Venetian Guardi achieved an Old Master record. (click on image to enlarge)
SOTHEBY’S in New York has just announced their best quarter in the company’s history. Sotheby’s consolidated sales reached a record $3.4 billion in the first half of 2011. For the three and six months to June 30, 2011 net income increased by 48% and 54% to $127.2 million and $129.7 million, respectively, when compared to the prior year. This improvement is principally due to significantly higher auction and private sale commission.
Competitive pressure to win high value consignments resulted in lower commission margins. General and administrative expenses increased $7.9 million, or 24%, in the second quarter and $9.8 million, or 15%, in the first half, largely due to increased consulting fees to develop Sotheby’s strategic initiatives and unfavorable movements in foreign currency exchange rates.
“This is the best quarter in Sotheby’s history,” said Bill Ruprecht, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Great works of art are enormously desirable to collectors from every corner of the world right now….As I look back on these extraordinary six months for our business, the global appeal of art was one of the few constants in a period of continued economic uncertainty”. He said that an exciting fall season is already taking shape: “Clients around the world can expect a number of wonderful sales and objects at Sotheby’s this autumn”.
London sales included tremendous successes. Contemporary art surpassed the high estimates. Egon Schiele’s Hauser mit bunter Waesche (Vorstadt II) made $40 million, almost double the previous auction record for the artist and Guardi’s Venice, a View of the Rialto Bridge, Looking North, from the Fondamenta del Carbon, made $42.9 million, the second highest price ever achieved for an Old Master Painting. (See antiquesandartireland.com post for July 6)
