Sotheby's

COMMENT: One is a marketing expert from outside the industry with a background in the media, luxury and entertainment sectors, the other is a career auction house professional with decades of service at the same company under his belt.

Sotheby’s have appointed Tad Smith, aged 49, as president and chief executive officer, effective March 31, 2015.

Sotheby’s year-end results for 2014 signal a refocus of activity to encompass much more of the middle market than in recent years.

Sotheby’s have taken a 25% stake in RM, the classic and luxury car auctioneer, renaming the company RM Sotheby’s.

Sotheby’s are re-starting dedicated sales of Scottish art, beginning in November 2015.

A large abstract painting by Gerhard Richter drew dramatic bidding last night and led Sotheby’s Contemporary art evening sale when it was knocked down at £27m.

Strong sales of Modern and Contemporary art plus the Félix Marcilhac decorative arts collection helped propel Sotheby’s to the highest auction total in France in 2014, with sales figures of €213m.

This version of John Constable’s (1776-1837) celebrated painting ‘Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows’ sold for $4.5m (£3.1m) at Sotheby’s Old Master sale in New York yesterday. It was an oil sketch with quite a backstory.

Sotheby's have announced a new buyer’s premium structure in New York. Effective from February 1, the rates will apply as follows:

What has been billed as the most significant sale of French 17th and 18th century paintings for 20 years was announced earlier this month.

Sotheby’s, who have yet to publish full results for 2014, have announced headline figures for auction sales (up 18% at £3.7bn/$6bn), their highest ever total.

A High Court judge has dismissed a claim made against Sotheby’s surrounding the sale of a disputed version of Caravaggio’s ‘The Card Sharps’.

As part of Old Master Week in New York, Sotheby’s will sell paintings assembled by J.E. Safra on January 29.

Personal effects of Sir Winston Churchill, including the morocco dispatch box pictured here, were among the highlights of Sotheby’s highly publicised estate sale of his youngest child, the late Mary Soames.

One of the best-loved of all of E.H. Shepard’s illustrations to the famous A.A. Milne books has set a saleroom record after selling for £260,000.

COMMENT: ATG Editor Ivan Macquisten argues that the top end of the art market needs a reality check if it wants to remain in control of its own destiny

The outstanding lot of the latest Old Master auction series in London, ‘Rome, from Mount Aventine’ by J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851), was knocked down at £27m at Sotheby’s evening sale, setting a record price for the artist.

This copper-gilt coffin plate, bearing an inscription in Latin with the dates of Oliver Cromwell’s birth, death and inauguration as Lord Protector and the arms of the Protectorate to the reverse, was found when his body was exhumed from the Henry VII chapel at Westminster Abbey on January 26, 1661.

New York has witnessed some spectacular auction prices of late and another came last week as ‘Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1’ by Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) was knocked down at $39.5m (£26.3m) at Sotheby’s American art sale.

COMMENT: As the saying goes, turnover is vanity, profit is sanity. Hold that thought as you consider the announcement that Bill Ruprecht is to stand down as CEO of Sotheby’s after nearly 15 years.