Deals
Private Deal for Sotheby's Pushes Art Market ‘Underground’
- Telecom titan Drahi will buy auction house for $2.7 billion
- Investors including Third Point’s Loeb will get $57 a share
Like masterpieces by Van Gogh, Picasso and Rothko, the storied auction house Sotheby’s is slipping into wealthy private hands, in a $2.7 billion deal that will reshape the global art market.
Billionaire Patrick Drahi agreed to buy the 275-year-old firm, ending Sotheby’s three decades as a public company. Drahi, a disciple of media mogul John Malone, is seizing on the upheavals that have shaken the centuries-old auction model.