LONDON.-Sotheby’s auction sales were $5.4 billion, up 44%. Sotheby’s continued to reduce lot volume, selling 42% fewer lots than its competitor. Sotheby’s sold the top lot of the year, Mark Rothko’s White Center, owned by David Rockefeller, for $72.8 million. 2007 was the seventh consecutive year that Sotheby’s sold the top lot of the year.

Sotheby’s sold four out of the top five lots of 2007. Rothko’s White Center (see above); The Guennol Lioness ($57.2 million); Bacon’s Study from Innocent X ($52.7 million); and Bacon’s Second Version of Study for Bullfight No. 1 ($45.9 million).
Sotheby’s expects to announce full year audited results in late February 2008. Consolidated Sales equals the sum of Aggregate Auction Sales, Private Sales and Dealer Sales.