Sotheby’s annual pretax loss more than doubled to $248 million (€211 million) in 2024, as the auction house owned by billionaire Patrick Drahi continued to struggle with a multiyear slump in the art market.
Sotheby’s, which the Franco-Israeli telecoms mogul acquired in 2019 through a leveraged buyout, fell deeper into the red, according to accounts of the parent company of the global group filed in Luxembourg in July. Its annual pretax loss in 2023 was $106 million.
The market for fine art is suffering from falling demand from high-spending Asian bidders and US turmoil. Sales fell by 12 per cent to $57.5 billion in 2024, according to a report by Art Basel and UBS, with a 39 per cent decline in auction lots fetching more than $10 million.
Sotheby’s revenue from commissions and fees on sales fell 18 per cent, from $994 million in 2023 to $813 million in 2024. Earlier this year, it reported its total 2024 sales had fallen 23 per cent to $6 billion; rival auction house Christie’s sales fell 6 per cent to $5.7 billion. The two auction houses did not report profit figures or detailed financial information at the time.
RM Block
[ Sotheby’s introduces new strategy to slash buyer feesOpens in new window ]
Sotheby’s has been making redundancies since 2020, which contributed to its larger loss in 2024. Its severance costs last year were $29.2 million, up from $11.4 million the year before, although headcount fell by just 24, to 2,218 employees.
In August last year, Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ agreed to take a stake in Sotheby’s as part of a $1 billion capital injection that also involved Drahi. Sotheby’s wanted to cut debt and fund growth.
The accounts for Drahi’s BidFair Luxembourg holding company show that ADQ invested $909 million, in exchange for a 24 per cent stake in Sotheby’s Holdings UK – which sits below the Luxembourg parent company – as well as additional preferred stock and warrants.
ADQ also agreed to buy an additional $75 million of stock if the UK holding company’s adjusted ebitda exceeded $300 million in 2024.
BidFair contributed $85 million towards the capital raise, according to separate 2024 accounts filed by Sotheby’s Holdings UK last month.
Sotheby’s used the cash infusion to repay $794 million of debt and to help fund the purchase of its new US headquarters on Madison Avenue in New York. As a result, it cut its long-term net debt from $3.55 billion to $2.76 billion over the course of 2024.
In February this year, the Financial Times reported that Sotheby’s had shut its ecommerce business in China less than two years after committing to online expansion in the country.
Performance at Christie’s, which is owned by French billionaire François Pinault, improved last year. According to accounts filed in July, profit before tax at Christie’s International, the UK holding company for the auction house’s operations around the world, rose 18 per cent to £85 million in 2024.
Profit before tax at Sotheby’s Holdings UK fell 21 per cent over 2024 to $27 million, according to its August accounts.
Sotheby’s and Christie’s declined to comment. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
