Like rivals Christie's, the company have been keen to highlight their performance in the private sales arena, racking up $814.6m in sales, around 16.5% of all Sotheby's sales, compared to Christie's $808.6m, (14%).
For both companies the overall results were their best ever after 2007.
As always, better times bring a higher cost base as the company invest more in staff and business development, this time singling out expansion in China, IT and online activity as areas of focus.
Details of how well Sotheby's live bidding platform Bid Now is developing remain sketchy. The company have been cautious over their online offering after the original failed launch of sothebys.com cost them £25m in the first wave of dotcom ebullience around a decade ago.
Christie's, who have been more forthcoming about their live bidding operation, Christie's Live have seen a small increase in those buying online in the past year, from 28% to 29% of their clientele, but sales volumes online have grown from 11% of all items sold by value to 14% in that time.
