Dirk Boll, a Christie’s veteran, has been appointed president of Christie’s Europe, Middle East, Russia, and India (EMERI).
Boll has been with the auctioneer since 1998, starting out in London and then heading up the Stuttgart office. He became managing director of the region in 2004, moving to Zurich, and then was promoted to managing director for continental Europe, moving back to London.
“Dirk combines being a true art connoisseur with long, proven, commercial experience and acumen,” said Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti, who was appointed to that position in December. Boll reports directly to Cerutti, who occupied the same position for several months before ascending to the CEO’s office.
Boll also serves as a professor in the art management program at the University of Hamburg, and has published books about the art market, personally penning Art for Sale—A Candid View of the Art Market in 2011 and editing Auctioneers Who Made Art History in 2014, including texts by Daniella Luxembourg, David Nash, Judd Tully and many others. Both are published by Hatje Cantz.
A Kassel native, Boll credits the Documenta exhibitions that take place every five years in that city with inspiring his interest in art, which he pursued by studying law and art management in Göttingen and Freiburg im Breisgau.
Christie’s, which boasts a dozen salesrooms internationally, marked its 250th anniversary this year; as artnet News previously reported, the company has seen more than half of its top 10 lots sell in just the last five years. Christie’s is owned by holding company Artémis, which is headed up by collector François Pinault.