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Sotheby’s has canceled its electronic commerce activities in continental China less than two years after the auction house has committed to expanding its online capacities there for instant purchases of fine arts and luxury items .
Three people familiar with the case have said that in recent months, Sotheby’s had closed his program “Buy” on the continent now, in the midst of a slowdown in Chinese demand, which for decades supported the prices of high -end objects.
The 280 -year -old auction house has also dropped a certain number of employees in continental China, according to one of the people and two other sources, who added that a key staff would remain in consulting positions.
Sotheby’s launched its “Buy Now” platform in Hong Kong in 2022 and extended it to continental China in the first half of 2023, when it celebrated 50 years in Asia.
At the time, he declared that expansion would lead to “active supply in the region for the first time, offering collectors new ways of buying and selling beyond the traditional auction calendar, granting a Access 24/7 and 365 days to an exceptional luxury, fine and decorative art and objects with a price variety, and all available for an instant purchase ”.
Large auctions, including Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips, had accelerated online sales following a luxury boom at the pandemic, while social distancing rules normalized online auctions and purchases of high -end products . Many auction houses have seen such platforms “buy now” such as a way to capture new entry-level customers in fine arts and luxury.
Sotheby’s began to organize events in a space at the bottom at its head office in China in Shanghai, in part to help stimulate sales “buy now”, in 2023, but a person familiar with the case said that the company had not organized it since May last year.
Sotheby’s told Financial Times that China has remained a “key art and luxury market”. He added that he would continue his “Buy” program in Hong Kong, his “main market” where he opened a retail space of 24,000 square feet in July of last year. He also moved his head office in Asia to new, larger premises in the city.
His offices in Beijing and Shanghai remained open and active, and he continued to organize events “across China,” he said. His overall presence of the continent remained larger than before launching the “Buy” program and was now focused on customer relations, added Sotheby.
The global auctions of the company fell 23% over a year in 2024, according to figures published last week. Sotheby’s does not separate its annual results in Asia, but stressed that some of its most important sales were on the continent, including the sale of $ 32.5 million in Mark Rothko Untitled (yellow and blue) in Hong Kong and Claude Monet Nymph (Water lilies) for $ 65.5 million to an Asian collector.
The company, which does not publicly disclose financial results, revealed to lenders an 88% dive In its main gains in the first half of 2024, while income dropped by 22%, the FT in August reported.
In the same month, the Sovereign Heritage Fund based in Abu Dhabi, Adq, announced that it would take a participation as part of a $ 1 billion in capital injection Alongside the existing owner Patrick Drahi, a billionaire of telecommunications, in order to finance growth and reduce debt.
Sources of the artist industry said that the withdrawal of China was part of a wider retirement, and Sotheby’s confirmed to the FT that it had also closed an office in Bangkok. In addition, the auction house started conferences with around 50 employees in its London office last year, the FT reported in June.
“I think they tried very hard to explore a lot [that] did not go very well, “said a person familiar with the Asian art market who did not want to be appointed. “They wanted to get into something really big in China[but]. . . I discovered that it is a difficult space to do. »»
Report by Nian Liu to Beijing, Chan Ho-Him and Gloria Li in Hong Kong, William Langley in Guangzhou and Thomas Hale in Shanghai
