Tobias Meyer, Sotheby's chief auctioneer for Sotheby's who auctioned Edvard Munch's pastel "The Scream" for almost 120 million dollars last year and sold Andy Warhol's "Silver Car Crash" for a record 104,5 million USD last week, suddenly decided to resign from his post on November 22, 2013.
The departure of Tobias Meyer has surprised many art dealers and buyers. The latter explained that he wanted to move ahead with his career to continue working with collectors as an art dealer after taking the rostrum at Sotheby's during 20 years.
Sotheby's tried to minimize Meyer's departure but will find it hard to keep several powerful buyers with whom he entertained a close relationship. On November 14, he helped Sotheby's achieve its biggest sale ever with a total of 380 million USD, however quite far from the 691,5 million recorded by Christie's the previous night.
The news of Meyer's resignation came at a bad moment for Sotheby's after the criticism voiced by the hedge fund manager Daniel S. Loeb who has wished to join the company's board ( he owns 9,3% of the company) and campaigned last month for the departure of William F. Ruprecht, its chief executive, with whom he is at odds.
It is a fact that Sotheby's has been losing ground against Christie's during the past six years, especially in Asia, a fast growing market where the French-owned group has been developing its activities on a large scale.
Mr. Ruprecht declined to comment about Mr. Meyer's resignation and limited himself to wishing him good luck, but observers said his departure was an enormous loss for Sotheby's and were prompt to predict that the auction group will find it quite hard to replace him in view of the active role he played on the market.
Mr. Meyer explained that he decided to leave Sotheby's to start a new life at 50 as an art dealer thanks to his links with many rich buyers around the world after having been a central figure at its helm.
Born in Germany, he graduated from the University of Vienna in 1988 before joining Sotheby's in 1992 to run its contemporary art department in London starting as a junior employee at Christie's in London. In 1997, he was appointed to New York to run Sotheby's contemporary art department worldwide and became the company's chief auctioneer in 2000.
Endowed with a unique knowledge of post-war art, Mr. Meyer has sold three works of art for more than $100 million each, notably Munch's “The Scream",Warhol's “Silver Car Crash "(Double Disaster) and Picasso's “Boy With the Pipe" (The Young Apprentice),” from the artist's Rose Period, which he auctioned for 104.1 million USD in 2004.
Mr Meyer had many detractors who rather despised his oversized ego but also as many fans who praised his ability to attract big collectors and buyers to Sotheby's who trsuted him much. He however failed to make the auction group reach the level of Christie's.
Having not yet named a new principal auctioneer to replace Mr. Meyer's, Sotheby's will temporarily ask Oliver Barker, Sotheby's deputy chairman in Europe and its senior international specialist in contemporary art, to conduct the department's evening sales in New York as well as Europe.
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