| Type | Public (NYSE: BID) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Auctioneering |
| Founded | London, United Kingdom (11 March 1744) |
| Founder(s) | Samuel Baker |
| Headquarters | New York, United States |
| Key people | Michael I. Sovern, Executive Chairman William F. Ruprecht, President and CEO |
| Products | Fine arts |
| Revenue | US$774 million (2010)[1] |
| Employees | 1,323 (2009) |
| Divisions | Sotheby's London Sotheby's New York Sotheby's Hong Kong Sotheby's Moscow |
| Subsidiaries | Sotheby's International Realty |
| Website | Sothebys.com |
Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.
Contents |
The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being Uppsala Auktionskammare founded in 1731, all Swedish. Sotheby's predecessor, Baker's, was founded in London on 11 March 1744 when Samuel Baker presided over the disposal of "several hundred scarce and valuable" books from the library of a certain Rt. Hon. Sir John Stanley. This disposal however was not by means of auction and as Frank Herrmann and Brian Learmount[2] observe, the business did not seek to auction fine arts in general until much later, their first major success in this field being the sale of a Frans Hals painting for 9 thousand guineas as late as 1913. The current business dates back to 1804 when two of the partners of the original business (Leigh and Sotheby) left to set up their own book dealership.
Today, the firm has an annual turnover of approximately US$774 million[3] and offices on London's New Bond Street and Manhattan's York Avenue. This position has been achieved through natural growth, acquisitions (most notably the 1964 purchase of the United States' largest auctioneer of fine art, Parke-Bernet), and management during the cyclical "art recessions" of the 20th century. Sotheby's New York completed renovations on its York Avenue headquarters in 2001 adding the unique capability to store works on the same premises as the specialist departments, galleries, and auction spaces. Sotheby's New York's offices also house Aulden Cellars (an in-house wine cellar) and the former Bid (an American contemporary restaurant and later bistro), which was closed due to poor attendance.
The company was purchased in 1983 by the American millionaire, shopping malls developer A. Alfred Taubman, who took it public in 1988.
Andrew Festing began working for Sotheby's in 1969 and was head of the British Pictures Department from 1977 to 1981. He became Sotheby’s chief expert on British Pictures.
Sotheby's has an intense rivalry with Christie's for the position of the world's preeminent fine art auctioneer, a title of much subjectivity. In August 2004 Sotheby's introduced an online system. Sotheby's recently augmented its web services to focus more intensely on what its clients desired – in the form of MySotheby's – allowing them to track lots and create "wishlists" that could be automatically updated as new works became available. In May 2007, Sotheby's opened an office in Moscow in response to rapidly growing interest among Russian buyers in the international art market.[4]
As well as numerous high profile real life auctions being held at Sotheby's, the auctioneers has also been used in various films, including the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy in which Bond (played by Roger Moore) unsuccessfully tried to bid for a rare Fabergé egg, which he had cleverly exchanged for a fake that was finally sold to the villainous Afghan prince Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan).[5]
Sotheby's is distinguished by a number of world records for auctioned works of art. The following monetary values are given in United States dollars.
In 1997, a Channel 4 Dispatches programme alleged that Sotheby's had been trading in antiquities with no published provenance, and that the organisation continued to use dealers involved in the smuggling of artifacts.[11]
As a result of this exposé, Sotheby's commissioned their own report into illegal antiquities, and made assurances that only legal items with published providence would be traded in the future.[12]
In February 2000, A. Alfred Taubman and Diana (Dede) Brooks, the CEO of the company, stepped down amidst a price fixing scandal. The FBI had been investigating auction practices in which it was revealed that collusion involving commission fixing between Christie's and Sotheby's was occurring.
In October 2000, Brooks admitted her guilt in hopes of receiving a reduced sentence, implicating Taubman.[13]
In December 2001, jurors in a high profile New York City courtroom found Taubman guilty of conspiracy. He served ten months of a one year sentence in prison, while Brooks received a six-month home confinement and a penalty of US$350,000. No staff from Christie's was charged.[14][15]
At the time of the scandal 59 percent of the company's Class A was owned by Baron Funds.[16]
Currently, Sotheby's is in a labor dispute with Teamsters Local 814, which represents the art handlers working at the New York City auction house. The contract between the two parties expired on July 1st, 2011, and despite ongoing negotiations, there has been no agreement on a new contract. Local 814's stance is that because of Sotheby's record profits for 2010 (over $680 million), Local 814 should not be giving in to any of Sotheby's concessions. Meanwhile, Sotheby's wants to include the right to replaceg full-time union jobs with 24 temporary workers, waiving the union's rights to litigate in State or Federal court, reducing work-week hours, and eliminating seniority. Sotheby's hired Jackson Lewis, a "preventive labor relations" law firm, for the negotiations, which are still ongoing. Due to disagreements over a new contract, on July 29, 2011, Sotheby's imposed a lockout on its 43 art handlers. The dispute remains unresolved.[17]