After 45 years, Sotheby’s are to cease holding auctions in Canada to focus instead on private sales and sourcing material for the international market.
While Vancouver-based Heffel Fine Art and
Joyner Waddington's in Toronto will doubtless welcome the move,
Sotheby's stress they are not abandoning the Canadian market.
"Private sales is the growth area of this
business; it's not the auction part that's profitable," said
Sotheby's Canada president David Silcox. "We want to operate only
at the high level with our highest transacting clients and we'll be
more profitable because of it."
Without the distraction of a regular live sale to market and
catalogue - the company don't discount holding one-off live sales
of important estates here - the Toronto team believe they can also
focus on sourcing important international works held by Canadian
collectors for Sotheby's salerooms in New York, London, Paris and
Hong Kong.
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