Going, going, gone: how Sotheby’s and Christie’s still lose out on big sales

Despite increasing prices of art, big profits do not always trickle down to auction houses – thanks to generous guarantees to ultra-rich sellersThe quarterly results for the world’s two largest auction houses, released this month, trumpeted an art market in perpetual boom. Christie’s, the biggest clearing house for ultra-expensive pictures and baubles, posted $8.4bn in sales, up 17% year on year. Sotheby’s, its arch rival (and former collaborator in a price-fixing scandal), saw its sales