2 weeks Ago
Sotheby’s has reported an 88% plunge in its core earnings and a 25% decline in auction sales, as a chill in the art market hits one of the industry’s most famous brokers. The first-half figures at Sotheby’s main auction business reveal the extent of the financial pressure the group came under before it struck an investment deal with Abu Dhabi earlier this month. Weaker luxury spending in China is among the factors weighing on demand for fine art and affecting both Sotheby’s and historic rival Christie’s.
One of Sotheby’s marquee auctions fell short of expectations in May, when the winning bid for a Francis Bacon portrait of his lover George Dyer missed the low end of its $30m-$50m (NZ$48m-NZ$80m) estimate. Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund ADQ agreed to take a minority stake in the auction house earlier this month , through a $1 billion capital raise funded with its present owner Franco-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi, who has been looking to cut debt across his business empire..
