NEW YORK — Sotheby's and Christie's, the world's two dominant art auction houses, have agreed to pay $512 million to settle a class-action civil lawsuit that accused them of collaborating to fix fees charged to clients while also sharing lists of elite customers who were given special deals.
Sotheby's also said it is close to reaching an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department's Antitrust Division, which has been conducting a criminal investigation of the price-fixing.
"We are in serious negotiations. . . . That's probably going to be the next thing," Sotheby's spokesman Matthew Weigman said Monday, a day after the company's board approved its portion of the civil antitrust settlement and also agreed to pay $70 million in cash and stock to settle a separate civil suit brought by shareholders who complained that the illegal practices depressed the value of their Sotheby's holdings.
While Christie's offered an official "no comment," it privately confirmed the shared $512-million settlement. The board of the privately held company is expected to endorse the pact any day.
The settlement, if approved by U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, would spare the two British-based auction houses even higher damages that might have been imposed if they contested the allegations brought by thousands of their clients.
The agreement comes just as the New York City branches of the two companies are preparing their annual fall sales of Impressionist and modern works by the likes of Picasso and Van Gogh, which often set price records.
Though the two auction houses still face an investigation by European authorities, Michael Sovern, chairman of Sotheby's Holdings Inc., said his company was most eager to resolve the legal actions that carried "the greatest financial exposure." The antitrust civil action, which consolidated dozens of suits that were filed starting in February, was being led by the same lawyers who targeted Microsoft with antitrust complaints.
"Our goal over these last several months has been to put behind us the litigation clouding Sotheby's future," Sovern said in a statement after Sunday's emergency board teleconference that approved the settlement.
Of the $256 million owed by Sotheby's, $156 million will be paid by its former chairman, A. Alfred Taubman, who resigned along with Sotheby's President Diana D. Brooks on Feb. 20--in "the best interests of the company."
