Sotheby's bought by French billionaire for $3.7bn

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图片版权所有路透社

Sotheby's is being bought by telecoms billionaire Patrick Drahi in a deal valuing the auction house at $3.7bn.

电信亿万富翁帕特里克·德拉希（Patrick Drahi）正在以37亿美元的价格收购苏富比拍卖行。该拍卖会以37亿美元的价格收购拍卖行。

The company, which has been on the New York stock market for 31 years, will return to private ownership after a troubled period.

该公司已经在纽约证券市场上工作了31年，经过一段困难时期后将恢复私人所有。

French entrepreneur and art collector Mr Drahi, founder of telecoms group Altice, is buying Sotheby's amid signs that the art market is booming again.

法国企业家和艺术品收藏家Drahi先生电信集团Altice的创始人正在购买苏富比，有迹象表明艺术市场再次蓬勃发展。

Sotheby's arch rival Christie's is also French-owned via the Pinault family.

苏富比的主要竞争对手佳士得也是Pinault家族的法国人所有。

After the financial crisis sent the art market into a tailspin, Sotheby's went through rounds of cost-costing and faced attacks by hedge fund investors Dan Loeb and Mick McGuire.

在金融危机导致艺术市场陷入混乱之后，苏富比公司经历了成本削减并遭遇对冲基金投资者Dan Loeb和Mick McGuire的攻击。

Mr Loeb's Third Point group is the second-biggest investor with a 14% stake.

Loeb先生的Third Point集团是第二大投资者，拥有14％的股份。

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A prominent art collector, Mr Loeb praised the sale, telling Reuters that the price “affirms the value we saw when we first invested in Sotheby's, and rewards long-term investors like Third Point who believed in its potential”.

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The price being paid is a 61% premium to Sotheby's closing share price on Friday.

所支付的价格比周五苏富比收盘价溢价61％。

Image copyrightReutersImage caption

Last month, Sotheby's sold one of Claude Monet's “Meules” (Haystacks) series for $110.7m

图片copyrightReutersImage标题上个月，苏富比以1.107亿美元的价格出售了Claude Monet的“Meules”（草垛）系列之一

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• Record money for Monet at US auction

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• First Beatles contract could fetch £300K

  第一披头士合约可以获得30万英镑

Confirmation that the art auction market had picked up came in November 2017 when Salvator Mundi, the long-lost Leonardo da Vinci painting of Jesus Christ commissioned by King Louis XII of France, sold in New York for a record-breaking $450.3m including fees. Christie's handled that sale.

确认艺术品拍卖市场已经出现2017年11月，法国国王路易十二委托制作的耶稣基督长期失去的达芬奇画作“萨尔瓦多·蒙迪”（Salvator Mundi）在纽约以创纪录的4.530亿美元的价格出售，其中包括费用。佳士得处理了这笔交易。

Sotheby's handled 2018's most expensive painting, Amedeo Modigliani's Nu couché, which sold for $157.2m. And in May, the company sold one of Claude Monet's “Meules” (Haystacks) series for $110.7m, which Sotheby's said was a record for an impressionist painting.

苏富比处理了2018年最昂贵的画作，Amedeo Modigliani的Nu发髻，售价为1.572亿美元。 5月，该公司以1.1亿美元的价格出售了Claude Monet的“Meules”（Haystacks）系列之一，其中Stheby说的是一幅印象派画作的记录。

Among some of the famous items sold by Sotheby's, which was founded in London in 1744, are art collections of the late Duchess of Windsor, the personal collection of artist Andy Warhol, and Edvard Munch's “The Scream” in 2012.

1744年在伦敦创立的苏富比拍卖的一些着名物品中，有已故的温莎公爵夫人的艺术收藏品。 ，2012年，艺术家Andy Warhol和Edvard Munch的“The Scream”的个人收藏。

Morocco-born Mr Drahi moved to France aged 15, and started his career at Philips before joining a subsidiary of US cable giant Liberty Global.

出生于摩洛哥的Drahi先生于15岁移居法国，之前在飞利浦开始了他的职业生涯。加入美国有线电视巨头Liberty Global的子公司。

He established himself as a major telecoms entrepreneur over the past six years, buying France's second-biggest mobile phone operator SFR and acquiring US cable companies. He also own Portugal Telecom.

他在过去六年中成为一家主要的电信企业家，收购法国第二大移动电话运营商SFR并收购美国电缆公司。他还拥有葡萄牙电信。