As the holiday shopping season reaches its fever pitch, Christie's International, the world's leading art business, is pleased to announce the availability of its new, free App designed specifically for users of the Apple iPad. With special features and functions that are optimized for the iPad’s rich interface, the new App takes users on a tour of Christie’s upcoming auctions and enables “at a glance” browsing of hundreds of luxury items and objects to be sold in the company’s salerooms worldwide, including fine art, rare wines, luxury handbags, jewelry, watches, antiques, modern design, and more.

The roll-out of the iPad App completes a trifecta of new mobile initiatives first undertaken by Christie’s in July of 2009 with the launch of Christie’s popular App for the iPhone and iTouch devices. This first App was followed in June of 2010 with the launch of an optimized mobile web site that is compatible with all smartphones and mobile devices, regardless of manufacturer.

Michael O’Neal, Director of Digital Media at Christie’s, comments: “By taking advantage of the iPad's immersive and visually-rich platform, a whole new community of shoppers who may not be familiar with buying at auction can discover the diverse selection of offerings available at Christie’s this holiday season and beyond. Whether your interest is in fine watches, contemporary art, or rare wines, the App provides iPad users with an elegant mobile interface to browse among the thousands of fascinating items offered at Christie’s auctions worldwide.”

The free App for iPad is available in the iTunes App Store, or by visiting Christie's Website. With the Christie’s App, buyers and sellers around the world can browse hundreds of collectible items with Christie’s “At A Glance” function, including the popular luxury categories of fine art, watches, wine, jewelry, handbags, and home decor.

Found something you like? With the iPad, App users can:

• View full-motion videos featuring Christie’s specialists explaining upcoming sale highlights.

• View Sale Catalogues and Lot Details: The newest sale catalogues are always at your fingertips, with flip-through access and detailed information about every individual lot in each sale, including dimensions, estimates, provenance, and detailed catalogue notes.

• Full-screen images: The iPad App takes advantage of the device’s full-size display screen to showcase high-resolution images of individual lots. Users can inspect any item in detail, and rotate and re-orient an image to best fit their screen.

• Browse any Christie’s auction, anywhere in the world: Search upcoming sales at each of our salerooms around the world, so you can easily find items of interest while on the road, or with a client.

• Get Real-time Auction Results: Even if you are not in the saleroom, you can still track sale results in real-time. The App receives results direct from the saleroom and refreshes the tally as each sale progresses, so that users have the latest news at their fingertips, as soon as the hammer falls.

• Email A Lot to a Friend: See an item that is perfect for a client or a friend? Users can select any lot and instantly send a link to it by email, along with a personal note.

• Find A Salesroom: When traveling, its easy to locate any of our 10 salesrooms around the globe with location-aware functionality and Google map links.

Among the major international auction houses, Christie’s has led the market in digital and online innovation and services, and the optimized App for the iPad is the latest example of the company’s continuing commitment to providing best-in-class digital services to enrich the client experience. In addition to its mobile offerings, Christie’s remains the only international fine art auction house to offer online bidding capability in all of its sale categories worldwide, via Christie’s LIVE™, a real-time multi-media bidding application. The online channel now accounts for one-fifth of Christie's sale registrants and registrations, and one-quarter of the company's bidders. At the close of November 2010, the dollar value of lots sold online exceeded $88.9 million for the year.