
Jussi Pylkkänen
London, King Street
Jussi Pylkkänen, deputy chairman of Christie's in the United Kingdom and a seasoned auctioneer, belongs to Christie's elite group of specialists in 19th and 20th Century Art, including Impressionist and Modern Art. Under his leadership, Christie's has become the pre-eminent auction house and market leader in Europe in Impressionist and Modern art. Among Jussi's numerous auction successes are Monet's Rouen Cathedral, which sold for £7.6 million (1995); Klimt's Schloss Kammer am Attersee II, which fetched £13.2 million and set a world auction record for the artist (1997); and Cézanne's magnificent Nature Morte aux fruits et pot de gingembre, which realized £12.1 million (2000).
Aside from his responsibilities for Impressionist and Modern art, Jussi initiated Christie's sales of German and Austrian art, which since their inception have become the high point of the European auction calendar. In 1999, sales in this increasingly popular collecting field exceeded £100 million followed with totals of over £12 million the following year.
Jussi's areas of expertise include Classic Impressionism and the Avant-Garde movements of the early 20th century, German Expressionism, Italian and Russian Futurism, and the great French Modernist movements of 1905-1915.