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Sotheby’s, one of the largest auction houses in the world, is set to lay off dozens of workers employed in the UK, according to a report published by the Art Newspaper Thursday.
The house is reportedly set to cut around 50 employees based in London, and per the Art Newspaper, similar layoffs may follow in New York and at other Sotheby’s locations in Europe.
A Sotheby’s representative did not immediately respond to request for comment on the Art Newspaper report, which stated that the auction house had entered a “consultation period” in which it would evaluate its financial future.
The report follows two slow but hardly catastrophic auction weeks at Sotheby’s, one held in March in London, the other held in May in New York. Although neither high-profile sale week of contemporary and modern art was a runaway success, the auction house’s leadership said it was pleased with the results.
Last year, Sotheby’s laid off at least 10 senior employees, a cutback that also seemed to coincide with the departure of at least four people involved in NFT-related sales.
Since 2019, Sotheby’s has been held privately by Patrick Drahi. In the past few years, however, there have been rumors of possible financial changes at the auction house, including a potential plan to take Sotheby’s public once again that first made the press in 2021.