The Show Goes On: Sotheby's Adapts to the Pandemic: Charlie Adamski Caulkins, Vice President, Head of Office, Dallas, Sotheby's

This week I speak with Charlie Adamski Caulkins, Vice President, Head of Office, for Sotheby's in Dallas. Established in 1744, Sotheby’s became the first international auction house when it expanded from London to New York (1955), the first to conduct sales in Hong Kong (1973), India (1992), and France (2001), and the first international fine art auction house in China (2012). Today, Sotheby’s has a global network of 80 offices in 40 countries and presents auctions in 10 different salesrooms, including New York, London, Hong Kong, and Paris.

When we spoke in May, live auctions that have been a fixture of the art market since the 18th century were postponed indefinitely. We talked about Charlie's ascent up the auction house ladder from New York to San Francisco and now Dallas.

We caught up in October following the debut of Sotheby’s new auction format, the first-ever global live-streamed auction. Taking bids in real-time from Hong Kong, London, and New York resulted in record-breaking sales, proving that the demand for great art had not waned. Our conversation was taped days after the newsworthy October 28th sales, where the Baltimore Museum of Art removed two works it planned to deaccession just hours before the auction. Charlie talks about the relationship between auction houses and museums, the pandemic’s silver linings, and how she’s always working to deliver for her clients.

This episode was recorded on May 14, 2020, and October 30, 2020 

To learn more about Charlie and Sotheby’s, visit Sothebys.com

@charliecaulkins @sothebys on Instagram

Music credit: Maurice Ravel's String Quartet in F major - II. Assez vif, très rythmé produced by the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum (issued under a Creative Commons License).