Sotheby's

DAMIEN Hirst and juggled dates have severely skewed Sotheby’s third quarter results for 2009, contributing to a fall in revenue of 41 per cent year-on-year to $44.9m.

SOTHEBY’S latest Hong Kong Asian series saw mainland Chinese buyers come of age in the field of Imperial Chinese art.

IT’S all change among Australia’s leading auctioneers as Goodmans, linked to Bonhams since 2003, are to adopt the Sotheby’s brand instead.

The partnership between Toronto auctioneers Ritchies and Sotheby’s has been dissolved after payment deadlines were missed following a joint sale of Canadian art on May 25.

Second quarter results for Sotheby’s in 2009 show operating revenues down almost half to $167.3m on the first three months of the year thanks largely to the decline in auction totals.

SOTHEBY’S New York hold the W. Graham Arader sale on June 19, offering 204 lots from the well-known American prints and maps specialist.

After more than 40 years, Sotheby’s have scrapped their annual sale at Gleneagles and will now hold biannual sales of Scottish art in London.

Conservative estimates tailored to new realities enabled the New York flagship sales of post-War and contemporary art to set solid selling rates. But, for both major houses, the financial gulf between this year and 2008 was enormous.

SEVERE belt-tightening is the order of the day at Sotheby’s as the company ride out the downturn and position themselves to take strong advantage as the market recovers.

SOTHEBY’S Hong Kong spring sales series of classical, modern and contemporary Asian art, wine, jewellery and watches from April 4 to 8 were not as financially rewarding for the firm as in recent times.

SOTHEBY’S are to continue with their strategy of focusing on their top-end clients while reducing lot volumes below the $5000 level.

A LOAN exhibition of 20 works from the collection of American billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen opens at Sotheby’s in New York this week.

Just hours before Sotheby’s sold the contents of Gianni Versace’s Lake Como villa on March 18, they withdrew an 18th century portrait by Johann Zoffany after its subject’s family claimed that it had been stolen from their home in London 30 years ago.

SOTHEBY’S latest figures showed just how deeply they were hit by the art market slump since October, with revenues for their final quarter sales cut by more than half to $166.2m. Profits for the year are down 87 per cent.

SOTHEBY'S have completed the purchase of their New York headquarters in a $370m deal.

SALES in 2008 in Paris saw Sotheby’s and Christie’s occupy the top two spots for the first time – and open up a significant gap on the rest of the field.

NORMAN Adams Ltd., leading specialists in classic English period furniture for more than eight decades, are shutting their Knightsbridge showrooms and putting their current stock into a sale at Sotheby’s.

Old Masters provided some solace for the London auction rooms last week, posting the solid totals and some eye-catching prices to suggest this most established of markets will ride the downturn better than its modern counterparts.

In a week that saw the London salerooms offering their traditional December round of Old Master pictures, continental furniture and works of art, one of the strongest prices proved to be the £1m (plus premium) paid for this lively and intriguing 3ft (90cm) high bacchic bronze at Sotheby's on December 2.

with buy-in rates exceeding 60 per cent at many sales, Russian Week in London proved this hitherto burgeoning market to be as vulnerable to the economic crisis as any other.