The Way Forward for Sotheby's

ARTnews LIVE spends an hour with Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart to discuss the ways he is leading the 275-year-old auction house out of the coronavirus lockdown and into the next phase of the global art market and luxury retailing business. Eight months after assuming the role of chief executive, coinciding with the company going private under new owner Patrick Drahi, Stewart has been confronted by a total halt to the live auction business. In response, his rm has aggressively re-oriented their sales strategy toward ‘buy now’ e-commerce and online-only auctions. Now, as the world emerges from the global lockdown, Sotheby’s is holding sales in New York and Hong Kong. Stewart will talk about the huge opportunities and daunting challenges facing the rm under his leadership.