Christie’s International Real Estate, the property arm of the renowned London-based art auction house, is considering opening an office in Bahrain.

The company's senior vice-president and Middle East regional director Joachim Wrang-Widen revealed the expansion plans at a recent media briefing in the UK, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

“If I recognise enough turnover in the local market, we'll have an office there,” he told Gulf Business magazine.

“Bahrain is on my list of 'do we expand there' - if yes I have a number of priorities [such as] when do we need to be there and how do we need to be there.”

Wrang-Widen was speaking at an event marking the imminent launch of a Dubai office for the company, whose brand has operated in the UAE since the May 2006 opening of Christie's Auction House Dubai.

Although the normal requirement for Christie's services is that the property must be worth more than $1 million (BD377,000), Wrang-Widen said that there would be 'no point' in having the company's brand associated with anything less than three to four million dollars in Dubai. - TradeArabia News Serice