The world's first auction company

Sotheby’s—the world’s first auction company and a global authority that, alongside Christie’s on King Street, remains a titan in the field—was established on New Bond Street in London on March 11, 1744, to sell "hundreds of valuable" books from the library of Sir John Stanley. Although its headquarters have since relocated across the Atlantic to York Avenue in New York, the original London location remains in active use as an auction venue. Notable items auctioned by Sotheby’s include paintings such as Picasso’s *Dora Maar with Cat* and *Boy with a Pipe*, Klimt’s *Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I* (which held the record for the highest price paid at the time), and Munch’s *The Scream*, as well as the "Blue Moon of Josephine"—a 12.03-carat diamond discovered in South Africa that sold for 48,634,000 Swiss francs.