Terms of sale can sometimes lead to unexpected and perhaps even
unintended outcomes. Achieving contract certainty might not be at
the forefront of bidders' minds when buying under the hammer at
auction.
This seems to have been the case for Philippe Dupont, a
Luxembourgish collector. He filed a law suit in a New York
District Court on 18 April 2017, claiming that Christie's
failed to deliver up a David Hammons body print sold to him at auction
entitled "Coach" (1974). As reported by The Art
Newspaper, Mr Dupont was successful in securing the art work during
the auction on 3 March for $475,500 (with premium). However,
Mr Dupont's excitement in placing the winning bid was displaced
when, after receiving emails from Christie's congratulating him
on his purchase and wiring the purchase monies to them,
Christie's telephoned Mr Dupont to purportedly cancel the
sale. It transpired that they had failed to call another
prospective bidder, and Christie's now wanted to
