ABOVE: Big-fish auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s determined who would win a $20 million contract last week by playing a long-distance game of rock, paper, scissors. Right: a detail from Cézanne’s Les grands arbres au Jas de Bouffan (circa 1885), expected to fetch upwards of $12 million at Wednesday’s sale.

When Takashi Hashiyama couldn’t decide which international auction house should put his company’s $20-million art collection under the hammer, he did what is apparently quite normal in Japan and asked them to play “Rock, Paper, Scissors” for the commission. Tokyo reps for the companies were given the weekend to decide their weapon: Christie’s cut the ribbon on the lucrative deal with a decisive “scissors” win. Apparently Flora and Alice, the daughters of Christie’s international director of Impressionist and modern art, were the ones who settled on the gambit. The New York Times quotes a Sotheby’s exec saying “this is a game of chance, so we didn’t really give it that much thought. We had no strategy in mind.” Well, we know why they lost.

Of course it’s all a brilliant publicity stunt, a bit of harmless fun that incidentally gets the sale serious column inches in the Times and other chunks of pricey media real estate [and the not-so-pricey ADD - ed.]. Not that it probably needs the press—the sale is a real doozy, including works by Picasso, Giacometti, Modigliani, and Balthus.

The Christie’s sale starts on Wednesday night and continues Thursday. The World Rock Paper Scissors Society also has their eye on this one.

LINK: New York Times - Rock, Paper, Payoff: Child’s Play Wins Auction House an Art Sale