ARLIS/NY

Library at the Sotheby's Institute of Art, New York

On Friday, June 15, 2007, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., approximately twenty ARLIS/NY members attended a tour and talk at Sotheby’s auction house on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The event began with a tour of Sotheby’s main preview galleries given by Warren Winegar of the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York.

Winegar gave a brief overview of the history of Sotheby’s before describing the process of organizing an auction. Sotheby’s was founded in 1744 by Samuel Baker. He was a book seller, and in the early years of the auction house, book auctions were the main attraction. As time went on, fine and decorative art became the principle focus of Sotheby’s. After the death of Baker in 1778, Sotheby’s took its current name from John Sotheby, a nephew of Baker who took over the business. Sotheby’s did not open offices in New York until 1955. In 1964, Parke-Bernet of New York, the largest fine art auction house in the United States, was acquired by Sotheby’s. The current home of Sotheby’s, New York, at 70th Street and York Avenue opened in the 1970s. For more information about the history of Sotheby’s, see the link below:

http://www.sothebys.com/about/corporate/as_corphistory.html

Highlights from the upcoming 20th-century design auction were on display in the preview galleries. Attendees had time to browse the 20th-century design exhibition to get a sense of what type of objects were being sold at auction. Winegar discussed how 20th-century design is an emerging field of interests for collectors and auction houses. After visiting the galleries, attendees had a chance to visit the main auction floor at Sotheby’s where the majority of auctions take place. Winegar gave a play-by-play description of how a sale operates at the time of an auction, describing the job of the auctioneer, number of people attending an auction, and telephone bidding as well as other points.

The tour of the preview galleries and auction floor was followed by overview of the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, which offers graduate programs in London, New York, and Singapore. The Institute was founded in 1969 to promote art education through connoisseurship. It now offers several programs. In New York, MA degrees are given in Art Business, Contemporary Art, and American Fine and Decorative Art. For more information about the Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York please see the link listed below:

http://www.sothebysinstitutelondon.com/newyork/index.html

The evening concluded with a demonstration and discussion lead by Alan Golden, Director of Arts and Humanities at ProQuest/CSA, about the new developments the company has made to existing databases and about new databases being offered. A focus was given to Discovery Links, which link a user from a citation to information not included in a database on a particular topic. A new product that was highlighted was the Design Abstracts Retrospective, a retrospective database of Design and Applied Arts Index covering 1903 to 1986. Links to information on Discovery Links and Design Abstracts Retrospective can be found below.

http://www.inforum.cz/pdf/2007/golden-alan.pdf

http://www.csa.com/factsheets/dar-a-set-c.php

A reception was held after the program for attendees in the lobby of the Sotheby’s Institute of Art. ARLIS/NY would like to thank Erin Elliot, Librarian at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York, and her colleagues at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art for sponsoring the program, as well as Alan Golden from Proquest/CSA.