Though it may now be pricier to buy at Christie's, the company is making it cheaper to sell.
But while it may be cheaper to sell at Christie's, it will be more expensive to buy there.
In addition to lowering the cost to consumers, grab-and-go food is cheaper to sell, said Joe Brancatelli, who runs the business Web site JoeSentMe.com.
It is quicker and cheaper to sell a poor person a mobile telephone than to install a payphone in a remote village.
Some managers claim that since customers believe it's cheaper to sell larger quantities, they feel compelled to provide a lower price.
In the case of two expensive and important paintings -- a Monet and a Modigiliani -- it wouldn't necessarily be cheaper to sell them in New York.
Because of the global nature of the electronics business, a multinational that redesigns its product to eliminate a substance banned in the E.U. often finds it cheaper to sell that product worldwide.
Further hampering the London art market is a three-year-old import tax imposed on works of art arriving in European Union countries, which can make it cheaper to sell art in New York City, where such a tax doesn't exist.
"The reason that I'm pushing China about their currency is because their currency is undervalued," he said, adding: "People generally think that they are managing their currency in ways that make our goods more expensive to sell and their goods cheaper to sell here.
