The Art Finance Biz Seems Quite Robust: "Sotheby’s Adds Another $200 Million to Credit Facility for Guarantees"

In the Mutually Assured Destruction game the auction houses are playing, the guarantees to sellers has become key to getting the opportunity to sell the stuff. And then there are the art loans...
Lifted in toto from Art Market Monitor:

Bloomberg’s Katya Kazakina jumps on the 8-k filing from Sotheby’s showing the firm has added $200m to its $600m credit facility with GE to accommodate the Taubman collection. 

Taubman accounts for $500m. Sotheby’s active and growing finance arm also uses the $600m facility to make loans against art works. So it was only a matter of time before the auction house announced it would restock with financial ammunition: 

“They need to have this money in order to compete in the contemporary market against Christie’s,” said Emmanuel Di Donna, whose gallery on Manhattan’s Upper East Side specializes in modern and postwar art. “A lot of sellers expect guarantees.” 

Sotheby’s Gains $200 Million More for Guarantees as Sales Loom  (Bloomberg Business)

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