Sotheby's CEO William Ruprecht, via UVM
Bloomberg’s Philip Boroff has dug into Sotheby’s SEC filings, reporting that that CEO William Ruprecht’s voluntary $100,000 pay cut has been restored. Read Boroff’s story on Bloomberg here.
Ruprecht took a pay cut in May 2009 on the heels of plunging auction revenues, according to Boroff. His salary has been restored to $700,000, plus other benefits.
The CEO’s pay rose following a period of drastic cost cuts which helped Sotheby’s post a $73.6 million profit in the fourth quarter of 2009. The company fired twenty…
Bronze African 'Walking Man' and 'Walking Woman' figures
A reader sent me this jpeg depicting a pair of West African bronze statues he had acquired and was re-considering in the wake of Sotheby’s sale of Alberto Giacometti’s $104.3 million Walking Man I. (Read more on that sale here.)
Alberto Giacometti with a `Walking Man,' photo: Henri Cartier-Bresson
The collector tells me his African statues are over 100 years old and hail from Mali. They do bear an uncanny resemblance to Giacometti’s 1960 attenuated figure.
Sotheby’s Board of Directors have finally recruited some younger blood, nominating 37-year old James Murdoch to run for a spot during the firm’s annual shareholder meeting on May 6.
Murdoch is chairman and chief executive for Europe and Asia of his billionaire father’s News Corporation, and heir apparent to run the global media company. He’s even got a quasi-racy back story: a Harvard drop-out, who ran a hip-hop company before joining the family fold. Read more on Murdoch here.
Sotheby’s current male dominated board includes: Michael Sovern, the Duke of Devonshire, William Ruprecht, Robin Woodhead, John Angelo,…
Alberto Giacometti's "Walking Man I" exhibited at Sotheby's in New York. Photo: Lindsay Pollock
Sotheby’s announced sales of $2.8 billion for 2009, down from $5.3 billion in 2008. Auction sales tumbled 54 percent. Annual revenues of $485 million were down 30 percent.
Private sales showed strength, totaling $472.6 million, up 27 percent over the previous year.
Christie’s outsold Sotheby’s in 2009. In January Christie’s announced 2009 sales totaling $3.3 billion, bolstered by the $480 million estate of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. (Christie’s figures include some post-sale activity whereas Sotheby’s do not).
Sotheby’s 2009 fourth…
Lily Safra was the buyer of the $104.3 million Giacometti `Walking Man I’ according to an article by Bloomberg News’ London art market correspondent Scott Reyburn. The news quells speculation that the buyer was Russian, Asian or from the Middle East. Hong Kong collector Joseph Lau was among unsuccessful bidders, according to Reyburn.
Safra’s identity as the buyer is attributed to a pair of unnamed London-based dealers in Reyburn’s story.
The work sold at Sotheby’s in London on Feb. 3 for 65 million pounds, achieving a record as the most expensive artwork sold at auction. Safra is the widow of…
Link to Bloomberg story here.
By Lindsay Pollock
Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) — As Polaroid, that once mighty photo giant, withers away in bankruptcy court, a chunk of its remarkable photography collection will be dispersed at a controversial sale set for June 21 and 22 at Sotheby’s in New York.
More than 1,200 works from Polaroid’s corporate collection, chronicling decades of artistic experimentation by Andy Warhol, Chuck Close and others who pushed the aesthetic boundaries of the instant-film process, will be hammered away by order of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota. Many…
Giacometti’s slinky ‘Walking Man I’ dominated the Wall Street Journal’s front page after selling for 65 million pounds or $104.3 million at Sotheby’s in London on Feb. 3, becoming the priciest artwork sold at auction.
Wall Street Journal devotes page one to Giacometti's record busting "Walking Man I" photo: Lindsay Pollock
Giacometti with his sculptures
Sotheby’s sold Giacometti’s mottled bronze six-foot tall Walking Man I for 65 million pounds or $104.3 million tonight in London, setting a record for the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction. The buyer was an anonymous phone bidder, according to Sotheby’s.
Picasso's 'Boy with a Pipe' sold for $104.1m at Sotheby's in 2004
The previous record was held by Picasso’s rose and blue Boy with a Pipe, which fetched $104 million in 2004 at Sotheby’s in New York.
Bidding on the striding man started at…
Goltzius, via Bloomberg
Link to Bloomberg News article here.
By Lindsay Pollock
Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) — Hendrick Goltzius’ 1612 depiction of an erotic encounter between a voluptuous sleeping damsel and a satyr, once owned by Nazi Hermann Goering, fetched $6.8 million yesterday at Sotheby’s in New York from an unidentified European collector who was bidding by phone.
The 6-foot-wide painting, “Jupiter and Antiope,” was estimated to sell for $8 million to $12 million, but drew interest from only one buyer.
Sotheby’s Old Master Painting sale otherwise sparked fairly healthy bidding, tallying…
Andreas Gursky 'Madonna 1,' 2001, courtesy Sotheby's
If I was a famous rock star, worth hundreds of millions, and Andreas Gursky gave me a photograph of one of my most historic concerts, I’d probably keep it.
Apparently Madonna doesn’t feel the same way.
She may be the original ‘Material Girl,’ with a taste for art collecting, but Gursky’s nine-foot tall photograph of a Madonna concert, which the photographer had given to Madonna as a gift, is up for sale at Sotheby’s in London on Feb. 10. Madonna I’s pre-sale estimate…
