The Auction House Pay Gap: The Art Newspaper dug up some stats on auction house pay from a UK requirement that organizations of 250 or more employees provide average pay information as well as data on the composition of the top quartile of employees. There Sotheby’s had 47.6% of the top quartile who were women; Christie’s had 43%. The overall pay gap, measured by the media hourly earnings (including part-time workers,) was 9.7% at the 10,000 reporting companies.  At Sotheby’s, the gap was 22.2%; at Christie’s, that gap was 25%. (Phillips has too few employees to be required to report.) …

The Nigerian Hyper-realists Succeeding Through Social Media: Ken Nwadiogbu is part of a growing community of artists in Lagos creating hyper-realistic charcoal and pencil paintings. Other young Nigerian creatives, like Arinze Stanley and Oscar Ukonu, are using their art to mirror real life. It’s an aesthetic growing in popularity, amongst both the local art community and an avid global audience. In 2016 the hyperrealist community in Lagos drew global attention. Oil paintings by Lagos-based artist Olumide Oresegun quickly went viral on social media as people found it hard to believe they were not actual photographs. …

Mapping a Career in the Art World: Christie’s Education is holding a course at Michael Reid’s gallery in Sydney Australia this week. Reid is a frequent commentator on the art market. And his experience spans Australia and Europe where he has a gallery outpost in Berlin. From his long experience in the art market, Reid offers some advice on how to pursue a career in the art world. Here’s an example:

• Don’t suck up to your superiors. Your polite proficiency is what your colleagues need most from you. What will be most valuable for your career is their respect, not their affection or friendship.
• With artists, in particular, and with the majority of collectors, be firm and friendly, but never familiar. You are wanted and needed for your professional experience and expertise, not for your sparkling personality. …

Manhattan Real Estate Sales Drop Abruptly: The New York real estate market seems to follow similar patterns to the art market. So it is worth noting when there is an sharp move in real estate markets. Bloomberg says there are a number of factors at play including plateauing prices, rising interest rates and changes in US tax structures but the drop is across the board from luxury apartments to smaller homes:

• “Sales of all condos and co-ops fell 25 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier to 2,180, according to a report Tuesday by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. It was the biggest annual decline since the second quarter of 2009, when Manhattan’s property market froze in the wake of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s bankruptcy filing and the global financial crisis that followed.” …

Sotheby’s Opens Door to Charging Buyer’s Premium Online Again: The Financial Times says Sotheby’s CEO Tad Smith is giving his firm more flexibility to charge a buyer’s premium online:

• Mr Smith said one of the motives for partially re-introducing online-only charges was the sale of estates. When Sotheby’s organises the sale of an individual’s estate, some works typically go under the hammer at a live auction, whereas mid-priced or lower value items might be sold online. “Insisting . . . [on] no buyer’s premium doesn’t make any sense because we’re chopping the estate into different pieces,” said Mr Smith, adding that from April 1 Sotheby’s staff would have the freedom to decide whether or not to apply a buyer’s premium in such auctions.