Sotheby’s Finally Gets Some Good Taubman News

Robin Pogrebin is keeping a close watch on the Taubman tally over at the Times:

In its final auction devoted wholly to its former chairman’s collection, Sotheby’s sold $24,128,750 worth of Old Master artworks on Wednesday night, right in the middle of the $21 million to $30 million it had projected.

The auction house said that brought the estimated shortfall from its record-setting $515 million guarantee to the heirs of the onetime executive, A. Alfred Taubman, to $3 million. On Friday, it had projected a $6 million loss in a call with investors and analysts.

Tad Smith, the president and chief executive of Sotheby’s, said in that call that Sotheby’s also expected to incur an additional loss of $6 million in expenses associated with the sale of art belonging to Mr. Taubman, who died last year.

Although the running total for the Taubman collection is now $462 million, Sotheby’s still has 200 lots to be grouped with art belonging to other collectors in coming auctions. And some of the works that were auctioned remain unsold.

Sotheby’s Narrows Its Loss in Final All-Taubman Sale (The New York Times)