The office of the Manhattan district attorney announced last Thursday (9 April) that Christie’s will pay a fine of $16.7m, having failed to correctly collect sales tax in New York between July 2013 and January 2017. The fine relates to private sales worth $189m, made by offices in other locations but delivered to clients in New York. A spokesperson for the auction house said that, since 2017, the company has ‘reviewed its advice and internal processes to ensure compliance with relevant tax law. This settlement agreement brings the matter to full resolution.
For decades, the story of the Arab world has often been told through the eyes of outsiders. At the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation on Saadiyat Island, a new exhibition is shifting that perspective entirely.