Sotheby's chairman Alfred Taubman was sentenced on April 22nd 2002 to a one and one day year jail term and a US $ 7,5 million fine by a New York court for having illegally fixed buyers' premiums with Christie's between 1993 and 1999. Sotheby's and Christie's, which escaped a stiffer penal lawsuit after accepting to cooperate with U.S justice, already received fines amounting to over $ 500 million in this case. Both auction houses were accused of frauds totalling over $ 400 million.
During the trial, Diana Brooks and Christopher Davidge, respectively the former heads of Sotheby's and Christie's, admitted that they had held secret reunions to fix buying commissions and to reach an agreement over the recruitment of new employees as well as their sales calendars.
Mr Taubman's counsels hoped he would only receive a suspended sustence due to his age, his health problems and the fact that he had paid his share of damages imposed on both auction houses, which amounted to $ 512 million. Judge George Daniels of the Federal court of New York however noted that the accused had however expressed no guilt nor remorse while prosecutor John J. Green added that the only way to make the latter take this crime seriously was to send him to jail.
The legal action brought against the 78-year-old Mr Taubman has had such negative effects for Sotheby's that the auction house is now for sale. All the more, auction sales in the world have dropped drastically due to a bad economic situation in industrialised countries.
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