In 2005, when Takashi Hashiyama, CEO of Japanese television gear company Maspro Denkoh, made a decision to auction off the assortment of Impressionist paintings owned by his company, which includes operates by Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, and Vincent van Gogh, he contacted two top auction properties, Christie's International and Sotheby's Holdings, seeking their proposals on how they would carry the assortment to the current market as.