Sotheby’s has named veteran luxury exec Masumi Shinohara as its new managing director for Asia, Artnet News has learned. He was promoted to the role after serving as head of Japan for the auction house for a little under a year.

Several sources familiar with the house said that Nathan Drahi, the son of owner Patrick Drahi who has been the house’s managing director in Asia since spring of 2021, will be relocating to New York, but it is uncertain what his new position will be.

Sotheby’s confirmed the appointment of Shinohara to Artnet News on Friday. According to an internal memo, Shinohara assumed his new role on January 1, reporting to CEO Charles Stewart. He will relocate to Hong Kong from Tokyo, and work closely with the house’s Asia chairman, Wendy Lin; its chairman and worldwide head of Asian art, Nicolas Chow; its Asia deputy chairman, Jen Hua; and Jasmine Prasetio, managing director for Southeast Asia.

The house also confirmed that Nathan Drahi will be relocating; details of his new role and location are expected to be announced later this month.

Talk of changes in Sotheby’s leadership in Asia began just before the holidays, amid major job cuts globally. Shinohara recently announced on his Linkedin profile that he started his new job in Hong Kong this month.

According to Shinohara’s profile, he became Sotheby’s Tokyo-based representative director and head of Japan this past April. Prior to joining Sotheby’s, he was the CEO and representative director of Japan and Korea for the Italian fashion and luxury brand Valentino for three years. Before that, he was the president and representative director of Zegna Japan, the Japanese arm of Italian luxury fashion house Ermenegildo Zegna Group.

Mark Rothko’s Untitled (Yellow and Blue), 1954. Courtesy of Sotheby’s.

Sotheby’s has seen frequent reshuffling of its Asia leadership since Drahi père, a French media tycoon, acquired the nearly three-century-old auction house in 2019. The same year, Drahi fils joined the house’s Asia operation.

Soon after the acquisition, top rainmakers left one by one, including Patti Wong, former chairman of Sotheby’s International, former Asia CEO Kevin Ching, and Yuki Terase, former head of contemporary art. Executives Alex Branczik and Max Moore were transferred to Hong Kong from London and New York, respectively, in 2021. But last year, both returned to their prior cities—Branczik to become chairman and head of modern and contemporary art, Europe, and Moore to be head of Sotheby’s Sealed, a private bidding platform. Long-serving staff, including former senior director and auctioneer Ian McGinlay, and former head of modern art Felix Kwok, also departed last year.

Sotheby’s opened what it termed a Maison in Hong Kong, a hybrid retail and exhibition space, last summer. Elaine Holt has been appointed to lead Sotheby’s Modern and contemporary art team in Asia. The house held its inaugural sale in the new space in November, headlined by a storied Mark Rothko painting, the first major work by the artist to be offered at auction in Asia, but results did not meet presale expectations.

The house’s financial situation has been the subject of scrutiny in recent years, amid a global contraction in auction sales. Despite having secured a $1 billion investment from an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund in 2024, Sotheby’s made deep cuts to its head count in December, laying off about 100 employees around the world. Offices in Moscow and Bangkok were also shuttered.

Around that time, Sotheby’s said that it would go back to a fees structure that it had replaced last year, beginning February 17. It reintroduces bespoke fees for sellers and changes the buyer’s premium from a 20 percent flat rate to a stepped rate: 27 percent of the hammer price up to $1 million, 22 percent for works hammered above $1 million to $8 million, and 15 percent for works hammered at $8 million or more.