Date: Fri 10-Sep-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: JUDIR

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Sotheby's-Holdings

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Sothebys Holdings Announces 1999 Results

NEW YORK CITY -- Sotheby's Holdings, Inc, the parent company of Sotheby's

worldwide auction, art-related financing and real estate activities has

announced results for the first half and second quarter ending June 30, 1999.

For the first half the company reported total revenues of $209.2 million,

compared to $215.1 million for the corresponding period of 1998. Net income

for the first half totaled $22.2 million, or $0.38 per diluted share, compared

to net income for the first half of 1998 of $27.3 million, or $0.48 per

diluted share. Internet related expenses for the first half of 1999 were $10.8

million or $0.12 per diluted share.

A strong spring auction market and several single owner sales in New York and

London contributed to a seven percent increase in first half of 1999 auction

sales, which totaled $1,035.3 million (compared to $967.6 million in 1998).

This worldwide sales total does not include the $26.5 million achieved in the

historic sale of the contents of the Chateau de Groussay outside Paris, which

Sotheby's held in association with the auctioneers Poulain Le Fur in June.

Despite this growth, total operating revenues of $209.2 million were down

three percent compared to the first half of 1998, principally due to lower

revenues in Financial Services, as a result of the prepayment of a major loan

in the fourth quarter of 1998.

One of the major highlights of the spring was the sale of Impressionist and

Modern paintings, furniture and decorations from the collection of Mr and Mrs

John Hay Whitney, ($146.2 million). Several other notable single-owner sales

took place, including the collection of Giuseppe Rossi, one of the largest of

its kind to take place in London ($34.2 million); silver-gilt objects of vertu

and portrait miniatures formed by Baron Meyer de Rothschild, sold by The

Rosebery Family Trust ($7.5 million); an excellent private collection of Taos

artists and Western paintings ($7.3 million); the Collection of interior

designer Alberto Pinto ($6.3 million); and Part I of The Frank T. Siebert

Library of the North American Indian ($5.9 million).

Sotheby's sold the three most expensive paintings of the spring auction

season, two in New York from the Whitney Collection and the third in London.

Cezanne's "Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier," a still-life circa 1893-94, sold for

$60.5 million, not only a record for the artist but the fourth highest price

for a painting sold at auction. Seurat's "L'Ile de la Grande Jatt" sold for

$35.2 million, also a record for the artist. In London, Edgar Degas'

magnificent pastel of a ballet dancer, "Danseuse au repos," sold for $27.9

million, setting an auction record for the artist and becoming the most

expensive work on paper ever sold at auction.

A recently discovered Eighteenth Century secretary bookcase, known as the

Nathaniel Appleton secretary bookcase, sold for $8.3 million, the second

highest price ever paid for American furniture at auction. William Blake's

First Book of Urizen from the Whitney Collection sold for $2.5 million, five

times the low estimate and an auction record for a book by Blake. In the

Collectibles sale, David O. Selznick's Academy Award for Best Picture of 1939

for Gone With the Wind sold for $1.5 million to Michael Jackson, not only a

record for an Academy award at auction but for any piece of Hollywood

memorabilia. A spectacular gold and jeweled Torah crown, one of only two in

existence, sold for $1.3 million, setting a record for Judaica metalwork. An

important and rare Fang female reliquary guardian torso sold for $1.5 million,

a record for a Fang figure. A doucai "chicken" cup from the Chenghua period of

the Ming Dynasty sold for $3.8 million, a new world record for Chinese

porcelain and the most expensive price for any Chinese work of art sold in

Hong Kong. This contributed to the 30 percent increase in auction sales in

Asia.

Corporate Initiatives

"Developing a strong internet auction business has been Sotheby's most

important corporate priority this year," said Diana Brooks, President and CEO

of Sotheby's Holdings. "To this end, we have announced two major corporate

initiatives: the formation of sothebys.com, a new Internet auction business

for art and antiques; a joint on-line auction site, sothebys.amazon.com, which

we have formed in a ten-year alliance with Amazon.com, the world's leader in

e-commerce. Our internet business is distinguished by the fact that all

property will be guaranteed for authenticity and condition and will be sourced

not only from our existing business but also from select professionals,

including art dealers and other members of the art community. To date, more

than 3,000 dealers have already signed up to be our internet partners.

"Sothebys.amazon.com is expected to launch in the autumn with a number of

highlights, including property from the Barry Halper Collection of Baseball

Memorabilia, following the live auction of this unique collection in late

September. Among other highlights on sothebys.amazon.com, and also following a

live auction, will be Highly Important United States Coins from the John and

Rebecca Moores Collection.

"We will be moving into the new six floors of our New York headquarters this

September, and the entire two-year construction project will be completed in

the fall of September 2000. This new ten-story state-of-the-art auction and

art services building will revolutionize our business and become a major art

and cultural destination for visitors from all over the world. The new six

floors include a dramatic 25,000 square foot roof-top museum-standard gallery,

designed by Richard Gluckman with panoramic views over Manhattan.

"This spring we announced the formation of Sotheby's Insurance Brokerage

Services, Inc. The new unit has entered into an agreement with J&H Marsh &

McLennan, the world leader in risk and insurance services and a subsidiary of

Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (NYSE:MMCC). Under the agreement, J&H Marsh &

McLennan will provide its risk management and insurance brokering services and

expertise to clients of Sotheby's Insurance Brokerage Services."

Second Half Outlook

The highly anticipated live sale of baseball memorabilia from the famed Barry

Halper Collection, the finest and largest collection of baseball memorabilia

in the world, will be among the first auctions in Sotheby's new facility. A

week-long public exhibition begins on September 17 and will be followed by

seven days of live auctions beginning September 23. The collection is

estimated to bring in excess of $10 million and will be followed by internet

auctions on sothebys.amazon.com.

The sale of The John and Rebecca Moores collection of United States Coins will

be in New York in November. Considered the finest collection of United States

coins ever to be offered at Sotheby's, the sale is expected to realize between

$5 and $6 million. In addition to the auction, a significant portion of the

collection will be on sothebys.amazon.com.

A landmark event for the photography market will occur in London in October

when a private collection of photographs assembled over 40 years by the

prominent rare book dealer Andre Jammes and his wife, Marie-Therese, will be

sold. This rich and celebrated collection features rare and important examples

of Nineteenth Century photography as well as avante-garde masterpieces from

the 1920s and 1930s and is estimated to bring $1.21.8 million. On the same

day, a remarkable private collection of French books assembled over a period

of half a century by the great bibliophile Renaud Gillet will also be sold in

London. The sale, which includes rare Nineteenth and Twentieth Century French

literature, Surrealist books and livres de peintres, is also expected to fetch

$1.2/1.8 million.

Before their sale, both the Jammes and the Gillet collections will be

exhibited together in New York, Paris, London and Brussels.

This fall in London and Munich, a selection of works from the Rolf Deyhle

Collection will be offered. Approximately 140 works, encompassing the

development of German art from the late Nineteenth Century to the present day

with paintings, drawings, sculpture and prints by such artists as Max

Lieberman, Otto Dix and Carl Hofer, will be sold in London in October. A

further group of 130 works, including examples from both internationally and

locally known German artists from the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, is

scheduled for Munich in November.

Sotheby's 25th anniversary in the Netherlands will be celebrated with the

opening of a magnificent new auction facility in Amsterdam this autumn. Among

the inaugural auctions will be the prestigious collection of

internationally-acclaimed Dutch interior designer Jan des Bouvrie, which will

take place in October and is expected to raise $500,000.

Among highlights of Asia Week in New York in September is a set of 12 famille

verte "month cups," each individually decorated with a floral subject

emblematic of a particular month of the year. This set, commissioned by the

emperor Kangxi (1662-1722), was formerly in the collection of Paul Bernat of

Boston and the collection of the Tsui Museum of Art and is expected to sell

for $550/650,000.

The May sale of Impressionist and Modern Art brought a total of $208.0 million

with 22 paintings selling for more than $1.0 million each. An important oil

painting from Claude Monet's "Haystack" or grain stack series sold for $11.99

million, and his painting of "Waterloo Bridge in the Fog" sold for $9.4

million. A beautiful landscape by Renoir entitled "Les Rosiers a Wargemont"

sold for $6.2 million.

In London in June Henri Matisse's "Robe Jaune et Robe Arlequin (Nezy et

Lydia)," 1940, sold for $11.3 million, more than three times the low estimate;

Renoir's "La Baigneuse," $5.1 million; and Claude Monet's "Nympheas" from

1908, $4.9 million.

In New York in May, Contemporary Art, including works from the Kraetz

Collection, brought a total of $33.0 million with nine paintings selling for

more than $1.0 million each. The top lot, "The Painter's Mother" by Lucien

Freud, sold for $3.3 million; Andy Warhol's magnetic and seductive image of

"Marlon," from 1966, $2.6 million; and Alexander Calder's "Constellation,"

1943, $1.5 million.

American paintings in New York in May included a painting by Frederic Edwin

Church, "To the Memory of Cole, 1848," sold for $4.7 million, and Winslow

Homer's "Woodchopper in the Adirondacks," from the Collection of Mr and Mrs

John Hay Whitney, sold for $992,500, and a landscape by Nicolaes Berchem,

$800,000.

During the English Country House sale in New York in April, an important

painting by British sporting artist John E. Ferneley, Sr, sold for $1.1

million, a record for the artist at auction. The painting entitled "Captain

Horatio Ross on `Clinker' with Lord Kennedy's `Radical' Ridden by Captain

Doublas Beyond," dated 1826, was estimated to bring $300/500,000.

During the Latin American Art sale in June, 12 new artist records were

achieved, including Maria Martin's "Brouillard Noir (Black Fog)," $233,500,

and Julio Larraz's "Itinerant Oracle," $156,500. The top lot, Diego Rivera's

"Nina con rebozo," sold for $937,500.

Nineteenth Century paintings in May included Alfred de Dreux's "An African

Groom Holding a Stallion," $745,000; Gustav Bauernfeind's "Market Day in Old

Jaffa," $706,500; and Ludwig Knaus's "In the Shtetl," $745,000.

In Geneva in May, a magnificent diamond necklace by Cartier, circa 1950, and

an outstanding diamond ring by Harry Winston, weighing 49.62 carats, both

exceeded their high estimates, selling for $2.9 million and $2.1 million

respectively. A collection of six beautiful jewels, principally by Van Cleefe

& Arpels, sold for a total of $1.5 million.

The jewels in New York in April totaled $12.8 million including an exceptional

pair of diamond earclips.

Decorative Arts

The three-day series of Important Americana sales in New York in January

achieved a total of $20.9 million. The centerpiece was a recently discovered

Eighteenth Century secretary bookcase known as the Nathaniel Appleton

secretary bookcase, which sold for $8.3 million, the second highest price ever

paid for American furniture at auction. Folk art also fared extremely well,

led by strong single-owner property, including Twentieth Century folk art from

the estate of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr, and paintings from the collection of

Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch. A new record for an early

American silver tureen was set when a silver civic presentation soup tureen

and cover, made in Baltimore in 1817 sold for $250,000.

In March, Asia Week in New York brought a total of $10.7 million including an

important gilt-bronze figure of Yamantaka, Imperial China, late Fifteenth

Century, for $745,000. Other top prices included a fine gilt-bronze figure of

Amitayus, Imperial China, 1426-1435, $607,500, and a rare large sancai-glazed

pottery camel and foreign rider, Tang dynasty, $251,000.

Important English and Continental silver in New York in April included a suite

of four Regency silver soup tureens made by Paul Storr, London, 1817, for $1.4

million, and an 18 karat gold dinner service for 12, Cartier, New York, 1960,

commissioned by pharmaceutical giant Josiah Lily, for $607,500.

In May, Fine American Indian art totaled $2.5 million. The top lot was a large

Kwakiutl wood shaman figure, $145,500. A large San Ildefonso polychrome jar

sold for $96,000, a record for an historic pottery jar, while a classic Navajo

child's blanket set a record at $76,750.

The top lot of the Art Deco sale in June was an important set of 12 dining

chairs made by Armand Albert Rateau for the Paris apartment of the celebrated

couturiere and art patron Jeane Lanvin around 1922, $937,500.

In the Fine Americana sale in June, the Abraham and Hannah Perkins important

Pilgrim Century court cupboard set a record at $299,500.

Other Record Prices

And Noteworthy Sales

Worldwide sales of wine for the first six months totaled $13.3 million and

included the "Ultimate Millennium Superlot" for $288,500. In London in June,

$84,010 bought the historic case of Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1945.

A rare and highly important gold open face one-minute tourbillon watch from

Patek Philippe & Co., circa 1920, sold for $332,500, and a new American record

for a pocket watch was set when a massive gold open face Patek Phillipe

clockwatch sold for $794,500.

A letter written by John Adams on July 1, 1776, three days before the adoption

of the Declaration of Independence in which he describes American independence

as "the greatest debate of all," sold for $635,000, and a series of 14 letters

written by J.D. Salinger to the 18-year-old Joyce Maynard brought $156,500.

The movie poster from David Selznick's 1933 classic King Kong sold for

$244,500, and a fine Indian Mutiny Victoria Cross sold for $145,930.

Sotheby's has 107 offices located in 41 countries, with principal salesrooms

in New York and London. The Company also regularly conducts auctions in

Australia, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Monaco, the Netherlands,

Switzerland and Taiwan. Sotheby's Holdings, Inc. is listed on the New York

Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange.