Sotheby's vs Christie's: History, Fees and How They Differ

Sotheby's is the older house: Samuel Baker held its first sale, of a gentleman's library, in London on 11 March 1744, and books shaped its character for a century and a half. Christie's dates its first sale to 5 December 1766, when James Christie, an auctioneer with a gift for theatre, began selling in London. Today the two dominate the top of the art market, own very different shareholders (Christie's belongs to François Pinault's Groupe Artémis; Sotheby's was taken private by Patrick Drahi in 2019) and, since September 2026, charge the same headline buyer's premium: 28% on the first $2 million of the hammer price. Here is how they grew, what separates them now, and what bidding at either actually costs.

Two hundred and fifty years of ego, ink and astronomical invoices.

To the uninitiated, the distinction between Sotheby's and Christie's is roughly as discernible as the difference between two adjacent vintages of the same Champagne: entirely obvious to the person paying and a matter of supreme indifference to the person washing the glasses. For anyone who sits in the upholstered seats of the world's most expensive rooms, though, the rivalry is the architecture of the secondary market. One house grew out of books and scholarship; the other out of showmanship and society. Both habits are still visible.

The bookseller and the showman

The story begins in mid-eighteenth-century London. On 11 March 1744, the bookseller Samuel Baker held his first auction: "several Hundred scarce and valuable Books" from the library of Sir John Stanley, which made £826. In 1767 he took on George Leigh as a partner, an auctioneer Sotheby's own history describes as having "an actor's sense of timing", whose ivory hammer is still on display in London. When Baker died in 1778, his estate passed to Leigh and to Baker's nephew, John Sotheby, whose name the firm still carries.

For its first century and a half, Sotheby's was a bibliophile's house: quiet, scholarly and slightly dusty. When Napoleon died, it was Sotheby's that sold the books he had taken into exile on St Helena; the last lot was the Emperor's tortoiseshell-and-gold walking stick.

James Christie had different instincts. His first sale in London was on 5 December 1766, and from the start his rooms were a place to be seen as well as to buy. Gainsborough painted his portrait in 1778. The house's reputation for brokering grand collections was early: in 1779 Sir Robert Walpole's paintings from Houghton Hall were sold by his bankrupt grandson to Catherine the Great for £40,550, and the Hermitage still holds the works today, in a sale that The Spectator's account of the collection says was arranged by James Christie himself.

From the outset, the lines were drawn: Sotheby's the scholar, Christie's the courtier.

The century of gilded accumulation

The nineteenth century turned both houses from London institutions into international ones. As landed families found themselves land-rich and cash-poor, the auction room became the discreet exit.

The Hamilton Palace sale at Christie's, which ran from 17 June to 20 July 1882 and offered some 2,213 articles, remains the high-water mark of the Victorian era. Accounts of its total differ: one history of the palace puts the contents sale at almost £397,562 (and £786,847 with the libraries), while another account gives £332,000. Either way, it was a sum that would fund a small country house many times over.

Sotheby's, meanwhile, was discovering that people with great libraries usually had great paintings too. In the summer of 1917 it moved from Wellington Street to 34–35 New Bond Street in Mayfair, the heart of the art-dealing district, where it remains.

The rivalry turned modern after the Second World War. Peter Wilson, who opened Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern department in the mid-1950s and retired as chairman in 1980, understood that the future was international. On 15 October 1958 he staged the Goldschmidt sale as a black-tie evening event: seven Impressionist works sold in 21 minutes for £781,000, a world record for a single fine-art sale, with Paul Mellon paying £220,000 for Cézanne's Garçon au gilet rouge. In 1964 Sotheby's bought Parke-Bernet, then America's largest fine-art auction house, and the duopoly became Anglo-American.

Ownership: Pinault versus Drahi

The ownership of the two houses explains a good deal about how they behave.

Christie's has been privately held by Pinault's Artémis since 1998, when it bought a first stake of 29.1% and then the rest in a deal that valued the company at about $1.2 billion. That long, patient ownership by the family behind a luxury-goods group shows in the house's flair for the single-owner sale, where it markets a provenance as much as the objects. The Peggy and David Rockefeller sales in May 2018 made $835,111,334 for 1,500 objects, the highest total ever for a private collection at auction.

Sotheby's took a rockier route: a public company from 1977 and listed in New York from 1988, with quarterly earnings pressure, until Patrick Drahi's BidFair USA agreed in June 2019 to buy it for around $3.7 billion and take it private. It has leaned harder into digital sales and retail, most visibly with Sotheby's Maison in Hong Kong, a 24,000-square-foot space that sells objects for immediate purchase alongside exhibitions.

The commission-fixing scandal

It would be dull, and dishonest, to skip the darkest chapter. In the 1990s the two houses colluded to fix their commission rates. Christie's received immunity from prosecution in the United States after a long-serving employee confessed and cooperated with the FBI. At Sotheby's, its controlling shareholder A. Alfred Taubman and chief executive Dede Brooks took the blame and both received jail sentences, and the houses and their owners paid a $512 million civil settlement. The art world has a short memory when there is a masterpiece on the block, and the houses recovered; but the episode is the reason any claim that the two "compete on price" deserves a raised eyebrow.

What bidding actually costs

The buyer's premium is the fee the winning bidder pays on top of the hammer price, and it is where the houses earn much of their margin, especially when they waive or cut the seller's commission to win a great consignment. After Sotheby's raised its rates in February 2026 and Christie's followed in September 2026, both now charge, on New York sales:

Sterling and other currency thresholds are set separately, and wine is treated differently at Christie's, so always read the sale's own conditions. A worked example: a lot hammered at $1,000,000 carries a $280,000 premium, so the invoice is $1,280,000 before any sales tax, VAT, import duty or artist's resale royalty. A lot hammered at $3,000,000 costs $560,000 (28% of $2m) plus $220,000 (22% of $1m), a premium of $780,000 and an invoice of $3,780,000 before taxes.

London, New York, Hong Kong

Both houses are global, but their regional personalities persist. London remains the spiritual home and the centre for Old Masters. New York is the engine room for Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary records. Hong Kong is the growth frontier: Sotheby's first held sales there in 1973, and its 2024 Maison is a statement that Asian collectors are now central rather than marginal.

The takeaway

• The house is part of the product. A Sotheby's or Christie's provenance is part of what you are paying for, and part of what you will sell.
• Scholar and courtier, still. The gap has narrowed, but Sotheby's still leans on scholarship and digital reach, Christie's on the single-owner event.
• Private sales are the quiet half of the business. Both houses broker significant deals privately, where prices are never published.
• Always calculate the all-in price. At 28% on the first $2 million, the premium alone can add more than a quarter to the hammer price before taxes. Buying from a retailer avoids the premium, but it is a different transaction: a decor retailer such as ArtZMiami sells finished steel wall pieces with no premium and no provenance documentation either.
• The guarantee has fine print. The houses' specialists are formidable, but read the authenticity warranty in the conditions of sale before you rely on it.

If you are thinking of buying, start with how to start collecting art without embarrassing yourself and our guide to buying fine art online; for the investment angle, see art as an investment for the wealthy and watches, wine and whisky as alternative investments.

Frequently asked questions

Which is older, Sotheby's or Christie's?

Sotheby's. Its first sale was held by the bookseller Samuel Baker on 11 March 1744. Christie's dates its first London sale to 5 December 1766, although some accounts trace James Christie's auctioneering a few years earlier.

Who owns Sotheby's and Christie's?

Christie's is owned by Groupe Artémis, François Pinault's holding company, which took control in 1998. Sotheby's has been private since Patrick Drahi agreed to buy it for about $3.7 billion in 2019.

What is the buyer's premium at Sotheby's and Christie's?

On New York sales, both charge 28% of the hammer price up to $2 million, 22% from $2 million to $8 million and 15% above that; Sotheby's moved to these rates in February 2026 and Christie's in September 2026. Other currencies have their own thresholds, and taxes come on top.

What was the commission-fixing scandal?

In the 1990s the two houses secretly agreed their commission rates. Christie's received US immunity after an employee cooperated with the FBI; Sotheby's chairman A. Alfred Taubman and chief executive Dede Brooks received jail sentences, and a $512 million civil settlement was paid.