While Pierre Bergé, head of of the Saint-Laurent Fashion group has announced his desire to take control of the Drouot S.A group in Paris, rumours of an offensive for the acquisition of Sotheby's by Bernard Arnault, Chairman of the LVMH-Louis Vuitton conglomerate, have been spreading fast on December 15th 2001. Alfred Taubman, Sotheby's main shareholder, was sentenced to pay a fine of over $ 200 million after being charged for having illegally fixed selling premiums with Christie's.
Mr Taubman is now about to sell his shares and the news that Sotheby's was for sale prompted nervous reactions in Wall Street. Observers said that Sotheby's might quickly fall prey to Bernard Arnault who already owns Phillips.
The London-based auction house has been trying to challenge Christie's and Sotheby's for the past year but without much success despite its attempts to attract important sellers in offering them guaranteed minimum prices, a rather dangerous policy, especially when pieces offered for sale do not reach their reserve prices meaning that the auctioneer has to pay the difference.
Phillips would need years to reach the size of Sotheby's or Christie's, which belongs to François Pinault, who has been staging a longstanding fight against Bernard Arnault to take control of several important groups.
In acquiring Sotheby's, Bernard Arnault would snatch a predominant position on the art market as he would combine the activities of the U.S auction house with those of Phillips and thus remove Christie's from its pedestal.
There is a strong possibility that Arnault's offensive on Sotheby's is going to take place before Christmas, a move likely to give him reasons to celebrate a glorious New Year though the price to pay for his acquisition will be hard to digest.
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