The art of the deal

Rufus Bird ponders the future of the big auction houses

THE LAST TWO YEARS HAVE been bumpy rides for the art business. Markets go up and down, and companies come and go, but auction houses have evolved their business model only slightly since the eighteenth century. Yet, the quantity of sales (and lots) has reduced over the past decade, begging the question, how is the auction business changing? As 2024 drew to a close, of the two large auction houses, Sotheby’s appeared to have suffered more than Christie’s. The owner of Sotheby’s is the French-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi, whose main holding company Altice is saddled with large amounts of debt — reportedly in excess of $50bn. At the end of last year, Drahi completed a deal with ADQ, one of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth funds, raising some $1bn through the…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 2025

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