Sotheby’s will move its headquarters in Paris to 83 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, which was previously the headquarters of the famous Galerie Bernheim-Jeune.
That puts the Paris auction house three blocks from its current location. The move is planned for mid-October and is part of a wider strategy to expand Sotheby’s presence in France.
The house has previously announced plans to relocate two of its other spaces. It will open a new location in Hong Kong in July, and in 2025, Sotheby’s will move its New York space to the Breuer Building, which formerly housed the Whitney Museum.
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Sotheby’s new headquarters in Paris will occupy more than 10,800 square meters over five floors, offering 30 percent more exhibition space than its current location in the French capital. The venue, which is not far from the Champs-Élysées, will have a cafe and a wine cellar with a tasting area, and will host master classes, dinners and, of course, auctions throughout the year.
The new Paris location will support Sotheby’s 15 specialist departments, which will cover areas such as ancient, modern and contemporary art, as well as Asian and African art, design, luxury goods and jewellery.
Upstairs, the auction will set up a luxury showroom called “the Salon,” with items for sale at fixed prices, as well as rooms dedicated to private sales. Additional areas of the new Paris headquarters can be used for concerts, parties, conferences, cocktails, fashion shows and dinners. The auction house assures that its “state-of-the-art scenographic and technical equipment” will allow a wide range of works and objects to be exhibited.
The space was once the site of the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, which closed in 2019 after more than a century of activity. The gallery held the first Van Gogh retrospective and once employed Félix Fénéon, a famous art critic.
Mario Tavella, chairman of Sotheby’s France and president of Sotheby’s Europe, said the move “underlines our commitment to France and highlights the growing importance of the French art and luxury markets for our company.”
The building will feature restored Art Deco elements, modern amenities and sustainable lighting and will be accessible to people with reduced mobility. Access to both exhibitions and auctions will be free to the public. According to the house’s announcement, there will be more than 15 kilometers of cable installed in the new space to ensure the “digital dexterity” and global connectivity of the house.
Paris’ reputation as the European center of the art market has grown considerably in recent years, with galleries and art fairs, including the recently renamed Art Basel Paris, relocating to the French capital.
