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Sotheby's (NYSE: BID) is one of the oldest auction houses in the world. Together with the Christie's auction house, it occupies about 90% of the world market for auction sales of antiques, art objects, etc. It is the world's largest auction house (in terms of total sales revenue for 2011.
It was founded on March 11, 1744 in London by bookseller Samuel Baker (before Sotheby's, only three Swedish auction houses were founded in the world). The company is named after Samuel Baker's nephew, John Sotheby (1740–1807).
Sotheby's was a closed "club" where only aristocrats could get jobs. In 1955, a branch was opened in New York. Branches also opened in Paris, Los Angeles, Zurich, Toronto, Melbourne, Munich, Edinburgh, Johannesburg, Houston, Florence. In 1977, Sotheby's shares began to be sold by public subscription and quickly grew in price. By the early 1980s, Sotheby's was practically bankrupt due to the onset of the industrial crisis.
In 1983, Sotheby's was sold to the American entrepreneur A. Alfred Taubman, the owner of a large chain of stores in the United States. In 1998, Taubman brought Sotheby's shares to the stock exchange.
In May 2007, he was the first of the leading auction houses to open a branch in Moscow. Representation at the auction of old Russian art is considered a promising direction, but so far it does not go beyond 1% of the total turnover of the company
In June 2019, Sotheby's auction house was acquired by French media mogul Patrick Drai. The deal was valued at $3.7 billion. Drai bought it with his own money as a family business that will be managed by a specially created American company, BidFair US. Sotheby's is currently going through difficult times - the company's net loss in the first quarter of 2019 was $7.1 million.
In 2022, at an auction held by Sotheby's for $4.3 million, the Enigma black diamond, the world's largest diamond, estimated to be at least 1 billion years old, went under the hammer. The Enigma black diamond weighs 555.55 carats and was included in the Guinness Book of Records in 2006 as the largest in the world.
