Business Art News
CHANGING TIMES FOR THE ART AUCTION BUSINESS www.aspireart.net
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he news last month that the almost 300-year-old Sotheby’s fine art auction house has been put up for sale to a private entity brought to an end a period of some 31 years during which the company was the only publically traded auction house in the world – listed during that time on the New York exchange. At the time of writing the prospective buyer is a French-Israeli telecommunications entrepreneur called Patrick Drahi, who has put forward an offer of $3.7 billion, to be effected through his US-based family holding company, a sum which offers a substantial premium to shareholders. According to the New York Post, the auction house has subsequently cast around for better offers. The offer of a private purchase comes as Sotheby’s has consistently been losing ground and marketshare to its major competitor, Christie’s, which is privately held by French billionaire François-Henri Pinault. The two auction houses, originally both English, and both dating back to the mid eighteenth century, still dominate the global art auction industry, despite the rise of Asian, especially Chinese, houses in the last decade. Christie’s recent, heavily publicised, successes include selling the most expensive single painting in history in 2017, Salvator Mundi, at the time credited to Leonardo da Vinci, for $450m. In 2018 the company sold the collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller for $835m, by far the largest amount ever achieved for a private collection. A common refrain in the competition between the two auction houses, and the main business reason given for the prospective sale of Sotheby’s, is the ‘flexibility’ it will provide William Kentridge, Stereoscope
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