In 2005, when Takashi Hashiyama, CEO of Japanese tv gear company Maspro Denkoh, made the decision to auction off the collection of Impressionist paintings owned by his company, which include works by Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, and Vincent van Gogh, he contacted two primary auction houses, Christie's International and Sotheby's Holdings, in search of their proposals on how they would bring the assortment to the market as effectively as how.