A recent article in the Wall Street Journal points to the immense influence currently held by hedge fund managers in the global art market.  With managers like Daniel Loeb shaking up the corporate structure at Sotheby’s, and a growing number of hedge-fund billionaires entering the auction market, the high-price works of the art world have become something of bargaining chips in a major equity game.  “The rest of us are just sitting on the sidelines,” says Len Riggio, founder of Barnes & Noble. “I go to auctions now and feel like a witness—I watch, shake my head, and go home.” (more…)

A Sotheby’s New York auction this coming Thursday will feature three works recovered by the famous “Monuments Men” after Nazi confiscation during World War II.  The works by Apollonio di Giovanni, Jean-Baptiste Pater and Francesco Guardi are expected to sell between $150,000 and $500,000, and bear rare markings from their Nazi owners.  “The front is an artwork, and the back is an artifact,” says Lucian Simmons, of Sotheby’s restitution department. (more…)

Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Sale in London next month will be lead by a 1994 piece by Gerhard Richter, valued at $49 million.  Wand (Wall) sat for many years in the artist’s personal collection, during which time it was exhibited in a number of major exhibitions.  “As its title suggests, Wand (Wall) presents a compelling wall of colour with horizontal bands of cadmium red, blue and magenta that deliberately echo the chromatic intensity of a Mark Rothko,” Sotheby’s notes in its statement. (more…)

Continuing its run of appointments and in-house changes, Sotheby’s has appointed Domenico De Sole as Lead Independent Director.  The co-founder and Chairman of Tom Ford International, former President and CEO of Gucci Group, De Sole turned around Gucci while he was there, taking it from nearly bankrupt to a multi-billion dollar conglomerate.  “We’re very excited that Domenico has joined the Board and has also agreed to serve as Lead Independent Director. He brings blue chip experience in the high-end luxury space, in Board leadership, and in strategic executive roles envisioning the future of elite brands,” said Sotheby’s Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer William F. Ruprecht.  (more…)

After 20 years on the podium for Sotheby’s, Chief of Contemporary Art and auctioneer Tobias Meyer  has announced that he will be leaving his position in order to pursue work as a private dealer.  Mr. Meyer has been on the stand for some of the auction house’s most significant sales, including the record sale of Andy Warhol’s Car Crash painting earlier this month. “Contemporary art has become a little too much like ‘American Idol,'” he told said. “We’re an overvisualized culture, and young artists can find themselves with a real career only six months after starting to paint.”
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In what may be a response to internal pressures, Sotheby’s Auction House has announced a dividend for the Fourth Quarter of 2013 of $.10 per share, payable on December 16th to shareholders of record.  The auction house announced the dividend early this week. (more…)

Tobias Meyer Opens the Sale, via Aubrey Roemer for Art Observed

“So, the market is alive, right?”  This was the closing statement from Sotheby’s auctioneer Tobias Meyer last night at the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale. The sale totaled $290 million – the second highest ever achieved at Sotheby’s for an Impressionist and Modern Art Sale, and its fourth consecutive Evening Sale of Impressionist and Modern Art that had a sell-through rate of 80%.

Pablo Picasso, Tête de Femme (1935), via Sotheby’s (more…)

Sotheby’s director Philip Hook has unveiled a new guide, welcoming the uninitiated into the often “meaningless” terminology embraced by the institutional art world.  Exploring the meaning of overused words like “important” (“historically significant but hard to sell”), Breakfast at Sotheby’s: An A-Z of the Art World offers a look into the language of the commercial art world.  “They are words the meaning of which has become twisted by the desire to energize banality, to elevate mediocrity, or simply to make a sale.” (more…)

Another activist investor is making waves at Sotheby’s.  Richard McGuire, the head of Marcato Capital Management LLC (currently the third-ranking stockholder at the company) is apparently engaged in behind the scenes talks to convince the auction house to sell off its New York and London locations, while unlocking money from its smaller dealings in art finance and dealing.  Some have anticipated such a move could free up to $1.3 billion in cash, enough to buy back nearly a third of the company’s stock.  “Sotheby’s is committed to healthy two-way communication with its investors and welcomes thoughtful suggestions as we pursue our common goal of a strong, growing, competitive Sotheby’s open to new opportunities,” said company spokesman Andrew Gully. (more…)

Sotheby’s has announced the cover lot for its fall auction of contemporary art in New York this November 13: a rare work from Andy Warhol’s Death and Disaster series featuring a gory car crash.  With the rest of the editions from this work already in museum collections, the auction house anticipates that the work could sell for $60 to $80 million.  “It’s the monumentality of the image that is so powerful,” said Tobias Meyer, director of Sotheby’s contemporary-art department worldwide. “It’s as if life and death come straight at you, especially the way Warhol juxtaposes the cascading images of mortality with the void of an empty right panel.” (more…)

Hedge Fund Billionaire Daniel Loeb has gone on the offensive towards Sotheby’s Auction House today, calling for the resignation of company chairman, CEO and president William Ruprecht for his alleged lack of leadership and excessive pay.  Loeb recently became a leading stock holder in the auction house with his activist investment firm Third Point, and many forecast that he will use his position to force major changes in Sotheby’s operating model.   “Our research suggests Sotheby’s crisis of leadership has created dysfunctional divisions and a fractured culture. There is a demoralizing recognition among employees that Sotheby’s is not at the cutting edge,” Loeb writes in an open letter. (more…)

Sotheby’s auction house has appointed Patrick S. McClymont, a former partner and managing director at Goldman and Sachs, as its new Chief Financial Officer, beginning October 7th.  McClymont replaces current CFO William S. Sheridan at the post, who has served the company for 17 years.  “I have had the privilege of working with a highly skilled, highly professional finance, investor relations and information technology team at Sotheby’s that I invested in and helped build, and they deserve an enormous amount of credit for all that we accomplished. It has been a true pleasure to be part of Sotheby’s and now I look forward to spending more time with my family and focusing on charitable work,” Sheridan remarked. (more…)

Rumored since earlier this summer, Sotheby’s Uptown New York headquarters is now officially on the real estate market, following the recent share acquisition by activist investors.  The auction house has already entertained several bids for the space, but has not disclosed an asking price.  “It’s premature to speculate, as the process is still continuing.”  Said spokesman Andrew Gully. (more…)

A recent statement by Sotheby’s Auction House head Bill Ruprecht has analysts forecasting a potential attempt at a share buy back, following the purchase of sizable share percentages by a number of activist investors. “Sotheby’s is committed to healthy two-way communication with our shareholders as we pursue our common goal of a strong, growing, competitive Sotheby’s open to new opportunities.” Ruprecht said.

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The Wall Street Journal reports on the current state of Sotheby’s auction house going into the fall art season, detailing the company’s increasing stock price despite sales that have been less than exemplary.  With a series of high-profile investors now on board, including the recent addition of Daniel Loeb’s Third Point, Sotheby’s has a number of options standing before it to increase its value for shareholders. (more…)

In an effort to win more consignments, Sotheby’s has filed a statement saying that it has entered into auction guarantees totaling over $166 million, including $23.5 million by undisclosed third-party guarantors.  With fall sales in London, New York and Hong Kong, the auction house has increased its borrowing capacity to provide even more in guarantees to interested sellers.  “We did this to enhance our flexibility as we negotiate deal opportunities and hopefully provide us with an opportunity to improve margins and profitability by taking prudent balance sheet risk,” Sotheby’s head William Ruprecht said. (more…)

Following the news that a painting sold as a Caravaggio copy may have in fact created by the artist, Sotheby’s is facing a lawsuit from the past owner.  William Glossop Thwaytes is suing the auction house, maintaining that he believed the work authentic, while auction experts sold it as a copy, reportedly lowering the price considerably.  The work was ultimately purchased by the late scholar and collector Denis Mahon, who immediately declared the piece an original valued at £10 million, after a sale price of £42,000.  “Caravaggio is a particularly difficult artist,” Charles Beddington, a former head of Christie’s International Old Masters division. “The quality of his execution is variable, and so he’s easy to copy.” (more…)

Activist Hedge-Fund Investor Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC has acquired a 5.7% stake in Sotheby’s Auction House, a $156.7 million holding that hints to a potentially intervention on the part of Third Point.   “They [Sotheby’s] haven’t radically rejigged their business in the past 10 years,” says former Christie’s COO Michael Plummer, now a principal of Artvest. “It would appear that these hedge funds have an idea that Sotheby’s could be doing its business differently.”

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A work by artist Jan Schoonhoven, stolen from the Bommel van Dam Museum in Venlo several months ago, has turned up at Sotheby’s, stopping the sale after a Dutch fence confessed to police that he had tried to sell the work.  The 1969 work had already achieved a sale price of €214,000, sold under a different name and turned 90 degrees in the catalog.  The auction house acknowledged that it had already been investigating the work after buyers became suspicious. (more…)

Sotheby’s has posted its earnings for the first half of 2013, with profits up to $91.7 million, over last year’s $85.4 million in the same period.  Revenues also saw a 0.3% increase, likely from the increased commissions that the auction house announced earlier this year.  In addition, the auction house noted that the global bidding activity of Asian collectors at Sotheby’s in the first half of 2013 has exceeded the total for all of 2012, an impressive feat that once again trumpets the importance of the Asian market. (more…)

This coming fall, Sotheby’s will auction off a seminal work by pre-Raphaelite Dante Rosetti, a chalk drawing depicting Rosetti’s muse Janey Burden as the Greek Goddess Prosperine.  Described by the auction house as “one of the defining images of European art – instantly recognisable and representing the artist at the height of his originality,” the work will sell at auction this November in London, and is expected to command a sales price between £1.2 and £1.8 million. (more…)

The invasion of financiers in the art market, the introduction of art as investment, and the internet have altered the value system of works at auction, placing a new emphasis on the reassurance of well-known artists and established sales records. The new ethos can be see in in recent sales of Giacometti’s L’Homme qui march I,’ which sold for over £65 million at Sotheby’s, London in February 2010. The sculpture was an edition of six, with four additional ‘artist proofs.’ The existence of editions allows for direct price comparisons and understanding of the piece’s artistic standing.

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Gursky Sells at Sotheby’s, via Sotheby’s

The final auction hammers have fallen for the first half of 2013, concluding June’s London auction weeks. While the results of this week’s Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s were solid, final sales events before the summer break showed a marked tapering off in both sales prices and quantities. With the bountiful auctions, events and fairs, including the $1.1 billion New York auctions, Frieze New York, Art Basel Hong Kong, and the Venice Biennale with its record 86,000 attendance count.

Francis Bacon, Three Studies for Isabel Rawsthorne (1966) via Sotheby’s (more…)

Sotheby’s has placed its York Ave. Headquarters on the Upper East Side of Manhattan up for sale, sources report.  The auction house will be looking to potentially lease back the building for the time being, as it looks to readdress its current home.  “Given the location of our building, the current real estate market, the unsolicited interest we’ve received in our property and our responsibility to our shareholders, we are exploring our options,” Sotheby’s spokesman Andrew Gully said. (more…)