A spokesman for the company told the Irish Independent today: “We can confirm the Dublin office will be closing in a few months’ time. We will, however, continue to serve our Irish clients and will share more specifics in due course.”
The office, led by Arabella Bishop, first opened in 1978 and was operating from Molesworth Street in Dublin, alongside other auction houses such as Whyte’s, De Veres and Bonhams plus a number of private galleries, in what amounted to a small art quarter in the city.
At the height of the Celtic Tiger boom, Sotheby’s staged a dedicated Irish Art Sale, at which businessmen such as Galen Weston and Michael Smurfit competed against each other and spent seven-figure sums on paintings by Louis le Brocquy, Jack B Yeats and William Orpen. At their peak, up to €8m worth of art was sold at these Irish auctions.
Following the financial crash in 2008, Sotheby’s ended the specific sale, and included Irish artworks in more general auctions. The firm was controversially commissioned by RTE in 2019 to sell five works as the cash-strapped station desperately tried to raise money.
The trade restrictions that followed Britain’s departure from the EU created extra expense and red tape for the London auctioneers when it came to sourcing works here for sale in London.
Sotheby’s is now suffering internationally from a decline in auction sales, and both the New York Times and Artnet have reported the company is making “big” cuts globally with up to 100 staff members leaving.
The auction house is said to be reviewing its entire global footprint and regional staffing, with cuts expected in offices around the world. Offices in Moscow and Bangkok have already been closed, and Sotheby’s has reduced its presence in New York, Shanghai and Paris.
About 50 jobs went at Sotheby’s office in London earlier this year.
The Sotheby’s spokesman said: “We are taking a careful look at our business and staffing levels [in order] to perform well and grow going forward. The vast majority of our offices around the world will remain open.”
The cost-cutting follows the taking of a minority stake in the company by an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, in a deal valued at $1bn.
Illustrating the decline in art sales this year was last month’s auction by Sotheby’s in New York of impressionist, modern and contemporary art, one of its flagship sales of the year. It generated $533m, less than half the $1.2bn proceeds of the auction of a year earlier.
This was despite a banana selling for $6.2m, including fees, at the sale. The piece of fruit was originally attached to a gallery wall with duct tape by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan.
