Christie's has launched a dedicated pop culture division, the auction house confirmed Wednesday, after selling 404 lots from Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay's memorabilia collection for $105.3 million — a total Christie's called the largest ever achieved for a memorabilia collection.

The new global operation will hold multiple auctions each year spanning film and television, music and musical instruments, sports memorabilia, science and technology, natural history, fashion, and popular design. Josh Benesh, a former Heritage Auctions executive who joined Christie's as a consultant earlier this year, will lead the division as global head, based in New York.

Christie's chief executive Bonnie Brennan announced the move during a conversation with Puck's Marion Maneker at the Art of Influence conference in New York, hosted by Puck and the Flag Art Foundation.

"We've been testing this market," Brennan said. "We feel that right now is at a point of maturity that makes sense for us to really commit."

A blockbuster proof of concept

The Irsay sales, held across five auctions this year, supplied the most recent evidence. Irsay, who died last year, spent decades amassing a trove ranging from presidential documents and Jack Kerouac's original typescript for On the Road to some of the most famous guitars in rock history.

The first four auctions in March brought $94.5 million, sold 100 percent by lot, and set 28 auction records. A final sale in July pushed the total past $105 million.

The collection included Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour's famed "Black Strat," which sold for $14.5 million and became the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction, along with Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia's "Tiger" and the Fender Mustang Kurt Cobain played in Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video.

Benesh told ARTnews by email that the Irsay sale was "a compelling proof of concept," but that discussions about a dedicated pop culture business had begun well before the collection was won.

For Brennan, the sale's significance went beyond the numbers. "I sat in the Jim Irsay sale room, and that was an experience like I've never seen," she said. Buyers were "backslapping each other," she recalled, and hugging after winning lots. "There was no better example of auction creating community than that."

Christie's had seen that audience before. Brennan remembered the 2019 sale of Gilmour's guitar collection, when a rush of online bidders became so intense that Christie's system went down and the sale had to be delayed. "There's real demand there, and we have to meet it," she said.

A crowded field

Christie's is hardly new to celebrity property. Past consignments include the collections of Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Elton John, George Michael, Mark Knopfler, and David Gilmour. What is new is consolidating that business into a permanent global department — territory its competitors already occupy.

Sotheby's established a Science & Popular Culture department in 2021 under Cassandra Hatton, who had worked on auctions devoted to space exploration, science and technology, natural history, and hip-hop after joining the company in 2016. Last year, art adviser Ralph De Luca joined Sotheby's as vice chairman of pop culture; he quietly parted ways with the house after a year.

Bonhams has run dedicated entertainment memorabilia sales for years. In 2021, when it appointed Helen Hall director of entertainment memorabilia, the house described itself as the only global auction house holding regular auctions in the category. Freeman's operates a collectibles department covering pop culture memorabilia, comics, video games, and toys.

Heritage Auctions, meanwhile, has built an enormous business around collectibles ranging from comics and sports memorabilia to movie props and music. Benesh spent five years there as chief strategy officer and general counsel before moving to Christie's.

Not the biggest, but the most storied

Brennan said Christie's has no interest in competing for volume. "We don't want to be the biggest," she said. The house intends to focus on objects whose provenance and cultural significance can benefit from the storytelling machinery Christie's applies to fine art and major single-owner collections.

The strategy aligns with a broader push to attract collectors who might not think of themselves as traditional art buyers. Earlier in the conversation, Brennan described bringing younger and new clients into the secondary market as an existential concern for the 260-year-old auction house.

"If we don't invite people in, if we don't make the next generation feel like Christie's is a place for them, we die," she said.

Luxury has already proved its worth as an entry point, with watches, jewelry, handbags, and wine offering a familiar way into an institution that can otherwise appear forbidding. Brennan said 75 percent of bids in Christie's luxury auctions now arrive through its online tools.

Pop culture offers another route in, through objects whose significance often requires little introduction. The larger goal is to follow collectors across categories. "Collectors rarely stick to one category," Benesh said. "We see tremendous conversion, but that works both ways. Our art clients are just as enthusiastic about these opportunities."