The Christie's-Sotheby's Horse Race: Almost a Dead Heat in Total Sales

Christie's has taken to touting itself as "the world's leading art business," but the results for the first half of 2007 indicate that its vaunted lead is miniscule: In its first-half financial results, issued today, publicly-traded Sotheby's reported record total sales (including auctions, privately negotiated sales and dealer transactions) of $3.24 billion. Christie's last month reported that its first-half total for public, private and dealer sales was $3.25 billion.

But first-half 2007 auction sales alone (excluding privately negotiated sales and sales through dealers) tell a somewhat different story: $2.87 billion at Sotheby's vs. $3.03 billion at Christie's.

Sotheby's also announced that, due to its strong results, it will increase its dividend for third-quarter 2007 to $0.15 a share from the previous $0.10. Sotheby's stock, as of 1:40 p.m. today, was (at 49.90) already up 3.02 from yesterday's close.

In addition, Sotheby's reported:

Income from continuing operations for the first half of 2007 was a record $131.7 million, a $63.2 million, or 92%, increase from the first half of 2006.

Christie's, which is privately held, does not publicize income figures.

For further details, go to Sotheby's first-half results press release, here; and Christie's first-half press release, here (scroll down to July 13).