Christie’s Auction House

In 1766, James Christie opened the London auction house and launched the world’s first fine art auctioneers, and the reputation has grown ever since. Christie’s holds a wide range of art including paintings, prints, sculpture, books and manuscripts, jewelry, furniture and decorative arts.

Lighting is a key part of bringing the famous salerooms up to date. With constantly changing collections, it is necessary to have a contemporary flexible lighting system that can be easily operated. With thousands, if not millions, of pounds at stake in a highly competitive market, it is crucial that from fine art to furniture, sale items are literally shown in their best light.

In 2008, Christie’s opened its newly-refurbished galleries, and RCL was approached to supply lighting as part of the renovation. The brief specified a product that could fit within a ceiling trough just 200mm wide. RCL worked in conjunction with Christie’s to produce a new product – the DR8. The light was designed and manufactured in just four months and 586 pieces were installed and operating on time. In addition to a reduced “turning circle”, the DR8 also offers excellent glare control and is controllable by RCL’s handheld remote controller, DMX or DALI.