 | |
.jpg) | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Fine arts, rare objects |
| Founded | 11 March 1744 (281 years ago) (1744-03-11) in London, England |
| Founder | Samuel Baker |
| Headquarters | 1334 York Avenue[1], New York City ,U.S. |
Number of locations | 80 locations in 40 countries (as of 2021)[2] |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Charles F. Stewart (CEO) |
| Services | Auctions, financial services |
| Owner | Patrick Drahi |
| Subsidiaries | Sotheby's Institute of Art,Sotheby's International Realty,RM Sotheby's |
| Website | www |
Sotheby's (/ˈsʌðəbiz/SUDH-ə-beez) is a British-foundedmultinational corporation with headquarters inNew York City. It is one of the world's largestbrokers offine anddecorative art,jewellery, andcollectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and maintains a significant presence in the UK.[2]
Sotheby's was established on 11 March 1744 inLondon by Samuel Baker, a bookseller.[5] In 1767, the firm becameBaker & Leigh, after George Leigh became a partner, and was renamed toLeigh and Sotheby in 1778 after Baker's death when his nephew,John Sotheby, inherited Baker's share. Other former names include:Leigh, Sotheby and Wilkinson;[6]Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge (1864–1924);Sotheby and Company (1924–83);[7]Mssrs Sotheby;Sotheby & Wilkinson;Sotheby Mak van Waay; andSotheby's & Co.[6]
The Americanholding company was initially incorporated in August 1983 inMichigan asSotheby's Holdings, Inc. In June 2006, it was reincorporated in the State ofDelaware and was renamed Sotheby's.[8] In June 2019, Sotheby's was acquired by French-Israeli businessmanPatrick Drahi at a 61% market premium.[9][10]
Sotheby's Institute of Art (an educational facility),Sotheby's International Realty (real estate dealers), andRM Sotheby's (classic car dealers) are subsidiaries or partner organisations.[11]
Sotheby's was established on 11 March 1744 in London by Samuel Baker, a bookseller. In 1767 the firm became Baker & Leigh,[6][12] after Samuel Baker auctioned several hundred valuable books from the library ofThe Rt HonSir John Stanley, 1st Baronet, ofGrangegorman and became business partners with George Leigh.[12][13] The libraryNapoleon took with him into exile atSt Helena, as well as the library collections ofJohn Wilkes,Benjamin Heywood Bright and the Dukes of Devonshire and of Buckingham (both related to George Leigh), were sold through Samuel Baker's auctions.[12]
After Baker's death in 1778, the business was left to Leigh and his nephewJohn Sotheby,[6] where it became a prominent bookauction house and was renamed Leigh and Sotheby.[13]
George Leigh died in 1816, but not before recruitingSamuel E Leigh into the business.[14] Under the Sotheby family, the auction house extended its activities to auctioning prints, medals, and coins.[15][12] John Wilkinson, Sotheby's senior accountant, became a partner and eventually the company's new head of the company when the last member of the Sotheby family died in 1861.[16]
The business did not seek to auctionfine arts initially.[7] Their first major success in this field was the sale of aFrans Hals painting for nine thousandguineas in 1913.[17]Other former names include: Leigh, Sotheby and Wilkinson;[6] Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge (1864–1924); Sotheby and Company (1924–83);[7] Mssrs Sotheby; Sotheby & Wilkinson; Sotheby Mak van Waay; and Sotheby's & Co.[6] In 1917, Sotheby's relocated from 13 Wellington Street to 34–35New Bond Street, which remains as its London base.[7] They soon came to rivalChristie's as leaders of the London auction market, which capitalised on the arts.[18]
In 1964, Sotheby's purchasedParke-Bernet, the largest auctioneer of fine art in the United States at the time.[7] In the following year, Sotheby's moved to980 Madison Avenue, New York.[19] With the international fine art auction industry growing, Sotheby's opened offices inParis[20] andLos Angeles in 1967,[21] and became the first auction house to operate inHong Kong in 1973,[22] andMoscow in 1988.[23]
As well as numerous high-profile real-life auctions being held at Sotheby's, the firm's auctioneers have also been used in various films, including the 1983James Bond filmOctopussy.[24]
In 1988 they introduced aDecorative Arts Award which showed in exhibitions inLondon andTokyo. It is fair to say that not all commentators welcomed the move dismissing some exhibits asCrafts. However, several notable people were amongst the participants.Michael Rowe was the winner of the Decorative Arts Award in1988[25] and a detail of the TapestrySoft Flight byMary Farmer graced the catalogue cover.[26]
With private transactions constituting an essential and increasingly profitable business segment, through the years Sotheby's has bought art galleries and helped dealers finance purchases. It has also gone into partnership with dealers on private sales.[27] In 1990, Sotheby's teamed up with dealerWilliam Acquavella, to form Acquavella Modern Art, aNevadageneral partnership[28] and a subsidiary of Sotheby's Holding Company. The subsidiary paid $143 million for the contents of thePierre Matisse Gallery in Manhattan, which included about 2,300 works by artists includingMiró,Jean Dubuffet,Alberto Giacometti, andMarc Chagall, and began selling the works both at auction and privately.[29]
In 1996, Sotheby's acquiredAndre Emmerich Gallery to operate a division called Emmerich/Sotheby's,[29] As a consequence, theJosef and Anni Albers Foundation, the main beneficiary of the artists' estates, as well as the estates ofMorris Louis andMilton Avery announced that they would not renew their Emmerich contracts.[30] That decision came right after it was disclosed that Sotheby's had decided to close Emmerich's prime space at 41 East 57th Street, and that its artists would be handled out of Deitch Projects.[31] Sotheby's subsequently closed Andre Emmerich in 1998.
In 1997, Sotheby's purchased a 50% interest inDeitch Projects[32] but later[when?] sold its share back toJeffrey Deitch.[citation needed] In 1997, it also boughtLeslie Hindman Auctioneers in Chicago;[33] by 2001, it stopped holding auctions in the city.[34]
In 2006, Sotheby's acquired a Dutch dealership, Noortman Master Paintings, from its owner,Robert Noortman, for $82.5 million ($56.5 million worth of Sotheby's stock and assumption of more than $26 million in gallery debt, including $11.7 million owed to the auction house).[32][35] Sotheby's and Noortman had collaborated before in 1995, when the sales of Dutch plastic millionaire Joost Ritman were divided between the two companies.[36] Already in 1990, Sotheby's New York had successfully lobbied for a zoning change permitting the construction of a 27-story residential tower above the five-story headquarters; this expansion was never realised. Instead, Sotheby's throughout the 1990s expressed interest in sites that ranged from the old Alexander's building on East 59th Street to theNew York Coliseum site onColumbus Circle, and was even considering moving into the oldB. Altman Building on Fifth Avenue.[37]
The company eventually bought its York Avenue building for $11 million in 2000 and completed a $140 million expansion and renovation in 2001,[38] adding six floors and 240,000 square feet. The renovation added the capability to store works on the same premises as the specialist departments,galleries, and auction spaces. Sotheby's New York's offices also house Sotheby's Wine[39] and the former Bid (an American contemporary restaurant and laterbistro), which was closed due to poor attendance.[40] The company sold the building in 2002 for $175 million.[38] In May 2007, Sotheby's opened an office inMoscow in response to rapidly growing interest among Russian buyers in the international art market and held sales inQatar in 2009.[41]
As many industries took a blow from the economic crisis of 2008, the art market also saw a contraction. In international figures, art prices fell by 7.5% in Q1 of 2008 in comparison to the previous quarter. In September and October 2008, major auction houses saw a sharp decline in sales:artprice.com, the world leader in art market information, coined the term "Black October". Sotheby's bought-in rate was 27%, Christie's was 45% and Phillips de Pury's was 46%. However, the total values of global and United States Fine Art auction sales were US$8.3 billion and US$2.9 billion, respectively.[42] In 2009, art collectorSteven A. Cohen built a 6 percent stake in the auction house for his hedge fundSAC Capital Advisors.[43]
In 2011, Noortman's Amsterdam space was closed and the gallery moved to London.[44][45] Two years later, Sotheby's closed Noortmans, after having written down $8.3 million of inventory and started selling off lower-valued works of art through other auction houses.[44] As of 2021[update], Sotheby's is present in over 40 countries, with 80 locations.[2] In 2012, the company signed a 10-year joint-venture agreement to form Sotheby's (Beijing) Auction Co. Ltd., the first international auction house in China; under the agreement, it invested $1.2 million to take an 80 percent stake in the venture with state-ownedBeijing Gehua Cultural Development Group.[46]
As of 2012, the firm had an annualrevenue of approximately US$831.8 million[47] and offices onManhattan's York Avenue and London'sBond Street|New Bond Street.[citation needed]
Sotheby's shares a rivalry with Christie's for the position of the world's pre-eminent fine art auctioneer, a title of muchsubjectivity. In August 2004, Sotheby's introduced an online system – MySotheby's – allowing clients to track lots and create "wishlists" that could be automatically updated as new works became available. Sotheby's also created the BIDnow service, which allows bidders to bid real-time online while watching the broadcast auctions, with the exception of Wine auctions. LiveBid is Sotheby's online bidding system exclusively for wine auctions.[48]
In the meantime, income from classic auctioneering has fallen, as Sotheby's reported a decrease of 42% in net income in the first half of 2012.[49]
In February 2015 Sotheby's acquired a 25% stake in classic and vintage automobile auctioneerRM Auctions.[50]
In March 2015,Tad Smith, former president and chief executive of New York'sMadison Square Garden,[51] succeededWilliam F. Ruprecht as CEO of Sotheby's.[52] Smith had no experience in the auction industry but had overseen a doubling of profits during his time atMadison Square Garden.[53] In 2015, the auction house's longest-serving auctioneer,David Redden, and vice-chairman retired.[54]
In 2016, the company spent $50 million on Art Agency Partners, run by Amy Cappellazzo, Allan Schwartzman and Adam Chinn. The price was shared among the trio, as well as $35 million performance-related bonus.[55] The five-year contract expired in 2021.[56]
In July 2016, Chinese insurance companyTaikang Life became Sotheby's largest shareholder, with a 13.5% stake.[57]
On 25 January 2018, Sotheby's acquired the AI company Thread Genius for an undisclosed amount.[58]
In February 2019, Sotheby's announced a redesign and expansion of its New York headquarters on the Upper East Side that is being led by the designer Shohei Shigematsu of theOffice for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). The exhibition space there will grow to over 90,000 square feet from 67,000, and the project will include the addition of several new galleries.[59] The company also launched a new online bidding platform on its website.[60]
In June 2019, Sotheby's was acquired by French-Israeli businessmanPatrick Drahi at a 61% market premium.[9][10] In October 2019, he brought inCharles F. Stewart as Sotheby's new CEO, and former CEO Tad Smith transitioned to an advisory role.[61] Drahi instituted a number of cost-cutting measures, including senior executive layoffs in 2019;[62] job cuts, salary cuts, and a move to online auctions during the 2020 pandemic;[63] and announcing an end to Sotheby's employee pension plan in 2022.[64]
In 2020, Sotheby's overtook Christie's as the world's topauction house for the first time since 2011, with over $5 billion in aggregate sales compared to its rival's $4.4 billion.[56]
As of late 2021, Drahi's son, Nathan Drahi, was the managing director of Sotheby's Asia.[65]
In June 2023, Sotheby's agreed to purchase945 Madison Avenue, a former museum building designed byMarcel Breuer, to house the company's headquarters, including its galleries, exhibition space, and auction room. The company plans to open its new space in 2025.[66]
Sotheby's became a UKpublic company in 1977.[67] In 1980, after a drop in sales,[68] Sotheby's relocated its North Americanheadquarters fromMadison Avenue to a former cigar factory[38] at 1334 York Avenue, New York. In 1982, the auction house closed its Madison Avenue galleries at East 76th Street, and its Los Angeles galleries were sold and West Coast auctions moved to New York.[69]
In 1983, a group of investors including American millionaireAlfred Taubman purchased and privatized Sotheby's.[70] Sotheby's was initiallyincorporated as Sotheby's Holdings, Inc. in Michigan in August 1983.[8]
In 1988, Taubman took Sotheby's public and listed the company's shares on theNew York Stock Exchange (NYSE), making Sotheby's the oldest publicly traded company on the NYSE under theticker symbol "BID".[71] In June 2006, Sotheby's Holdings, Inc. reincorporated in the State of Delaware and was renamed Sotheby's shortly after.[72][8]
In 2019 Sotheby's was acquired by Patrick Drahi for $3.7 billion, becoming again a private company and no longer trading on the NYSE.[73]
In 2024 theAbu Dhabi sovereign wealth fundADIA acquired a minority stake in Sotheby's, with a total investment of approximately $1 billion in the house.[74]
Sotheby's auctions are usually held during the day. The majority are free and open to the public, with the exception of occasional evening auctions, which require tickets. Attendees have no obligation to bid.[75]
Bidding finishes when only one bidder remains willing to purchase the lot at the bidder's declared price. The auctioneer "knocks down" the lot, declaring it sold to the winning bidder. The winning bid for a lot is also called thehammer price. Sotheby's organises the delivery of the lot in private with the buyer.
Buyers can find out what is for sale at Sotheby's by browsing e-catalogues, visiting pre-sale exhibitions, purchasing print catalogues and registering for e-mail alerts.[76] Buyers can register to bid in person at Sotheby's offices, or online. Sotheby's requires that prospective buyers provide government-issued proof of identity and sometimes a bank reference. There are four ways buyers can bid: in person at the auction rooms, by telephone, bid live online or make an absentee bid online. When a bid is successful, Sotheby's calculates and sums the hammer price, thebuyer's premium and taxes.
Sellers are required to submit an Auction Estimate Form, providing thorough information and a photograph of the item. Once accepted for auction, the seller and Sotheby's sign a contract, which sets out the reserve price and the seller'scommission.[77] If bidding on a seller's lot does not reach the reserve price, the item is not sold.
As of April 2021[update], Sotheby's listed the following services:[78]
Sotheby's links sellers with prospective buyers in private if sellers do not want apublic auction. The identities of buyers andconsignors are not disclosed.[79] Sotheby's Private Sales works with clients with confidentiality and tailors the buying and selling process in a private setting. Private Sales accounted for 16.5% of all Sotheby's sales in 2011.[80] That year, Sotheby's inaugurated a new gallery space called S2 at its York Avenue headquarters with a show of work by American abstract painterSam Francis. UnlikeHaunch of Venison, a gallery that Christie's bought in 2007, S2 is solely devoted to showcasing the auction house's private sales.[81] In 2013, Sotheby's opened a gallery for private sales close to its branch in London, in a five-story block at 31 George Street.[82] Theauction house also conducts private sales through its selling exhibitions of monumental sculpture atChatsworth House, Derbyshire, and at theSingapore Botanic Gardens.[82]
Established in 1988, Sotheby's Financial Services offers loans forconsigned property and loans against the value of client's items through customized terms.[83] The auction house also makes term loans, for a defined period of time, on works that clients are not planning to sell, in part to "establish or enhance mutually beneficial relationships with borrowers" that can lead to future consignments.[84] While traditional lenders such as banks provide loans at a lower cost to borrowers, Sotheby's said in its 2011 annual report, few will accept works of art as the sole collateral.[84]
Sotheby's Picture Library contained images in a variety of formats available for licensing,[85] and was one of the image suppliers to various databases such as theBritish Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies (BAPLA).[86][87] However, only the image archive mentioned on the Sotheby's website as of April 2021[update] is an out-of-date reference to the Cecil Beaton Studio Archive,[88] whichCecil Beaton sold to Sotheby's in 1977.[89]
In October 2019, Sotheby's launchedSotheby's Own Label Collection, a line of adozen wines. The project took two years to complete, and is based on Sotheby's best-selling wines, both those represented in-store and on itse-commerce platform. Additionally, the collection reflects some of the long-standing relationships Sotheby's has with producers around the world.[90]The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia has been published in several editions since 1988, written byTom Stevenson.
Sotheby's has produced a bimonthly online magazine since November–December 2018,Sotheby's Magazine.[91]
In 1969, Sotheby's foundedSotheby's Institute of Art in London.[92] The Institute now offers full-time accredited master's degrees as well as a range of online and other courses.[93]
Sotheby's International Realty is a luxury real estate brand founded in 1976 by Sotheby's. It operates as a franchise.
RM Sotheby's deals in classic cars, headquartered in Canada with offices across the US and Europe. Formerly RM Auctions, the company has been part-owned by Sotheby's since 2015.
The Sotheby's Prize, launched in 2017, is a $250,000 annual award given to museums that exhibit what are vaguely described as "groundbreaking shows".[94] The inaugural winners wereMany Tongues: Art, Language and Revolution in the Middle East and South Asia curated byOmer Kholeif of theMuseum of Contemporary Art in Chicago andPop América: Contesting Freedom, 1965–1975 curated byEsther Gabara of theNasher Museum.[94] The Sotheby's Prize program concluded in 2020, following a promise to honor existing commitments to shows that are still in formation.[95]
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(December 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Sotheby's has set, then later reset, a number of world records for auctioned works of art. The following monetary values are given in United States dollars.
In recent years, Sotheby's has been sellingsneakers, both vintage designs in a "buy-now" sneaker shop,[110] and high-value pairs, some worn by famous people, by auction. Sneaker auctions have brought in large numbers new to Sotheby's, from as young as 19 years old and across the world.[111] Notable auction record-breaking sales include:
In October 1997, Sotheby's auctioned and soldSue, the world's largest and most completeTyrannosaurus rex skeleton. Although academic palaeontologists feared that the specimen would enter private hands and become "lost" to science forever, financial assistance from wealthy patrons such asDisney andMcDonald's allowed theField Museum of Natural History to buy the skeleton for over $8 million.[116][117] Beginning with the sale of Sue, Sotheby's has attracted controversy regarding the commercialization of scientifically important fossils. Controversy around the subject has since reignited with each subsequent sale of a high-profile fossil by Sotheby's.[118][119][120]
On 9 December 2022, Sotheby's sold a highly completeT. rex skull named Maximus at a price of over $6 million.[118][121]
On 17 July 2024, Sotheby's soldApex, the world's most completeStegosaurus skeleton, for US$44.5 million. This set a new world record for any dinosaur skeleton or fossil ever sold at auction at the time.[122] The buyer,Kenneth Griffin, has temporarily loaned the skeleton to theAmerican Museum of Natural History.[123]
In June 2025, Sotheby's announced the auction of a highly complete specimen ofCeratosaurus. It is one of the fewCeratosaurus specimens in existence, and the only known juvenile. The skeleton was acquired from theMuseum of Ancient Life in Utah.[120][124]
On 9 July 2021, Sotheby's sold a 101.38-carat diamond for $12.3 million in cryptocurrency. The sale became the most expensive physical object ever publicly offered for purchase with cryptocurrency at the time.[125]
.jpg)
In recent years Sotheby's, mostly inHong Kong sales, has become the leading auctioneer for the most expensiveChinese porcelain. On 3 October 2017, aRu ware brush-washer dish, 13 cm (5 in) across, set a new record auction price for Chinese ceramics at Sotheby's Hong Kong, fetching HK$294.3 million, nearly US$38 million.[126] Earlier, On 4 April 2012 Sotheby's Hong Kong sold another Ru ware brush-washer bowl, 13.6 cm across and the pair of one in the British Museum,[127] for 207,860,000Hong Kong Dollars ($US 26.7 million),[128] then an auction record forSong dynasty ceramics. It had been in a Japanese collection, after belonging to the collection of Mr & MrsAlfred Clark in London.[129]
The very rareChenghua chicken cups have recently only been offered for sale at Sotheby's auctions.[130] On August 8, 2014, Sotheby's conducted a seven-sale series of Chinese ceramics inHong Kong. A Chenghua chicken cup from the private Meiyintang collection of Chinese ceramics was sold at the auction for a record US$36.05 million (HK $281.24 million) to Shanghainese billionaireLiu Yiqian. This was the highest auction price for any Chinese Porcelain.[101] The previous record for was held by a Qing Dynasty vase which sold for US$32.4 million in 2010.[131] The estimated pre-sale price for the Chicken Cup was recorded at US$38.6 million in 2010.[132] The chicken cup was previously sold in 1980 in Hong Kong for US$1.08 million (HK $5.28 million), as well as in 1999, where it also established a record price for Chinese porcelain at US$3.70 million (HK $29.17 million).[133]
In November 2024 A pair of rare Ming Dynastywucai fish jars dating from the 16th century sold for £9.6 million ($12.5 million) at auction, higher than their estimate of £1 million ($1.3 million).They are the only known pair to survive complete with their covers.[134]
In 1991 and 1997, an edition of ITV'sThe Cook Report andChannel 4Dispatches programme alleged that Sotheby's had been trading in antiquities with no publishedprovenance, and that the organisation continued to use dealers involved in thesmuggling ofartefacts.[135] From the late 1980s through to the early 1990s, the antiquities department in London was managed by Brendan Lynch and Oliver Forge. Lynch travelled to India frequently and bought unprovenanced pieces from Vaman Ghiya inRajasthan, which turned out to be stolen from temples and other sites. British historian and journalistPeter Watson wroteSotheby's: The Inside Story (1997), outlining these illicit activities, which he also exposed onCBS's60 Minutes. As a result of thisexposé, Sotheby's commissioned their own report intoillegal antiquities, and made assurances that only legal items with published provenance would be traded in the future.[136] It ceased its regular Asian art sales in London said that they would henceforth only be selling Asian pieces fromNew York, where their legitimacy could be better monitored. Forge and Lynch were removed from their posts but never charged, and they opened a consultancy in London[137] and continued to trade.[138]
In India, Ghiya was eventually arrested in 2003, only convicted in 2008 and sentenced to life in prison; however, in 2014 anIndian High Court quashed the conviction. Some of the illicit Asian pieces found their way to theNational Gallery of Australia, and from there a piece known as "Dancing Shiva" found its way to theArt Gallery of South Australia.[138] After doubts were raised and the piece became the object of an investigation beginning in 2014, it was established that it was most likely a stolen piece,[139] and wasrepatriated to India in 2019.[140]
In 2012, theU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved to seize a 10th-century Cambodian sandstone statue from Sotheby's,[141] alleging in a civil complaint before theUnited States District Court for the Southern District of New York that the company had put the work up for auction "despite knowing that it had been stolen from a temple"[142] inKoh Ker.[143]
In February 2000,A. Alfred Taubman and Diana (Dede) Brooks, theCEO of the company, stepped down amidst aprice-fixing scandal. TheFBI had been investigating auction practices in which it was revealed thatcollusion involvingcommission fixing between Christie's and Sotheby's was occurring. In October 2000, Brooksadmitted her guilt in hopes of receiving a reduced sentence, implicating Taubman.[144][145] In December 2001, jurors in a high-profile New York City courtroom found Taubman guilty ofconspiracy. He served ten months of a one-year sentence in prison, while Brooks received a six-monthhome confinement and a penalty of US$350,000. Sotheby's was sentenced to pay a fine of US$45 million.[146] No staff from Christie's were charged.[147][148]
Growing out of the four-year criminal antitrust investigation by theUnited States Department of Justice, some 130,000 buyers and sellers filedclass-action lawsuit, arguing they were cheated in the price-fixing conspiracy by Sotheby's and Christie's.[149] In 2001, theUnited States District Court for the Southern District of New York gave final approval to a US$512 million agreement.[150] The structure of the settlement was said to have helped stave off insolvency for both companies, especially the publicly held Sotheby's.[151][152]
At the time of the scandal, 59 percent of the company'sClass A shares were owned byBaron Funds.[153]
On 10 March 2011, Sotheby's sold a pair ofsconces incorrectly attributed toEmile-Jacques Ruhlmann.[154]
In 2012, art dealer Marc Jancou filed suit in theSupreme Court of the State of New York, suing both Sotheby's and artistCady Noland after the auction house pulled a work he had consigned by the artist from a sale, apparently at her request. The suit argued that this presented a breach of theconsignment agreement. Noland had told Sotheby's there were problems with the condition of her paintingCowboys Milking (1990), estimated to sell for between US$260,000 and $350,000. Jancou sued Sotheby's for US$6 million incompensatory damages, and Noland for US$20 million inpunitive damages.[155] Both Sotheby's and Noland argued withdrawing the work from auction was well within the artist's rights under theVisual Artists Rights Act (VARA) and New York'sArtists' Authorship Rights Act (AARA).[156]
From October 2013 to May 2014, Sotheby's was the target of activist investorDaniel S. Loeb via his hedge fundThird Point Management, which owned the largest shareholder stake in the publicly traded company.[157][158] Loeb criticized a number of the company's strategies and managerial practices,[159][160][161] asked for three seats (himself,Harry Wilson, and Olivier Reza) on the board of directors,[162] and demanded the resignation of chairman and CEO Bill Ruprecht.[157] In response, to ward off the threat Sotheby's initiated a "poison pill"shareholder rights plan barring any shareholder from acquiring more than 10% of its stock.[163][164] By April 2014, hedge fund Marcato Capital Management and investor advisory firmInstitutional Shareholder Services also supported most of Loeb's positions.[165] In early May 2014, Sotheby's and Loeb came to an agreement whereby it enlarged its board and he gained the requested three seats, the poison pill was ended, Ruprecht remained in his position, and Third Point was allowed to increase its holdings of Sotheby's up to 15%.[157]
Sotheby's London auction house had outsourced its cleaning and other support services to Contract Cleaning and Maintenance (London) Limited (CCML). In early 2015, theUVW union initiated a formal trade dispute over low pay, insufficient sick pay, and issues summarised in an Early Day Motion signed by 24 Members of Parliament, highlighting:[166]
the unwarranted suspension of a porter following a grievance he made about poor treatment, the refusal to stop using certain chemicals which leave cleaners with breathing difficulties, chest pains and rashes, the unwarranted deduction of wages and working hours, overworking and shouting at porters and cleaners, reprimanding a porter for using the toilet outside his official break time, threatening a cleaner with suspension for not being clean shaven
After CCML conceded the majority of UVW's demands, Sotheby's decided to contract all support services to a new company, Servest. This backfired when UVW staged a noisy, sit-down protest outside the Sotheby's entrance[167] while clients arrived for a record-breaking summer night of contemporary art auctions, including lots by Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon.[168] Four workers were suspended and investigated for their involvement in the protest,[169] which led to another Early Day Motion signed by 42 MPs, condemning:[170]
that Sotheby's and Servest consider peaceful protest to be an act of misconduct; further condemns Sotheby's decision to ban from the site cleaners and porters who took part in a lawful, peaceful protest to call for a real Living Wage, contractual sick pay and an end to trade union victimisation
With only two of the four workers reinstated, another UVW protest disrupted a Sotheby's classic car auction in London's Battersea.[171] In February 2016 Sotheby's and Servest reached an agreement to pay all outsourced workers the London Living Wage and improved sick pay.[172]
In 2016, three New York art traders – Warren Adelson, president of Adelson Galleries, as well as New York-based art dealers Alexander Parish andRobert Simon – planned to sue Sotheby's for alleged fraud over the resale ofLeonardo da Vinci'sSalvator Mundi, which they sold through Sotheby's in 2013 for $80 million.[173][174] After learning that the buyer of the painting, Swiss art dealerYves Bouvier, sold it on to Russian billionaireDmitry Rybolovlev for $127.5 million, the traders felt deceived by the auction house as to the painting's true value.[173] According to court papers, the traders inquired whether Sotheby's knew the artwork could have been sold for more, and whether they were "misled into selling the work for a smaller amount by Sotheby's because Bouvier is an esteemed client."[131][175] Sotheby's filed a preemptive lawsuit stating it had complied with all applicable rules and regulations, and the dispute between the auction house and the art dealers was settled quietly out of court.[176][177]
In 2018, in a connected case, Rybolovlev sued Sotheby's for $380 million in damages for this alleged collusion with Bouvier, claiming the company "materially assisted the largest art fraud in history"[178] whereby Sotheby's vice chairman of private sales worldwide provided assessments forwarded to Rybolovlev which overinflated the valuations of artworks while at the same time being aware of the much lower prices Bouvier paid for them privately through Sotheby's.[179] Rybolovlev alleged that Yves Bouvier defrauded him out of $1 billion through this practice, over several years.[180] In the Rybolovlev legal proceedings, in 2019 New York courts ordered Sotheby's to produce documents to be used in foreign criminal proceedings regarding theBouvier Affair in Switzerland and Monaco.[181]
In March 2023, a New York judge ruled that Sotheby's must face trial on fraud charges regarding four of the 15 artworks that Rybolovlev sued Sotheby's over:Salvator Mundi by da Vinci,Le Domaine d’Arnheim byMagritte,Wasserschlangen II byKlimt, andTête byModigliani.[182] The ruling also allowed Rybolovlev to pursue anaiding and abetting claim against Sotheby's regardingSalvator Mundi.[182] Upon the recommendation of the judge, both parties subsequently agreed to settle the case via mediation with a magistrate judge in order to avoid a jury trial.[183]
Numerous artworks looted from Jews by the Nazis during the Holocaust passed through Sotheby's with incomplete provenances.[184][185][186][187]
In 2013, a collector sued Sotheby's for having sold him Nazi-looted art, saying that the cloud over the title made the painting unsaleable.[188][189]
In 2016, letters were subpoenaed from Sotheby's concerning a claim for restitution for a Modigliani painting.[190]
In 2017 Poland demanded transparency from Sotheby's concerning a painting slated for auction, alleging that the paintings had been stolen during World War II.[191]
In 2024 a judge ordered Sotheby's to share the name of the client who had put a Nazi-looted painting by Tiepolo up for auction. The 18th century “St. Francis of Paola Holding a Rosary, Book, and Staff” was looted from the Jewish art dealer Otto Fröhlich, and his heirs identified the artwork at Sotheby's.[192]
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)L'oeuvre, intitulée "Vue du Kattenberghof à Anvers avec cavaliers à l'avant-plan", est due au peintre bruxellois Gillis Neyts (1618-1687) et appartenait avant-guerre au Dr. Arthur Feldmann, un collectionneur d'art juif de Brno (République tchèque). Acquise par la Bibliothèque royale en 1979, le dessin avait fait l'objet de plusieurs transactions après la guerre par la maison Sotheby's et "rien ne laissait supposer qu'il avait été dérobé par la Sipo-SD (Sicherheitspolizei-Sicherheitsdienst), le 15 mars 1939 au Dr. Arthur Feldmann", précise la Bibliothèque.
The drawing 'Felsige Waldlandschaft mit weitem Ausblick' by Isaak Major was identified by the research of Arthur Feldmann's grandson Uri Peled Feldmann. Part of a lot of drawings from the Feldmann collection sold at Sotheby's London in 1946, the drawing was then sold to the British Rail Pension Fund at a subsequent Sotheby's sale in 1975.
Le tableau de Maurice Utrillo, Carrefour à Sannois (cf. supra), qui appartenait à Georges Bernheim, fut spolié par l'Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) en 1942 puis est réapparu sur le marché de l'art en 1972, sans que son parcours soit connu. Il fut ensuite mis en vente à Londres par Sotheby's, légalement acquis par la ville de Sannois en 2004 et incorporé aux collections du musée Utrillo-V
Sotheby's fraudulently sold a collector a painting from the collection of Hermann Goering - and Nazi-looted art is worthless for resale, the buyer claims in court. Steven Brooks sued Sotheby's in Superior Court. Brooks claims that in 2004 Sotheby's sold him the "Allegorical Portrait of a Lady as Diana Wounded by Cupid," by 18th century French artist Louis-Michel van Loo. But because the art work may be assumed to have been acquired illegally by Goering, the founder of the Gestapo, neither Sotheby's nor Christie's will touch the work, and Sotheby's refuses to refund his money, Brooks says in the complaint.
Justice Arlene P. Bluth, who handled the Tiepolo petition, briefly addressed the issue of anonymity in her decision. In granting the Fröhlich heirs' request to learn the names, she wrote that Sotheby's had not provided to the court a copy of its confidentiality policy or cited binding case law that demonstrated it holds a blanket right to withhold the names of buyers and sellers. "While it is understandable that respondent would not freely disclose buyers and sellers to anyone who asks," Justice Bluth wrote. "That, standing alone, is not a reason to deny petitioners' requests for relief."
Source: International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 29. St. James Press, 1999.Includes bibliography.
51°30′43″N0°08′37″W / 51.51194°N 0.14361°W /51.51194; -0.14361
