Sotheby's

auction house

Sotheby’s Modern and contemporary evening sale in London makes 40% less than last year

The auction house made £82m before fees and set records for Etel Adnan and Takako Yamaguchi

Cautious but calm art market awaits London’s March auctions

Expectations are measured as sector adapts to new economic landscape

California love: Dr Dre helps to kick off Frieze Week Los Angeles in style with star-studded charity auction

The hip hop legend worked with the record executive Jimmy Iovine and Sotheby’s to put on the event, which also featured performances by the producer Timbaland and the singer Andra Day

New York Old Master sales deliver tepid results at Christie's and Sotheby's

Scattered seven-figure highlights failed to make up for dozens of passed lots and multiple key withdrawals

Jury sides with Sotheby's in New York fraud trial against Rybolovlev

The billionaire had sought at least $190m in damages from Sotheby's related to deals with Yves Bouvier. Instead, he will get nothing

Sotheby's weathers 'challenging market' with $7.9bn of sales in 2023

Luxury goods and Millennials are helping buoy the bottom line, though fine art remains at the core of the business

Art marketanalysis

The Gray Market: Rybolovlev’s trial against Sotheby’s has become a slog through minutiae—and that’s good for the auction house

The art market ‘trial of the century’ has transitioned from courtroom drama to bureaucratic headache

Leaderscomment

How the Rybolovlev vs Sotheby's case shows the need for greater transparency in the art market

As the trial between the Russian billionaire and the auction house is thrashed out, it may be time to consider incorporating blockchain into the art scholarship process

Art marketanalysis

The Old Master trade is still seeking new ways to restore it to life

The category’s extraordinary works sell well, but the middle and lower ends of the market are in need of new ideas

Rybolovlev vs Sotheby’s: a closer look at the epic court battle

Plus, Singapore's art scene and a photograph by Zanele Muholi

Auctionsanalysis

Rediscovered paintings by Rembrandt and Canaletto fail to turbocharge London Old Master auctions

Evening sales at Sotheby's and Christie's drew in £19.4m and £21.3m, respectively

Dmitry Rybolovlev and Yves Bouvier settle nine-year legal feud

The Russian oligarch had accused the Swiss businessman of swindling him out of €1.1bn by overcharging him on art

Long-unseen royal portrait by Diego Velázquez could bring $35m at auction

The painting could more than double the Spanish Old Master's auction record when it hits the block at Sotheby's

Battle of the Henry Moore heads: rare sculptures with estimates of more than £2m go on the block

Sotheby’s is selling an alabaster piece while Bonhams’ early carving is made from ironstone

What did the New York auctions reveal about the state of the art market?

Plus, experimental art from the Eastern Bloc and a sculptural installation by Terry Adkins

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Sotheby’s $306m The Now and Contemporary sales wrap up a mediocre New York auction season

Both sales persevered through a lukewarm atmosphere to break into the lower reaches of their estimate ranges

Brisk Sotheby's Modern evening sale in New York delivers moderate results

The auction, spanning Monet to Miró, made $190.3m—just above its low estimate—and was preceded by the record-breaking sale of a Ferrari car

Sotheby's sale of Emily Fisher Landau's collection brings modest result, despite $139m Picasso portrait

The evening's total take of $406.4m was a sign of a stability—albeit one under-girded by guarantees and third-party backing—in a jittery market

Auctionsanalysis

How will New York’s auctions perform? London’s Frieze Week evening sales offer hints

Results from London’s premier autumn auctions suggest price now matters as much as prestige

Art marketanalysis

What makes a masterpiece? It depends who is selling…

Traditionally reserved for an artist’s greatest works, the term “masterpiece” now appears routinely in auction catalogues, and may just mean a work is good, novel—or expensive

Long-unseen Basquiat self-portrait could reach $60m at Sotheby’s New York

"Self Portrait as a Heel (Part Two)" (1982) hasn’t been displayed in public since its last appearance at auction, in 1999

Grayson Perry and Cornelia Parker donate works to Freedom from Torture charity auctions

Ai Weiwei’s taxi window crank sculptures will also go on the block at the Sotheby's live sale

Art marketanalysis

The magic behind Sotheby's Freddie Mercury sale

There was a certain degree of sleight of hand at play by the auction house to achieve 100% of lots sold

‘The market has changed’: Sotheby’s scrapes together £45.6m from Frieze Week double-header in London

The auction house’s The Now sale of ultra-contemporary art was a success, but its marquee contemporary art sale came up well short of expectations

Art marketanalysis

Lacklustre results for highly anticipated auction from Long Museum collection in China—experts weigh in on why

Despite a slew of records set for Western art in Asia, including new highest prices for Modigliani and Mark Bradford, the Hong Kong sale made below its low estimate

Balthus painting deaccessioned by the Art Institute of Chicago could bring as much as $18m at auction

"La Patience" (1948), which was one of two Balthus paintings in the museum’s collection, will go up for auction at Sotheby’s New York in November

'Rediscovered' Rembrandt could make £15m at Sotheby's London this December

The Biblical scene was recently offered at auction for just €10,000

Collection of late California patron Chara Schreyer could net more than $70m at Sotheby’s in New York

In sales spanning this year and next, hundreds of works that once belonged to the SFMoMA trustee will be offered, including a box in a suitcase by Duchamp