Page:2020-07-29 PSI Staff Report - The Art Industry and U.S. Policies that Undermine Sanctions.pdf/45

 Scream, as well as the collections of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Andy Warhol. As of 2018, Sotheby's employed 1,713 people. In 2019, Sotheby's produced total revenues of $991,660,000.

Sotheby's business is divided into two parts-an agency segment and a finance segment. The agency segment operates Sotheby's auction and private sale business. The finance segment "earns interest income and associated fees through art-related financing activities by making loans that are secured by works of art." In January 2016, Sotheby's acquired Art Agency Partners which provides art advisory services and strategic guidance to art collectors, artists, and artists' estates.

In June 2019, Sotheby's announced a $3.7 billion merger agreement with BidFair USA, a company owned by the French telecom mogul and art collector Patrick Drahi. Prior to the merger, Sotheby's was the oldest publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE"), "predating the [exchange] itself by 48 years." After the deal with BidFair closed, however, Sotheby's returned "to private ownership after 31 years of trading publicly on the NYSE." Sotheby's CEO, Tad Smith, stated the acquisition "will provide Sotheby's with the opportunity to accelerate the successful program of growth initiatives of the past several years in a more flexible private environment."

After Sotheby's announced the merger, two Sotheby's shareholders filed suit against the auction house alleging failure to disclose in Sotheby's proxy statement