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Sotheby's released its 2017 earnings last week with solid improvements that show the management team, especially Sotheby's new CFO Michael Goss, are making the most of a number of subtle advantages.

Sotheby's CEO, Tad Smith, has what might be called a dual mandate. On the one hand, he needs to project the company into a new broader-based suite of businesses; on the other, he needs to maximize the value generated from the business where it currently makes all of its money.

Unfortunately for the readers of the New York Times, a veteran stock analyst who has followed Sotheby's for years, doesn't seem to know the difference between the two mandates:

“There’s more optimism,” David Schick, the director of research and lead luxury analyst at Consumer Edge Research, said. “This is an old brand that’s bringing a lot of new business practices. Some of those initiatives are starting to bear fruit.”

What are some of those initiatives bearing fruit? Why private sales, a mainstay of Sotheby's business for decades, particularly in the years after the global financial crisis.

All of the fruit harvested in Sotheby's annual report, which resulted in a 60% increase in income over the previous year, comes from Sotheby's traditional businesses. Let's look at how.