Auction house Sotheby’s confirmed it has laid off 100 employees from its New York office, with the bulk of the cuts including back-office staff, entry-level staff and specialists across departments. art news Wednesday.
A Sotheby’s spokesperson said in an emailed statement: “Given the challenges faced by the market this year, we have carefully reviewed our business and staffing levels to ensure we perform well and continue to grow. We have a talented team that With outstanding expertise and capabilities across all sectors and around the world, we are committed to delivering best-in-class service to our clients.”
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Further layoffs and closures of its international offices appear to be planned or already underway. When asked about the layoffs, a current employee at Sotheby’s London office responded: ARTneSimply say, “Man, this is crazy.”
art network informationThe Wall Street Journal, which first broke the news of the layoffs on Tuesday, reported that no official announcement had been made internally at Sotheby’s. Parker’s Marion Maneker also reported layoffs on Tuesday, writing that they ranged from “business development positions for senior specialists in the Impressionist and Modern departments” to “antiques, American and Japanese art.”
The cuts come amid an increasingly fragmented auction market. Sotheby’s recorded significantly lower proceeds for Impressionist, modern and contemporary art at its major New York auctions in November ($533.1 million) compared with 2023 ($1.2 billion).
Sotheby’s financial situation has been a source of concern for months, after it laid off about 50 employees at its London office in May. In September, a leaked report detailed an 88% drop in core earnings and a 25% drop in auction sales in the first half of 2024, followed by wall street journal Auction houses have been “delaying payments to art consignors and custodians,” while reportedly struggling to pay employees on time, the report said. Sotheby’s disputes claims about employee payments Art Network News.
At the same time, in August, Sotheby’s announced that Abu Dhabi’s ADQ sovereign wealth fund had invested nearly US$1 billion; the transaction was completed in October. Before the ADQ deal, Sotheby’s was wholly owned by billionaire telecommunications magnate Patrick Drahi and had $1.8 billion in debt. As has been widely reported, Drahi’s company currently has $60 billion in debt, with some loans due to be repaid in 2027.
On November 1, Sotheby’s officially completed the acquisition of the Brower Building on Madison Avenue in New York (formerly home to the Whitney Museum of American Art) for US$100 million. New York City Treasury documents show that 945 Madison Avenue LLC acquired the Brower Building with a $35 million mortgage loan from Barclays Bank and Sotheby’s signed a 15-year lease that runs through October 2039 Expires on the 31st.
Sotheby’s real estate holdings have also grown this year with the opening of two international offices: a two-story, 24,000-square-foot mansion in Hong Kong in July, and a five-story, 10,800-square-foot mansion in Paris. ft. mansion.
puck It was also reported that Christie’s was laying off staff, “which happens a lot at this time of year, but not on the same scale.”
A Christie’s spokesman refuted the claims and said art news” , “Christie’s currently has no plans to make noteworthy personnel changes. Like any business, we continue to review our global resource needs to ensure we remain adaptable. “
Reporting by George Nelson.
