, through the exhibitions Chorus of Light at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art in 2000 and The Radical Eye at London’s Tate Modern in 2016–17. Beginning 18 May 2024, more than 300 images from John and Furnish’s collection will be unveiled at the Victoria and Albert Museum in Fragile Beauty, the institution’s largest photography exhibition to date. ‘It’s amazing what Elton can put on the wall and get away with versus what other people can,’ says Harbin of the diversity of John’s collection, which he hung salon style to maximise space. In addition to his 13,500-square-foot apartment, John also maintained a studio at Park Place where Harbin managed and conserved the photographs , which are especially sensitive to light and humidity. ‘Because of how large our collection is, we have the ability to rotate photographs in the way that they should be rotated to keep the prints to a museum-quality level.’

The public came to know John’s impressive trove of photographs, which charts the rise of the medium from 1910 onwards, through the exhibitions Chorus of Light at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art in 2000 and The Radical Eye at London’s Tate Modern in 2016–17.

If a picture’s worth 1,000 words, Sir Elton John’s extensive collection of photographs would equate to a 7 million-word anthology — and counting. ‘One year when I totalled what we had acquired, it averaged about 1.5 pieces a week,’ Newell Harbin, the Director of Sir Elton John and David Furnish Photography Collection, tells Christie’s. Totalling more than 7,000 works, it is one of the largest private collections of photography in the world. When Harbin began assisting John with his collection in 2010, he was already a voracious collector. The award-winning musician and philanthropist had fallen in love with photography in the early 1990s when, newly sober, he saw the medium in a fresh light. Over the years, as John’s understanding of the movements within photography grew, he assembled a world-class collection as diverse as his own talents and passions. ‘Within the photography community, Elton’s love for photographs was an open secret for a while. He collected at the masterpiece level and was behind a lot of great interest and collecting power during the ’90s and the 2000s,’ recalls Darius Himes, Christie’s Deputy Chairman and International Head of Photographs. In 1993, for example, John bought Man Ray’s 1932 image Glass Tears for $193,895, then the highest price for a single photograph at auction. The public came to know John’s impressive trove of photographs, which charts the rise of the medium from 1910 onwards, through the exhibitions Chorus of Light at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art in 2000 and The Radical Eye at London’s Tate Modern in 2016–17. Beginning 18 May 2024, more than 300 images from John and Furnish’s collection will be unveiled at the Victoria and Albert Museum in Fragile Beauty, the institution’s largest photography exhibition to date. ‘Within the photography community, Elton’s love for photographs was an open secret for a while. He collected at the masterpiece level and was behind a lot of great interest and collecting power during the ’90s and the 2000s,’ recalls Darius Himes, Christie’s Deputy Chairman and International Head of Photographs. In 1993, for example, John bought Man Ray’s 1932 image Glass Tears for $193,895, then the highest price for a single photograph at auction. The public came to know John’s impressive trove of photographs, which charts the rise of the medium from 1910 onwards, through the exhibitions Chorus of Light at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art in 2000 and The Radical Eye at London’s Tate Modern in 2016–17. Beginning 18 May 2024, more than 300 images from John and Furnish’s collection will be unveiled at the Victoria and Albert Museum in Fragile Beauty, the institution’s largest photography exhibition to date. ‘It’s amazing what Elton can put on the wall and get away with versus what other people can,’ says Harbin of the diversity of John’s collection, which he hung salon style to maximise space. In addition to his 13,500-square-foot apartment, John also maintained a studio at Park Place where Harbin managed and conserved the photographs , which are especially sensitive to light and humidity. ‘Because of how large our collection is, we have the ability to rotate photographs in the way that they should be rotated to keep the prints to a museum-quality level.’

Emma Carrig is the cataloguer for the American Art department in New York. She is responsible for researching and cataloguing all property for auction and private sales. Before joining christies in 2022, Emma received her bachelor's degree from New York University, where she studied Art History and media, culture and communications.

After graduating from the Sorbonne in 2005 with a degree in History, Adrien Legendre joined a prestigious Parisian book dealer, then the Books department of an international auction house, spending 5 years in Paris and 4 subsequent years in New York.

In July 2017, Adrien joined Christie’s as the Head of the Books and Manuscripts department in Paris. He led with success the sale the Baroness Thysen-Bornemiza collection in 2017, the Juan de Besteigui collection in 2018 (€1,970,625, with 100% of lots sold), the Marc Litzler collection in 2019 (€4,401,375), The Paul Destribats Bibliothèque des Avant-Gardes part 1 in 2019 (€8,116,812), The Alfred Cortot collection in 2019 (€1,839,000), The Library of Martine de Behague and the Counts of Ganay, part 1 in 2019 (€1,641,250), The Paul Destribats Bibliothèque des Avant-Gardes part 2 (€2,171,425, with 100% of lots sold).

Thanks to his international experience, Adrien secured major consignments for the London and New York sales, including the Declaration Of Independence (Stone, 1823), which sold for US$852,500 in 2018.

Vincent Belloy is a Specialist in the Books and Manuscript department at Christie’s Paris. With two master's degrees from the Sorbonne where he studied Medieval History and Art, with a special focus on heraldry and the history of colours, he joined Christie’s in 2016. Since then, Vincent has contributed to major successes, including the sales of the collections of Juan de Beistegui (totalling €1,970,000 with 100% of lots sold for the books section), Marc Litzler (€4,400,000), Alfred Cortot, Martine de Béhague and the Counts of Ganay and Paul Destribats (with a running total of €13,900,000 after the first three parts).

After two years of preparatory class with a special focus on Literature and Philosophy, Roxane Ricros graduated with two Master's degrees in Business and Law, that she obtained with Honors for her Master's thesis on the French art market law. She also studied Art History at L'Ecole du Louvre while working at the Books department of a major French auction house. Roxane joined Christie's in 2022 as a Cataloguer in the Books and Manuscripts department in Paris, and has since then contributed to major successes including The Paul Destribats Bibliothèque des Avant-Gardes part 5 (€2,240,809).

Georgina is responsible for developing the market and taste for European Classical Art across Asia. Prior to moving to Hong Kong in 2019, Georgina was in the Old Master Paintings department in London. She is also a global Christie’s Auctioneer, taking flagship sales in Hong Kong, New York and London.

Based in Hong Kong, Cristian Albu is Deputy Chairman, Head of 20th and 21st Century Art at Christie’s Asia Pacific. Cristian manages sales and operations for the category in Asia and is instrumental in furthering the presentation of Western contemporary art at Christie’s in the region.

Since Cristian joined Christie’s, the 20th and 21st Century Art category has attained historic results in two consecutive years – achieving US$550 million in 2021, the highest annual total for the category at Christie’s Asia, and US$402 million in 2022, the second highest. Cristian was a key figure in the sales of Pablo Picasso’s Buste d’homme dans un cadre from the Estate of Sir Sean Connery, which sold for HK$175 million / US$22 million in May 2022, becoming the second most expensive work by Picasso sold at an auction house in Asia; Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild 747-1, which realised HK$140 million / US$18 million in December 2021; and Adrian Ghenie’s Pie Fight Interior 12 in May 2022, which fetched HK$81 million / US$10 million, setting a new world record for the artist.

Cristian's curatorial direction and network have been pivotal to some of Christie's most acclaimed, museum-quality exhibitions. These include 'Flesh and Soul: Bacon/Ghenie' in 2022, the world’s first joint exhibition of the two iconic artists Francis Bacon and Adrian Ghenie in Hong Kong and Seoul; and 'Heads On: Basquiat & Warhol', the first joint exhibition of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol in Seoul in over three decades, hosted by Christie's and Hyundai Card during Frieze Seoul in 2023.

Prior to joining the team in Hong Kong in 2020, Cristian began his career at Christie’s in London in 2012, where he played a major part in 10 highly successful auction seasons. Cristian curated the renowned private and museum loan exhibitions ‘Reflections on the Self’ (2015), ‘About the Line: An Exhibition Exploring the Power of the Line in 20th and 21st Century Art’ (2017), and ‘Sacred Noise’ (2018). He contributed significantly to the 2016 Defining British Art Evening Sale, which resulted in numerous world records. He also headed Christie’s October Evening sale in London in 2016, which doubled its low estimate and established new world records for eight artists.

Cristian graduated with a First Class Degree from Lower Danube University with a BA in International Economic Relations. He went on to complete a Master’s degree in Art Business at the Sotheby’s Institute in London, where he wrote his dissertation on Eastern European Modern and Contemporary Art.

Melody is responsible for expanding the market and interest of Western Classical Art in Asia, focusing on the International highlights tour and educational panels in Hong Kong, Taipei and mainland China. She joined Christie’s through the Graduate Trainee Program in 2018, and officially joined Classic Art Group in 2019. Melody was involved in number of major sales such as the Portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the age of 13 in Verona, Leonardo da Vinci The Head of a Bear, and rare manuscripts by Isaac Newton.

If a picture’s worth 1,000 words, Sir Elton John’s extensive collection of photographs would equate to a 7 million-word anthology — and counting. One year when I totalled what we had acquired