Phillips and Sotheby’s, two of the world’s largest
art auction houses, have recently announced changes in their top ranks that
critics say reflect recent shifts in the art market. At Phillips, longtime
Christie’s exec Stephen Brooks will enter as CEO, while outgoing chief Ed
Dolman will step into the newly created role of executive chairman. At
Sotheby’s, Amy Cappellazzo is departing as the head of the fine arts division
after more than five years of reeling in billionaire clients there.
Changes in the upper echelons of the auction
world demonstrate how companies are trying to reposition themselves for growth
during the pandemic, said Natasha Degen, chair of art market studies at the
Fashion Institute of Technology.
“We are trying to position ourselves for the future,” Sotheby’s CEO
Charles Stewart told the New York Times.
“We are in a period of adjustment, adaptation, and transformation.”
During
her tenure at Sotheby’s, Capellazzo oversaw the auction of David Bowie’s art
collection, cannily drove the price of a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat to
$110.5 million (“I knew we could make the painting an icon,” she said), and
helped the company to overtake Christie’s as the world’s top auction house last
year. Capellazzo has not yet revealed her post-Sotheby’s plans, but the house
acknowledged that her duties would be split among three employees: Brooke
Lampley, Mari-Claudia Jiménez, and Gregoire Billaut.
Phillips
in the past week sold its first NFT, Mad Dog Jones’s Replicator, which netted
$4.1 million, and launched a new advisory service aimed at pairing clients with
artists and galleries. Brooks told the Times he plans to broaden the firm’s
mandate in Asia and to become a bigger player in the market for
twentieth-century art. “Our ambition,” he told the paper, “is considerable.”
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