Representatives of the auction house Sotheby's said that as a result of bidding in the last month the company lost in the assurances offered by sellers, 15 million dollars

Failures in the auction in London and Hong Kong this month cost Sotheby's in 15 million dollars paid for the warranty. This auction representatives reported late on October 23. (Sotheby's, as most of the major auction houses, to encourage potential vendors - for collectors and art dealers - often use the guarantee ie the owner guarantees payment of a fixed amount when the work is sold at a lower price or no sale at all.)

Kritura Lawrence (Lawrence Creatura) Fund Manager Clover Capital Management in New York, which, as of June 30, belonged to nearly 112 000 shares of Sotheby's, said that the auction house could easily move those losses, as at 30 June the company had funds in the amount of 375.4 million dollars. According to Lawrence Kritury, more disturbing is the manner in which this fact is the current situation in the art market.

Last year, after the bidding works of Impressionist and Modern Sotheby's has lost to assure 14.6 million dollars. The same day, it caused the fall of the company's shares at 8.6 percent. In general, over the past year, shares of Sotheby's fell by 78 per cent and reached its lowest level since June 2003.

To improve the situation with the guarantees of the representatives of Sotheby's decided to seek assistance from third parties. At this time, the total volume of guarantees in 285.5 million dollars 63,3 million accounted for a third party , the data are not reported.

Back in May this year, Sotheby's president, Bill Ruprecht (Bill Ruprecht) stated that in order to reduce the risk will reduce the amount of guarantees. Indeed, as reported recently by representatives of the company, compared to last year, he had already fallen by 50 per cent. Reduction of auction guarantees is planned in the future - until the moment when the financial markets and the global economy will return stability.

It is estimated that the agency Bloomberg, the total amount of sales of auction houses Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips de Pury in London amounted to 59 million pounds (95 million dollars), with a minimum estimeyte to 106.2 million pounds. A Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong had 141.7 million dollars, which is exactly half the expected amount.

Source: bloomberg.com , artinvestment.ru