Jussi Pylkkänen - 222 - Alain Elkann Interviews

CHANGING TASTE AND VALUE. Jussi Pylkkänen is now an independent art advisor. After 38 years of service, his career at Christies culminated in the global presidency of the auction house. Among his many outstanding achievements, in 2017 he was the auctioneer at the sale of the world’s most expensive painting, Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, sold at auction at in New York for $450,312,500, a new record price for any artwork which is likely to stand for many decades. “Art is the esssence of humanity.” “As I brought the hammer down on Salvator Mundi I was conscious that that one last bid, at an extra $30 million, was the equivalent of the total price of the Van Gogh Sunflowers, the painting and price that had transformed the art market forever in 1987.” “I will be back auctioneering alongside my art advisory. The two will go hand in hand.”