A major wave of cost cutting has come to Sotheby’s, which has eliminated more than 100 jobs.
Talk of layoffs at the storied auction house had been spreading like wildfire this week among current and former employees, according to people familiar with the situation. The cuts appear to include back-office workers and junior staffers, as well as top-level specialists in key departments.
“It’s absolute panic over there,” a former executive who spoke with several ex-colleagues told me.
“Given the challenges the market has faced this year, we’ve taken a careful look at our business and staffing levels to perform well and grow going forward,” a Sotheby’s spokesperson said in an emailed statement on Wednesday.
Amid a contraction in global auction sales, the house has been reviewing its global footprint, regional staffing, and auction categories, according to a person familiar with the situation. Sotheby’s marquee sales of Impressionist, Modern, and contemporary art in November in New York generated $533.1 million, less than half of the $1.2 billion they tallied a year ago.
Cuts are spread across the map, and across departments. The company has shuttered offices in Moscow and Bangkok, and reduced its presence in Germany. While New York and London suffered the biggest losses, people have been let go around the world, from Shanghai to Paris, according people inside the house. Several high-ranking experts in contemporary, Impressionist, and Modern art were let go. Some full-time staffers may become consultants, retaining their affiliation with Sotheby’s, but not its health benefits.
The cuts had been anticipated for months, and follow the elimination of about 50 jobs at Sotheby’s London earlier this year. They come on the heels of an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund taking a minority stake in Sotheby’s in a deal valued at $1 billion. The house’s majority owner, Patrick Drahi, currently has companies facing down a $60 billion mountain of debt, with some loans coming due as soon as 2027.
On October 30, Sotheby’s trumpeted the agreement between ADQ and Drahi to invest in the company. While the house did not disclose details of the arrangement, it is understood that ADQ made most of the investment by acquiring newly issued shares of Sotheby’s.
The latest staff cuts come even as Drahi continues to invest in real estate tied in with Sotheby’s. This year, Sotheby’s opened new headquarters in Paris and Hong Kong. On November 1, just two days after the ADQ deal announcement, the purchase of the Breuer building in New York, the former home of the Whitney Museum of American Art on Madison Avenue, was finally completed for $100 million, according to the New York City Department of Finance.
The building was acquired by 945 Madison Avenue LLC, which took out a $35 million mortgage from Barclays Bank and leased the building back to Sotheby’s for 15 years, according to those documents. The lease is set to expire on October 31, 2039.
The cuts are “big,” according to one former executive, who added, “They have to do radical cutting. And that’s what they are doing.”
Additional details about Sotheby’s layoffs were added to this post on December 11 at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Vivienne Chow contributed reporting.