SOTHEBY'S

in full Sotheby's Holdings, Inc., also called (18641924) Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, or (from 1924) Sotheby and Company art auction firm founded in London in 1744 and American-owned since 1983. Its main offices are in New York City and London, supplemented by other sales offices and auction rooms worldwide. The founder, Samuel Baker (d. 1778), a London bookseller, held his first auction (under his own name) early in 1744, selling an estate library of 457 books. Establishing the firm in York Street and handling further libraries over the years, he went into partnership with George Leigh in 1767. Upon Baker's death, his estate was divided between Leigh and a nephew, John Sotheby (17781807), whose successors were to move the business to 13 Wellington Street in 1818 and were to lead the company for more than 80 yearsuntil 1861, when the last Sotheby died. The company continued to prosper under a series of partners and in 1917 moved to the present London quarters at 3435 New Bond Street. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, Sotheby's concentrated chiefly on auctioning books, manuscripts, and prints; and, though other collectibles were occasionally offered for sale, paintings and other works of art did not begin to dominate Sotheby's sales until after World War I. After World War II, principally under the leadership (195880) of its chairman Peter C. Wilson, Sotheby's became established in New York City and, in 1964, acquired Parke-Bernet Galleries, the premier American auction house (founded 1883). In 1983 Sotheby's was acquired by A. Alfred Taubman, an American businessman and art patron. Throughout its history, Sotheby's has handled some of the most important British and other libraries that have come up for sale. In the 20th century it has acquired a number of estates and been noted for its 19th- and 20th-century paintings, especially of the Impressionists. Sotheby's aggressive sale of the Goldschmidt collection in 1958, which elicited (for that time) amazingly high prices, is sometimes cited as the event heralding the late 20th-century boom in fine-art selling. One of the most spectacular auctions came three years later (1961), when Rembrandt's Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer was purchased by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art for $2.3 million. Sotheby's Educational Studies also sponsors art courses and exhibitions; governs Sotheby's International Realty Company, handling luxury real estate; and publishes Preview, newsletters, and catalogs and has art reference books published under its insignia.