A Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing in March revealed that Sotheby’s chief executive, Tad Smith, received a pay package worth as much as $20m in his first year at the auction house. Since the bulk of it ($16.5m) is a stock award, Smith’s remuneration seems aimed at boosting stock prices. For Smith to receive more than half those awards, the auction house’s stock would need to more than double by 2020—though it had its worst annual performance last year since its all-time low, in March 2009, when its share price hit just $6.47. In February 2016, it fell to $20.26, down from a recent high of $53.51, in January 2014.
