Joanna Ostrem has the kind of job where the telephone rings and suddenly you’re off on an adventure. “I love getting that call,” said Ostrem, who is a Senior Vice President and the Co-Head of the Trusts, Estates and Appraisals Department at Christie’s auction house. “I love hearing that we are about to work with a new collection and begin the process of learning all we can, and one day bringing that collection to the saleroom.”
Christie’s was founded in London in 1766 by a Scotsman named James Christie. Some 250 years later, it is one of the world’s leading purveyors of fine art, jewelry, handbags, wine, rare books, the contents of movie-star homes, historical documents, digital artworks like NFTs and T-rex fossils, to name just some of the 80-plus types of art and luxury objects that Christie’s offers via auction and private sale. The business has a physical presence in more than 46 nations and salerooms in London, Hong Kong, Paris, Geneva and New York, where Ostrem has her office.
She describes her team of more than 30 people – the Trusts, Estates and Appraisals Department – as, “in many ways the core engine of our business.” What she means is that you can’t have world-class auctions without world-class things to sell, and a good percentage of those world-class things come to Christie’s through her department…when the phone rings. The caller might be an estate or art attorney, an art advisor, the spouse, child or grandchild of a collector or the collector themselves, or even a noted writer who wants to sell her archive or a rock star who wants to sell his guitars.
The first step in the process is an appraisal. That’s a detailed catalog of what is in the collection, noting object-by-object what the object is, whether it can be authenticated, what its physical attributes are and an estimate of its value. Ostrem’s team are expert appraisers, and they assemble the right mix of experts from Christie’s vast group of specialists, come together to get the job done. “If you have something and wonder whether it has value, or if a place like Christie’s would sell it, call us,” Ostrem said. “We have the specialists at our disposal and if it is not for Christie’s to sell, we have a great network of partners in the auction sphere we can refer you to.”
The appraisal doesn’t always lead to an auction, but it is often the beginning of a relationship between Christie’s and the owners that can last decades, deepening with time. “We stay in touch,” Ostrem said. “We are a resource for the many needs collectors have. If there is a flood, we can help you restore a damaged painting. We can assist with fine art storage. We can make sure the appraisal of your collection stays up to date.”
Then comes the moment when – for whatever reason – the client decides it might be time to sell. Once again, Ostrem will assemble a team from within Christie’s and make a proposal for sale. “We would come up with a marketing plan that could be global in scale,” Ostrem said. “This is also the moment when we might ask if any of these works would be better for a private sale.” If the client approves the sale plan, Ostrem said, that’s when the hard work starts. “These sales are always so complicated,” she explains, “so many different departments can be involved and the logistics of mounting a sale can be complex, but that is what we do and it’s exhilarating.”
When the day of the sale comes, Ostrem said she is always nervous. “We are rooting for our client and you never know what is going to happen. That’s the nature of auctions. When it goes well it is amazing. You get to share this amazing experience with the client.”
Ostrem was raised in suburban Boston, the daughter of a physician father and mother who was a music teacher. It was a lovely childhood, but Ostrem shared that she dreamed of living in a big city. As it turned out, her first big city was Paris, where she went for a semester abroad from Bowdoin College, and to get a Masters in French from Middlebury College. That led to a three-plus year stint at a Parisian auction house, and then to Christie’s in New York, where she has been since 2017.
Today, she lives in Manhattan with her husband and their two children.
It’s clear Ostrem loves her work, and while Christie’s is a business, it’s also clear that it is the people Ostrem works for who motivate her. There is a lot of chatter about art as an asset, but objects have much more emotional resonance than stocks and bonds. The auction process can be a celebration, or a chance to mourn or work out hard feelings.
“My role is to be sensitive to all of that and help them through something most people will experience just once in their lifetimes,” Ostrem said. “I am a coach, guide, shepherd and advocate. I am there to be a key partner in this fascinating and complex process and I love it.”
