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THE ART INDUSTRY’S post-
holiday calm was heartily
disturbed in early
January when leading
global auctioneer Sotheby’s
announced yet another
substantial change to its
corporate structure. The
house acquired Art Agency,
Partners, the two-year-old,
New York–based art advisory
company, for $50 million
in cash plus built-in
performance incentives,
described as “earn-out
payments,” which could
elevate the acquisition cost
to $85 million over the
course of five years.
“AAP’s profitable business
helped drive initiatives
that are imperative for
Sotheby’s growth,” said Tad
Smith, who took the reins
as president and CEO
one year ago, in a
statement, “improving our
leadership position
at the high end of the fine
art market, bolstering
our private sales capability,
giving us new growth
opportunities in advisory
services, and reinforcing the
client-first culture in all we
do.” The talent-rich and
Rolodex-armed team of AAP
founders Amy Cappellazzo,
the former chairman of
postwar and contemporary
art department develop-
ment at Christie’s; Allan
Schwartzman, the seasoned
and storied art adviser best
known for building stellar
contemporary art collec-
tions in Dallas and else-
where; and veteran invest-
ment banker and lawyer
Adam Chinn compose the
newly acquired enterprise,
along with a staff of 12.
Integral to the acquisi-
tion, Sotheby’s will establish
a fine art division focusingREPORTER
on 20th- and 21st-century
art as well as some
19th-century works, essen-
tially encompassing the
two departments currently
defined as Impressionist
and modern art and con-
temporary art. Cappellazzo
and Schwartzman
will both hold the title of
chairman of that new
division, overseeing the
component specialist
departments, as well
as co-heading private sales
and developing a nascent
advisory business within
Sotheby’s. Chinn will
assume the role of execu-
tive vice president of
worldwide transaction
support, succeeding
financial services veteran
Mitchell Zuckerman,
who took part in Decem-
ber’s $40 million invi-
tational buyout, which
resulted in the exit of 80
Sotheby’s staffers, 5 percent
of its global workforce.
Recent hire Marc Porter,
the former chairman of
Christie’s America who
won’t join his former rival’s
house until next January
due to strict “gardening
leave” provisions, will also
come in as a co-chairman
of the fine art division,
with a special focus onglobal business develop-
ment. Although he was not
involved in Sotheby’s
acquisition of AAP, Porter
was instrumental in
bringing Cappellazzo to
Christie’s in 2001, following
the departure of contem-porary art head Philippe
Ségalot, and the two
worked closely together on
many deals there. Sotheby’s
“correctly surmised I would
be thrilled to work with
Amy,” says Porter. “I did
more with her in terms ofdeals and collections
at Christie’s than anybody
else.” In another musical-
chairs moment at Sotheby’s
in its accelerated quest
for reinvention, Ségalot
was rumored to have been
approached by Smith toThe Second Coming
SOTHEBY’S BETS THAT POWER PLAYER AMY CAPPELLAZZO AND HER COLLEAGUES IN THE RECENTLY ACQUIRED
ART AGENCY, PARTNERS CAN REDEFINE AUCTION HOUSE BUSINESS IN AN INCREASINGLY VERTICAL MARKET“ aap’s proitable business helped drive initiatives
that are imperative for Sotheby’s growth, improving
our leadership position,” says house ceo Tad Sm it h.
KRISTINE LARSEN
BLOUINARTINFO.COM | MARCH 2016 ART+AUCTIONAmy Cappellazzo and Allan Schwartzman were
photographed for Art+Auction on the occasion of their
establishment of Art Agency, Partners in 2014.