Submitted by Mike Grenville on Thu, 29 May 2008 12:59

Art auctioneers Christie's is using SMS to inform customers about soon to be released auction items of interest-such as masterpieces by Picasso and Van Gogh-and pricing updates prior to and during auctions.

Clients can track specific lots that they are interested in, and receive email or text alerts before those items come up for auction, so that they can bid

Founded by James Christie in 1766, Christie's is the world's first fine art auctioneer with global auction sales in 2007 that totaled $6.3 billion. It has 85 offices in 43 countries and 14 salerooms around the world including London, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Dubai and Hong Kong.

"By providing text alerts, we are giving our customers instant access to auction and price updates anywhere, anytime – allowing them to be the first to know of unique or rare listings," said Andrew Seltzer, Assistant Vice President, Global Operations Project Manager for Christie's. "As people around the world continue to become more and more mobile, they don't want to be tied to their PCs to get the latest information – using their cell phone, they can go about their daily lives and stay informed."

Christie's SMS alert service is free to all customers. To subscribe, customers simply log on to Christie's registration page and complete a simple enrollment process. Customers will begin receiving email and SMS messages pertaining to auction items, announcements and other pertinent information no matter where they are in the world.

"We are seeing more and more top performing businesses in their field taking the lead in embracing SMS and mobile messaging as a key component of their customer relations, acquisition and retention strategies," commented Pieter de Villiers, CEO of Clickatell.