Could you please introduce Sotheby's auction house in new york, USA?

On March 1744, 1 1, samuel baker, a great British bookseller, hosted the first auction in a hotel in Covent Garden, London. The goods are Sir john shanley's books. The auction was a great success. 457 books were sold in ten days, and the auction amount was 876 pounds.

After Baker died, he left all his property to his nephew John Sotheby's. John took his surname as the name of the auction house, and the world-famous Sotheby's auction house was born.

Sotheby's in the early days mainly dealt in ancient books. With the increase of customer demand, there are more and more kinds of lots. But in Sotheby's first 200 years, the position of auction houses in the art market

Dispensable. Because artists look down on this place, almost all classical masterpieces are traded privately by businessmen. This situation did not change until 1950s, and this historical turning point in the auction industry was attributed to Peter Cecil Wilson of Sotheby's. When he took charge of Sotheby's in the late 1940s, he began to challenge the long-standing dominant position of famous painting dealers.

1952 65438+February, the opportunity finally came. King Farouk I of Egypt was deposed, and Wilson decided to auction the treasures of the former king, giving Sotheby's post-war depression a shot in the arm. At the auction, Wilson launched a promotion campaign. Those who buy more than 5,000 pounds can get the books and periodicals of the former king for free, and they can feast their eyes on the paintings of collection room in the erotic palace. As a result, Farouk I's collection auction won a great victory, attracting the attention of the whole world.

Wilson's international publicity strategy was a great success for the first time, but it did not completely win the hearts of the art world. So Wilson made up his mind to cultivate his insight into the location and expand the company's business scope. Sotheby's introduced the "seller's minimum deposit" system, which provided the deposit to the auction clients before the auction, in order to dispel the concerns of the auction clients that the lots could not get a good price and stimulate the precious cultural relics and artworks to be put on the market.

On July 1956, 1 1 day, at Sotheby's summer works auction, lot 1 19, a wonderful but little-known painting by Nikolai Pu Sang, Worship of the Shepherd, sold for 29,000 pounds. Although Sotheby's paid a deposit of 35,000 pounds and lost 6,000 pounds, the artist was very happy that this work was auctioned at the highest price of the year.

Unlike Christie's with aristocratic auction style, Sotheby's welcomes Jewish art dealers and collectors who fled to London after the war. In addition, Sotheby's also published art bulletins, sponsored several major museums to run professional publications, and held art appreciation lectures in London, Geneva and other places, which attracted many fans. Sotheby's also turned the auction into an exhibition and performance of works of art, which not only washed away his "copper smell" but also won the respect of the art world.

With Wilson's painstaking efforts for many years, Sotheby's has become a new international auction enterprise.