Sotheby's

auction house

Sotheby's does a U-turn on new fees structure

Less than a year ago, the auction house reduced buyer’s premium and tried to introduce a flat 10% vendor's commission to avoid bartering. It did not prove popular with sellers

Fuller picture of Sotheby's mass layoffs emerges

Staff cuts at auction house come as $1bn deal with Abu Dhabi wealth fund closes 

Anny Shaw. With additional reporting by Anna Brady

Crypto investor eats Cattelan banana he bought for $6.2m

Justin Sun, who purchased the work just last week, also pledged to buy 100,000 bananas from the vendor who originally sold the fruit for $0.25

Art marketanalysis

Beyond the banana: Sotheby's contemporary art night nets a modest $112m

Despite Maurizio Cattelan's Comedian selling for a staggering $6.2m, The Now and contemporary auctions in New York made 63% less than last year

‘The world's most expensive banana’: Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian fetches $6.2m at Sotheby’s New York

The buyer, the collector and crypto investor Justin Sun, immediately vowed to eat the banana

Art marketanalysis

Sotheby's New York delivers white glove auction of Sydell Miller collection but patchy Modern evening sale

Kicking off November's marquee evening sales, the house brought in a total of $268.6m from 49 lots

Sotheby's pays over $6m to settle tax evasion case

The terms of the settlement in New York allowed Sotheby's to resolve the issue without admitting any wrongdoing

Art marketfeature

Auction houses expect this month's New York sales to bring in as much as $1.6bn

The most valuable lot of the week is a record-breaking Magritte with a third-party guarantee, but the most talked-about is a conceptual still life by Maurizio Cattelan

Painting by Ernst Klimt—completed by his brother Gustav—to be offered at Sotheby’s

After Ernst Klimt’s sudden death at 29, Gustav completed "Hans Wurst Delivering an Impromptu Performance in Rothenburg" and signed it in his brother’s name

Sotheby’s to hold first ever commercial auction in Saudi Arabia in February

The auction house will hold the sale in the historic town of Diriyah, offering Modern and contemporary art as well as handbags, cars and sports memorabilia

Maurizio Cattelan’s famous duct-taped banana could bring more than $1m at auction

"Comedian" (2019) is one of the most viral (and controversial) works of art of the past decade; Sotheby's is betting it has not lost its a-peel

Painting by AI robot Ai-Da could bring more than $120,000 at Sotheby's

The robotic brainchild of British gallerist Aidan Meller will make her auction debut on Halloween

Theresa Reiwer wins top award at Lumen Prize for digital art

German-born artist working on ethics and AI leads the winners in nine categories of 13th annual edition of the world’s leading prize for art created with technology

Art marketanalysis

What if luxury is art sellers’ salvation, and not their sin

New moves by Gagosian, Sotheby’s and others aim to boost the art trade via high-end retail

Sunny £13.2m 1960s David Hockney brightens Sotheby's Frieze week evening sale

The small 23-lot contemporary art auction last night realised a total of £37.5m

Eyelash magnate Sydell Miller’s art collection estimated to bring around $200m at Sotheby’s

The sale's most valuable lot, a water lily painting by Claude Monet, is expected to sell in the region of $60m

Diaryblog

‘I’m encouraged by Marina Abramović’: FKA twigs takes over Sotheby’s

Auction house says it has ‘never presented a work of this kind in its 280-year history’

The art market slump, the artist freed in the US-Russia prisoner swap, Max Ernst in Paris — podcast

What’s behind the troubles facing auction houses and galleries? Plus, Sasha Skochilenko recounts her experience of being arrested—and incarcerated—in Russia, and the story behind a 1937 Surrealist painting by Ernst

Sotheby’s core earnings down by 88%, according to Financial Times report

A document sent to investors, and seen by the newspaper, ahead of investment from Abu Dhabi’s wealth fund also reveals a 25% drop in auction sales

Art marketanalysis

Global turmoil and rising taxes tilt art trade towards new era

Increasingly unsettled elites are making a struggling market even less predictable

Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund to acquire minority stake in Sotheby's

Patrick Drahi will remain auction house's majority shareholder in $1bn deal, as ADQ buys shares to "reduce leverage" and support "growth and innovation"

Sotheby’s launches multi-use space in Hong Kong’s business district

The 24,000 sq. ft location in the city’s Landmark Chater building will host exhibitions as well as a concept store—currently featuring Banksy’s famed shredded Girl with a Balloon

Billionaire collector Ken Griffin buys Stegosaurus skeleton for record $45m at Sotheby’s

This is the most valuable fossil to ever sell at auction, as the market for dinosaur bones continues to climb

Muted Old Master evening sales in London provide relative bargains but no fireworks

Slim auctions at Christie's and Sotheby's saw a rediscovered Quentin Metsys and a modestly priced Botticelli come to the block

Jordaens painting to be sold after settlement with heirs of Jewish bank shareholders

The work, to be auctioned at Sotheby’s today, was one of more than 2,500 held as collateral and sold, shortly before the Nazi invasion, by the Dutch bank Lisser & Rosenkranz

Sotheby's shakes up senior level staff in Asia and Europe

Elaine Holt has been appointed as the deputy chair of Sotheby's Asia, while six other specialists across locations have received title changes

Lisa Movius. With additional reporting by Kabir Jhala
Auctionsanalysis

Sotheby’s Modern and contemporary sale in London nets a tepid £83.6m and prompts question—is the summer auction season over?

Bright spots in the heavily guaranteed auction included a £15m Basquiat and competition for the collection of Ralph I. Goldenberg

Sotheby’s Paris will relocate to new space in historic former gallery

The new location at 83 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré will offer 30% more exhibition space

From one hand to another: painting reworked by Rubens to be sold at Sotheby’s

Conservation has revealed the extensive changes Rubens made to a work originally by Herri Met de Bles