Displaying items by tag: auction houses

Sotheby’s, the New York-based auctioneer under pressure to improve returns, said Patrick McClymont will resign as its chief financial officer and executive vice president effective Jan. 1, a little more than two years after assuming the post.

McClymont was a partner and managing director at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. prior to joining Sotheby’s in 2013. He will receive $3.75 million in cash severance.

The auction house Sotheby’s has accepted the buyouts of 80 employees, or 5 percent of its 1,600-person global work force, the company reported in records filed on Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

As a result of the buyout offer, which expired Dec. 9, Sotheby’s said in the filing that it expected a charge of about $40 million in the fourth quarter of 2015.

The Asia Week New York Association announces that 46 international galleries and 5 auction houses will participate in Asia Week New York 2016, the nine-day celebration of Asian art and culture that spans the metropolitan region from March 10 through 19, 2016.

Says Lark Mason, Chairman of Asia Week New York:  “For connoisseurs and collectors who want to immerse themselves fully in the wonders of the Far East, they know there is a once-a-year celebration that they must attend. And it's no wonder.

Sotheby’s is offering employees voluntary buyouts to cut costs after a drop in third-quarter revenue grabbed more attention from the company’s investors than its largest ever semiannual auction season.

The auction house told employees in an e-mail Friday that if not enough employees make use of the buyouts, it may have to resort to layoffs. Sotheby’s didn’t say how many jobs it plans to cut.

Art auctions used to be a gentlemen’s business. Now the gloves are off.

As art sales face their first major test since the August financial market rout, auction houses are jockeying not only for trophy artworks but also for the best positions to highlight them at the November auctions in New York. The result is a shakeup in a schedule that for years was tightly coordinated, with Christie’s and Sotheby’s traditionally alternating who goes first. Even the weekends are no longer off limits; in a surprising move, Phillips, the smallest of the three, switched its main sale to a Sunday.

Lark Mason has been designated the new Chairman of Asia Week New York—the collaboration of over 40 top-tier international Asian art specialists, five major auction houses, and numerous museums and Asian cultural institutions.

“I am honored to follow Carol Conover as the new Chairman of Asia Week New York, and look forward to continuing the successful paths forged by her and her predecessors,” says Mr. Mason, founding director of iGavel, the online international network of independently owned regional auction salesrooms, specializing in the sale of fine and decorative arts.

Bidsquare, the online bidding platform for over 35 leading auction houses, announces Bidsquare Cares: a holiday benefit auction of art experiences to aid the Ebola workers of Doctors Without Borders. Bidding opened at bidsquare.com on Black Friday, November 28th at 12:00PM EST, and closes on Monday, December 8th at 12:00PM EST.
 
Up for grabs are 35 one-of-a-kind art and city experiences from the leading auction houses that created Bidsquare: Brunk Auctions, Cowan’s Auctions, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, Pook & Pook, Inc., Rago and Skinner, Inc.

Tour highlights include a walk and talk with David Rago at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; a National Public Radio behind the scenes tour in Cincinnati; and a helicopter ride over Chicago. Among the other gifts to give to yourself or others: a tabletop bronze sculpture by Klaus Ihlenfeld valued at $800 and a gift certificate for fine jewelry from Skinner.

A growing desire to understand and prove the provenance of goods in the fake-ridden Chinese antiques market has led to a boom in old auction and exhibition catalogues. This trade has been driven by China’s tens of thousands of art advisors, auction houses and dealers, who in recent years have been building private reference libraries for experts and clients. Book collectors and dealers in Hong Kong and Europe have been quietly doing a thriving business in catalogues for exhibitions and auctions of Chinese arts and antiques.

While China has always had a black market for imported art publications that cost a few dollars each, in-demand catalogues command prices in the thousands of dollars.

New industry figures have revealed that the international art market has grown by 17% to $7 billion in the first six months of 2014. The French company Artprice stated that art sold at the major auction houses have totalled $7.15 billion ($5.22 billion euros). This has increased from the $6.11 billion figures crunched in the first half of 2013.

Thierry Ehrmann, from Artprice stated, "We have gone from 500,000 collectors in the post-war period to nearly 70 million 'art consumers' art lovers and collectors -- worldwide," he added; 2013 was a record year for art with sales worth $12.17 billion following a drop in 2012 linked to a contraction in the Chinese market. Ehrmann said museums and art centres, both public and private, were springing up all over the world, in particular in the Asia Pacific region and to a lesser extent in South America and the Middle East.