Christiaan van Rechteren Limppurg

Specialist, Associate Director
Amsterdam

Christiaan van Rechteren Limpurg began his career at Christie’s as a trainee in the Chinese Department. He was appointed junior specialist at the Furniture Department in 1999. Now as co-head of the department he specialises in furniture, carpets and sculptures from 1400-1800. His accomplishments include the sale of a carpet which fetched €201,075 at Christie’s King Street and in 2006 he achieved €314,400 with a lyre secretaire, the highest price ever for a piece of furniture at a Dutch auction. Christiaan studied in Rotterdam, Leiden and Amsterdam and speaks Dutch, English, German and French.

William Robinson

International Specialist Head
London, King Street

One of the most exciting and rewarding moments in a specialist's career is making a significant discovery. This happened to William Robinson when a fax arrived on his desk in October 1993. The poor quality of the fax and its barely discernable outline of a lion did not seem to pave the way to that particular milestone in his career. When he visited the lion in a London warehouse, he knew instantly that he had made a phenomenal find. The Bronze Lion was the only known companion piece to what is possibly the most impressive piece of Islamic bronze sculpture in existence, the Griffin of Pisa. Christie's sold the lion sculpture for an impressive £2.4 million and set a world auction record for Islamic art. Mr. Robinson was principally responsible for the extremely successful sale of the Davide Halevim Carpet Collection, which achieved a total of £3,649, 663 (February 2001) and the Bernheimer Family collection of carpets, which totaled £2,123,036 (October 1996). A Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, he hopes to make many more discoveries of lost works of art. Mr. Robinson is the author of numerous articles for publications such as Apollo and Hali and an internationally recognized lecturer on carpets and Turkish pottery. He is a member of the art committee that organized the exhibition "The Hunt for Paradise: Art of the Early Safavid Period," which opened in the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan and travelled to the British Museum in London and the Asia Society in New York in 2002. Mr. Robinson is a graduate in Art History and Archaeology from Cambridge University.

Mark Henry Lampe

Department Head
London, South Kensington

Mark Henry Lampe joined Christie's in 1990 as an Oriental Carpets and Rugs Specialist, having accumulated market experience working for a well known London dealer while studying Economics. Mark’s work in the carpet trade allowed him to expand his knowledge of carpets and to hone his ability to match the carpet to the buyer. Keeping a close eye on market trends, Mark’s knowledge of fashions and his overriding understanding of the importance of colour, design and size to the buyer allow him to ably inform his clients’ decisions. Over the years, Mark has worked hard to increase the home and international reach of his department.

Elisabeth Parker

Department Head
New York, Rockefeller Center

Elisabeth Parker began her career at Christie's in 1996. Her responsibilities include appraising carpets and textiles for sale, estate and insurance purposes, organizing two major carpet sales annually as well as the carpet sections of ten decorative arts sales a year. During her tenure, Ms. Parker has been instrumental helping Christie's achieve some of the exceptional prices in this category such as the record-breaking $4.4 million sale of a Louis XV Savonnerie carpet (November 2000). Ms. Parker earned a B.A. degree in Art History and French at Colby College and has also completed a Works of Art course at a major auction house in London. She regularly appears as a guest specialist in the highly popular television program The Antiques Roadshow.

Danielle Searls

Junior Specialist
New York, Rockefeller Center

Elena Tschigg

Regional Liaison
Zürich