Ascent Sotheby's International Realty • Vail, CO • 2014 Catalogue RESIDE® Magazine︱Summer 2014 | Page 6

NEW SPACES FOR THE

CUTTING EDGE

Today’s rapidly evolving global art market creates a need for a multi-channel art
business, which Sotheby’s is well-positioned to provide...

F

M A LC O LM C OS SO NS

It is, in fact, a
response to
the changing
nature of the
art market.

or 270 years Sotheby’s has operated a highly successful method
of selling art—the public auction. In the last few years, however,
this traditional means has been updated with a new space offering
cutting edge contemporary art direct to collectors.

Named S|2 and with dedicated galleries in New York and, most recently, Lon-

don, this move by Sotheby’s seems to challenge the traditional roles of auction
house and art dealer. It is, in fact, a response to the changing nature of the art
market. As Miety Heiden, director of S|2 in New York, explains: “The art market

is growing rapidly and becoming increasingly global. There is certainly scope for
many players and we are responding to our clients’ demands to transact outside
the traditional sales seasons.”
The fact that a permanent private sales gallery has been opened reflects
an increased involvement in this area that Sotheby’s has enjoyed for a number
of years. The first foray was in 2004 when an array of monumental sculpture
was shown at Isleworth, a private golf and country club in
Florida. This exhibition became an annual event for a number of years and was replicated in Britain – in the grounds
of Chatsworth House, the sumptuous country residence of
the Dukes of Devonshire—and in Singapore.
What these exhibitions all revealed was the appetite of
clients for buying works according to their own timetable
rather than the auction calendar, and Sotheby’s could
draw on literally centuries of experience and contacts in
the art world to facilitate this. This indicates a key difference from a more traditional gallery—S|2 does not focus
on the primary representation of artists, but instead can
make choices based on which works or artists might have
the greatest appeal.
In 2011 a dedicated space, designed by architect Richard Gluckman, was opened inside Sotheby’s York Avenue
premises in New York. The inaugural exhibitions covered
a range of subjects from the work of Sam Francis, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel
Basquiat and Alexander Calder to shows curated by important art world figures
such as Nicolai Frahm, Vito Schnabel and Josh Baer.
The positive response to these from both collectors and the media meant
the idea to make the S|2 brand global was the obvious next step, initially

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