William F. Ruprecht (born 1956) is the president and CEO of Sotheby's.
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Ruprecht was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1956 [1]. His mother was a painter and his father was a businessman. After graduating from the St. Louis Country Day School in 1974[2], he attended several universities, and graduated from the University of Vermont, where he studied sculpture and fine arts. One of his early jobs was situated in a furniture shop in Vermont. In 2008, Ruprecht became a trustee of the University of Vermont.[3]
Ruprecht started working for Sotheby's Holding inc. in 1981. The reason he stated for working in Sotheby's in particular was he "wanted to move someplace that was warmer where there were more people". He got involved with textiles and tapestries. His area of expertise was Persian, Turkish and Chinese fabrics, textiles and rugs. He led his first auction in 1984.
In 1986 Ruprecht became Director of Marketing at Sotheby's and in 1992 he was promoted to Director of Marketing worldwide. He stayed in this position until February 1994. From 1994 to February 2000 Ruprecht was Executive Vice President of Sotheby's inc. and Managing Director of Sotheby's North and South America. Ruprecht became president and Chief executive officer of Sotheby's inc. in February 2000. The previous president, Brookes, resigned following a price-fixing scandal between Sotheby's and rival auctioneer Christie's.[4]
In 2007 Ruprecht's salary was $700,000. In 2008 his salary was $2.1 million.[5]