Christie's Brings in 50 Chairs: Basic.Space Turns a Design Auction Into Collectors' Private Living Room
Basic.Space is curating "50 Chairs at Christie's" at Christie's Beverly Hills, placing icons from Eames, Joe Colombo and other legends alongside contemporary designers' work. On view September 25–30, with all pieces sold through the platform.
A 1963 Joe Colombo Elda Chair, molded in fiberglass, isn't coming from a gallery—it's being sold by comedian and design collector Eric Wareheim. That's what makes "50 Chairs at Christie's" so compelling: the pieces up for auction don't all come from the traditional auction pipeline. Instead, a group of collectors who are themselves fixtures in the design world are pulling chairs straight out of their own homes and into Christie's.
Curated by design marketplace Basic.Space, the exhibition will take over Christie's Beverly Hills, showcasing 50 chairs spanning both classic and contemporary design. In a statement, Basic.Space founder Jesse Lee said the project was built for "the next generation of collectors," pairing cult icons like Gufram's oversized lounge chair Pratone with a rare calfskin version of Charles and Ray Eames' LCW chair. Since founding Basic.Space in 2020, Lee has steadily worked his way deeper into design collecting circles, through in-person events and by acquiring the industry benchmark Design Miami.
On the historical side, interior designer Kelly Wearstler is contributing a hammered brass chair made by Philippe Hiquily in the 1970s. Los Angeles furniture designer BASA is offering Gufram's oversized Pratone lounge chair. Collectors Giampiero Tagliaferri and Adrien Dewulf have teamed up to contribute a CL9 Ribbon Chair.
The contemporary lineup mostly comes from design galleries. Carpenters Workshop Gallery is bringing a limited-edition Rick Owens piece, the Stag Stool, made from black plywood and real elk antlers. The Future Perfect is offering Seoul-based designer SeungJin Yang's Lounge Chair 01 – Transparent Blue, shaped from balloons and resin. Sam Klemick's Trumpet Dining Chair translates the fluidity of textiles into a solid wood structure. Los Angeles furniture and decorative arts dealer JF Chen is contributing pieces from cross-disciplinary artist and audiophile Devon Turnbull, California sculptor Vince Skelly, and London designer Max Lamb.
"50 Chairs at Christie's" will be on view September 25–30, 2026 at Christie's Beverly Hills (336 North Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210), with a VIP preview on September 24. All works will be sold through the Basic.Space platform. Pricing and estimates for individual pieces were not provided in the available materials.
