Sotheby's

auction house

Strange bedfellows: advisor Allan Schwartzman and art investment specialist Philip Hoffman team up

The London-headquartered The Fine Art Group and New York-based Schwartzman& are collaborating—but this is not a merger, they stress

'I’ve done my duty on spreadsheets': senior staff reshuffles at Christie's and Sotheby's

A number of new appointments are announced today at the auction houses, with a different EMEA president for Christie's and new managing director in the Middle East at Sotheby's

Sotheby’s and Ketterer Kunst among auction houses to ban some Russian buyers

The move comes as the art market steps up its due diligence

Riah Pryor. With additional reporting by Sophia Kishkovsky and Anna Brady

The original NFT? Sotheby's to offer a receipt for an invisible work by Yves Klein for €500,000

The French conceptual artist made nine "empty zones" in the last three years of his life, which could be purchased only with pure gold

Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Bonhams call off Russian art auctions in response to war in Ukraine

The sales, popular with London-based Russians and regional collectors in Russia alike, had been scheduled for June

Major Surrealist paintings make auction debut at Sotheby's Paris, including Picabia's very modern muse

The 25-lot sale tomorrow includes works that reflect "how irrational, how ugly, and how challenging the modern world can be"

Van Gogh’s depiction of two lovers—sliced out of a landscape painting—comes up for sale

Sotheby’s will auction the surviving picture of the strolling couple on 2 March, estimated at £7m-£10m

a blog by Martin Bailey

Pensioners revolt: Patrick Drahi winds up Sotheby’s ‘defined benefit’ pension plan, and former employees are not happy

Ex-staff are now considering legal action, claiming they were not kept informed of changes to the scheme

Art marketcomment

Botticelli: my worries about the Man of Sorrows

The painting, sold last week at Sotheby's for $45.4m, was listed among workshop and studio pictures in Ronald Lightbown’s 1978 catalogue of Botticelli’s work, before being included as an autograph work in an exhibition at Frankfurt's Städel Museum in 2009. Here, in a pair of opinion pieces, two Renaissance experts give their contrasting views on its attribution

Art marketcomment

Botticelli's 'stunning and puzzling' Man of Sorrows

The painting, sold last week at Sotheby's for $45.4m, was listed among workshop and studio pictures in Ronald Lightbown’s 1978 catalogue of Botticelli’s work, before being included as an autograph work in an exhibition at Frankfurt's Städel Museum in 2009. Here, in a pair of opinion pieces, two Renaissance experts give their contrasting views on its attribution

Bacon and beasts: an in-depth look at the visceral new show at London’s Royal Academy of Arts

Plus, Botticelli in New York and gender in Asian art in San Francisco

Hosted by Ben Luke and Aimee Dawson. With guest speaker Georgina Adam. Produced by Julia Michalska, David Clack and Henrietta Bentall
Sponsored byChristie's

Late Botticelli painting sputters at Sotheby’s Old Masters auction in New York, selling for $45.4m

The star lot of the sale, a rediscovered and austere portrait of Christ, hammered just below its estimate

Louvre teams up with Sotheby’s to investigate provenance of works bought during the Second World War

The auction house will help the Parisian institution research the history of items purchased between 1933 and 1945, which "may lead to restitutions"

Sotheby’s reportedly selects Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley to pursue IPO at around $5bn

The auction house, which had been publicly traded for decades before being bought by Patrick Drahi for $3.7bn in 2019, could return to public trading later this year

Sicilian castle from The Godfather movie is up for sale for €6m—but what about the extensive art collection it was built for?

Baron Pennisi commissioned the neo-Gothic villa, which includes a private chapel with frescoes by Giuseppe Sciuti, at the end of the 19th century

This £45m Magritte painting could double artist's previous record

The monumental L’empire des lumières, painted in 1961 for the artist's muse Anne-Marie Gillion Crowet, has never been sold before but will now be auctioned at Sotheby's in London in March

'Cancelled' Madonna and Child found beneath Botticelli's $40m Man of Sorrows

Infrared images of the painting, which is due to be sold at Sotheby's in New York later this month, show that an earlier composition lies underneath

Sotheby’s faces class-action lawsuit alleging mistreatment and misclassification of workers

Lawyers for the auction house are trying to dismiss the complaint, which they call 'devoid of factual allegations,' but they could be facing a classic Catch-22.

Remembering Michel Strauss, Impressionist supremo at Sotheby’s over four decades

Expert from a French collecting dynasty saw first-hand the fast-changing art world of the 1960s and helped British Rail create its renowned collection

Sotheby’s owner Patrick Drahi reportedly considering taking auction house public

Drahi bought Sotheby’s less than three years ago, took it private and began implementing a series of cost-cutting measures

Sotheby’s sales for 2021 surpass $7.3bn, the highest total in company history

The firm’s sales were bolstered by a sharp increase in online bidders, who accounted for 92% of all bids this year

Can Palm Beach last as an art market hub?

The south Florida town, awash with ultra-wealthy retirees, has seen a rise in art market power players since the start of the pandemic

Sotheby's to offer The Hamilton Aphrodite, an ancient Roman marble last sold 70 years ago now expected to fetch up to £3m

The larger than life-size statue was brought back from Rome by the Duke of Hamilton in the 18th century and is named after his Scottish palace

Sotheby's triple-header New York auction night notches up $234.2m with artist records for Lisa Brice, Maria Berrio and seven others

The auction house also accepted cryptocurrency on two works by Banksy and sold a rare copy of the US Constitution for $41m

Frida Kahlo breaks record for a Latin American artist in Sotheby's $238m Modern art sale

While the auction's star lots included the $34.9m Kahlo and four Monets, the most aggressive bidding was on works by Alexander Calder and Pierre Soulages

Macklowe collection auction brings $676.1m, the highest sale total in Sotheby’s history

Bidders from Asia snapped up the sale’s two biggest lots, trophy works by Giacometti and Rothko

Crypto wallets at the ready: Sotheby's to accept live bidding in ethereum on two Banksy works

The auction house made Banksy's world record for the pre-shredded work Love is in the Bin