Christie's names new global head of luxury

By

Benjamin Fitzgerald

Published
Mar 1, 2023

Global auction house Christie's has announced the appointment of Emmanuel Danan as new global managing director of Christie’s luxury, effective February 20.

In the new role, Danan will direct all aspects of Christie’s luxury business across both live and online auctions and private sales and will work closely with colleagues across the specialist departments in New York, London, Geneva, Paris, and Hong Kong.

Based in Paris, he will report to Francis Belin, president of Christie’s Asia Pacific, who oversees the luxury division, as well as the Asian and world art departments globally.

Danan has more than 22 years of experience in business, and joins Christie’s from Maesa, a Bain Capital Private Equity portfolio company, where he was president for Europe and the Middle East. He also spent 17 years with L’Oréal, where he was general manager of L’Oréal Paris for western Europe. At L’Oréal, he also held several general management positions in Taipei, Düsseldorf and Shanghai.

Prior to joining L’Oréal, he was a consultant at Kearney.

“Emmanuel joins us at an exciting moment for Christie’s-- following our record year and growth across the luxury departments, both at auction and in our bespoke Private Sales business in 2022," said Belin. "His experience working across diverse markets internationally will provide an excellent framework to continue to move this part of our business forward.”

Danan joins Christie’s following the business’ nearly billion-dollar year in global sales of jewels, watches, wine and handbags in 2022.

Last year, the luxury department achieved top prices for jewels, including selling the largest white diamond ever offered at auction (228.31 cts) for $21.7 million and The Fortune Pink, the largest pear-shaped, fancy vivid pink diamond ever to be sold at auction for $28.8 million.

Christie’s luxury also had an "exceptional year" for wine, including the sale of The Visionary’s Spectacular Cellar, which totalled $19.6 million. Handbags and accessories also achieved a global annual total of $32.8 million, the highest ever for the category, and watches saw numerous successes with single-owner collections, including legendary and unique watches, which totalled $32 million and was 100% sold.