Effective Date: 10 June 2024
Welcome to the Sotheby's group of companies. This is the Privacy Policy of Sotheby's Inc, together with the wider Sothebys group of companies, details of which can be found here (“Sotheby's” or “we”). From its beginnings in 1744, Sotheby's has built its business on the trust of its customers, clients and visitors. We endeavor to understand their interests in art and design and, at the same time, protect their privacy. Those values remain essential to us even as we have grown into a global network of offices in approximately 40 countries. Sotheby's publishes this Privacy Policy to let you know how we collect, use, and disclose your personal information in the course of operating our business. It also describes your rights in relation to this information. In some circumstances, such as for certain events, we may provide additional information regarding our data practices. This Privacy Policy applies to any Sotheby's service, event, website, mobile application or other digital or non-digital service, and any hard copy (paper) form which provides a link to or refers to this Privacy Policy.
If you register with or transact on any of our apps or other group websites the relevant privacy policy will be linked to on such sites.
For those who reside in the United Kingdom, Switzerland or the European Economic Area, please see the end of this Policy for additional information regarding our practices. For California and Virginia residents, please see the section titled “Additional Information for California and Virginia Residents”.
If you reside in mainland China or transact or consign there or use any of our Chinese apps, website or digital properties, please see the section below titled “Additional Information for China Customers” for additional information that applies to you.
Personal information is information, or a combination of pieces of information, that could reasonably allow you to be identified. As described in more detail below, we collect personal information about you from a variety of sources, including information we collect from you directly, information we collect about you from other sources, and information we collect automatically from you.
We collect information that you submit to us face to face, over the telephone, on a paper form, by email or online or provide to us on forms available on third party websites. The types of information that we collect directly from you include: personal details (e.g., name, date of birth, alias and/or avatar alias), contact details (e.g., phone number, email address, postal address), transaction information (e.g., bidding or purchase records, shipping details, information about items you purchase or wish to sell or consign), details about your collection, financial information (e.g., tokenized payment information in connection with your purchases, wire instructions, bank account or bank transfer details, digital wallet details and address), username and password, user ID, unique device ID, information on forms required for certain transactions (e.g social security number), insurance details, and identification information (e.g. photo ID and proof of address).
We rely on the information you provide to us or that we collect or observe about your individual interactions with us, for example, if you attend a live event, sell or consign property, participate in one of our auctions or sales, become a client, register or bid online.
We may collect information about you from external sources, including social media sites and data supplementation services. The types of information we collect about you from other sources include your public profile information, family relationships, organizational affiliations, results of verification checks, nature of your connection to an organisation, your source of wealth, whether you are subject to sanctions, a PEP or a family member or close associate of a PEP. We may work to expand our customer base by acquiring names, contact data, financial information, affiliations, and demographic information from other sources such as private companies, public registers, and social media sites, where permitted by law. We may also generate information such as appraisals, profiles, and a history of our relationships with you based on the information you have provided or that we have obtained from other sources, as permitted under applicable law.
We may make video recordings of our auctions (including for security reasons and to monitor bidding), gallery spaces, and certain live events.
Live streaming of our auctions and certain events is available on our websites and on social media for certain auctions. Cameras and microphones recording images and sounds for live streaming focus primarily on auctioneers, presenters and our specialists but it is possible that background sound and images may be captured.
We use CCTV at our sales rooms and offices for the protection of our staff, our visitors and the property we sell.
We record calls made to our customer care and telephone bidding lines for quality assurance, compliance purposes, and recordkeeping purposes.
We may use common data collection technologies as you visit our websites or apps or interact with our emails. For example:
- Our logs gather date, time, information about your browser and system or device configuration, information about how you interact with our digital properties, and an IP address for all visitors to our sites.
- If you have registered with us online, we use data collection technologies to collect information that indicates your individual interests in our websites, online platforms and apps, and your response to our emails and marketing campaigns.
- The Cookies and similar technologies on our digital platforms can also read and collect data about your browsers as you visit and interact with those platforms: please read our Cookie Policy for more detailed information about what cookies are, what kinds are used on our sites, and what choices you have. As described further in our Cookie Policy, we use these technologies to enable you to use our digital platforms, learn how you and others interact with our digital platforms, personalize the content on our digital platforms, and to deliver advertising based on your interests, including those inferred from your activities over time and across digital platforms operated by us and others.
- In general, our app will communicate data you provide about yourself, for example, registration, purchase, or bidding data, to our databases and systems. An app may, however, rely on other data collection technologies to recognize the device you use for viewing and to personalize your experience. If our app relies on additional data collection technologies that collect or use data about individual users, we will include additional notice either within the app or in a policy that accompanies it.
- We also use and allow certain other companies to use technologies that are similar to cookies (for example pixels and gifs) when we send you emails.
Sotheby's uses data about you for the following purposes, as permitted by applicable law:
- To provide you with the requested services. For example, bidding, selling, valuation, storage, shipping, loans and loan referral, restoration and expert advice.
- To manage and assure the integrity of our auctions.
- To on-board you as a client, verify your identity and sources of wealth and to satisfy our know your client obligations, to enter into and fulfill contracts with you, to fulfill your orders and purchases, facilitate sales or consignments, provide the publications, catalogs, and information you request, to manage your account, enquiries and requests and your relationship with us.
- To identify products, services, and offers you may be interested in based on your transactions and interactions with us, including but not limited to consignments, bidding histories, payment histories and events attended.
- To where you consign or sell property with us, advertise and sell your property on any of our international and country specific apps, websites and digital properties.
- To send you information about upcoming auctions, events, types of property and content that you may be interested in.
- To improve and personalize based on your inferred interests from our website and services.
- To match online ads to your interests, arrange for Sotheby's and other companies' ads to reach you after you have left our sites, and help advertisers show you ads that are more relevant to your interests.
- To expand our online audiences.
- To provide, maintain, and protect our digital offerings.
- To monitor the performance of our websites, apps and digital properties and improve your user experience.
- To satisfy legal obligations and compliance requirements under laws and regulations applicable to Sotheby's Inc, and members of the wider Sothebys group of companies (both within your jurisdiction and internationally). For example, know your client, to check and verify your identity and to protect against the risk of fraud and to detect and prevent money laundering or other financial crime.
- To carry out anti money laundering checks, risk screening, crypto wallet and transaction screening and monitoring and blockchain analytics.
- To create and maintain records of art objects to assist us (and in the case of our public records including our online lot pages and online and printed catalogues to assist the public) with checks on authenticity, provenance, title and object value and to prevent fraud, theft or other unlawful activities.
- To provide you (where required) with a digital wallet to enable you to receive an NFT that you have purchased.
- To identify an alternative third party auction or sale house where your property does not meet our requirements or is not suitable for consignment with or sale by us. In the event you choose to consign or sell your property with such third party auction or sale house such third party will provide us with details of any sale to enable us to confirm and audit any introductory commission that may be due to us.
- To protect and defend our rights and property, you, or third parties.
- To keep you, our staff and property on our premises secure.
- To comply with legal obligations and regulations to which Sotheby's Inc and/or the wider Sothebys group of companies are subject and cooperate with regulators, other appropriate agencies or authorities and law enforcement bodies, both within your jurisdiction and internationally.
- To develop, improve and test certain of our products and services.
- To monitor the use of our services, train our staff and improve your client or your user experience. For example, through survey or market research.
- For other purposes that we tell you about specifically when you register or provide data about yourself to us.
Your personal information will be processed by the Sotheby's entity that initially receives it. We also share information within the Sotheby's group of companies for the purposes set out in this privacy policy. Details of these entities may be found here.
Sotheby's may disclose personal information to other companies or entities as follows:
- To business partners and vendors that work on our behalf to provide services such as property shipments, mailings, customer account and technology support, secure payment processing, experts who help us authenticate or value your property, fraud prevention, digital marketing management, and data and property storage or warehousing. One such entity is Stripe who is a payment processor. For details of how Stripe uses your personal information please see Stripe's privacy notice at https://stripe.com/privacy
- To our auction or sales partners in association with auctions or sales. For example, when we offer auctions or sales with our group or third-party partners, we may share auction or sale related data with those partners subject to the privacy policy or policies made available to you when registering for or bidding in association with the auctions or sales.
- To consigners, sellers, buyers, customs authorities and others as needed to facilitate a consignment, sale or purchase, including to arrange the collection, delivery or shipment of property.
- To organizations we partner with to host events and those who are involved in such events such as caterers and the event venues.
- To digital wallet and cryptocurrency providers as required to complete your sale or purchase. Please see their privacy policies for details of how they use your personal information. One such provider is Circle Internet Financial, LLC ("Circle") that provides payment processing services on Sotheby's Metaverse. Note that as part of the process of minting NFTs, your digital wallet details will be made available on the public blockchain to enable the NFT to be made available to you and will be a permanent record of the transaction, along with the details of the NFT's you purchase.
- To law enforcement or other entities that present valid legal process or in our discretion, unless otherwise prohibited by law, to protect human safety, our rights, or the rights of others.
- To meet certain legal compliance requirements, for example under anti-money laundering laws or customs laws and regulations.
- To US, UK, EU, Asian and other domestic and overseas regulators, law enforcement agencies and authorities and other appropriate agencies or authorities in connection with their duties, such as preventing, investigating or detecting crime or to conduct money and trade sanction checks and to meet our compliance, legal and health and safety obligations.
-- To identity checking and verification, AML, fraud and risk screening services, including for sanctions and/or negative media purposes. One such provider is Refinitiv Limited who check your data against various public data sets. Please see their World-Check privacy policy here for details of how Refinitiv uses your personal information. Some of these screening services, such as Chainalysis Inc, may aggregate your data (such as cryptocurrency hashes and output addresses which are available publicly and user IDs) with their datasets to enable illicit activity to be identified. Further details can be obtained from Chainalysis' website here.
- To an alternative third party auction or sale house where your property does not meet our requirements or is not suitable for sale by us to identify if you would like to consign or sell certain items with such third party.
As part of a sale, merger, liquidation, or transfer of our business assets.
- We may share information with digital advertising and analytics firms so that they may recognize your devices and deliver interest-based content and advertisements to you. The information we share may include your name, postal address, email, device ID, or other identifier. These firms may collect additional information from you, such as your IP address and information about your browser or operating system; may combine information about you with information from other companies in data sharing cooperatives in which we participate; and may place or recognize their own unique cookie on your browser. To learn about certain choices you may have with regard to such sharing, please see our Cookie Policy or click here.
- We may disclose information about you to Sotheby's International Realty, a company outside of the Sotheby's corporate group and a business partner that we coordinate our activities with from time to time
You have a choice about and control over:
- Receiving marketing messages from us. We may contact you by email, text, or SMS messaging. You may stop email marketing by using the “opt out,” or “unsubscribe” mechanism at the bottom of our email marketing messages. In most cases, we will give you a choice about stopping just one kind of email or opting out of all email marketing from us.
- Whether cookies can be set or read on your browser. You can learn more about controlling cookies placed on your device as you visit our sites in our Cookie Policy.
- Whether your account is up to date. You may review and edit the personal information that is stored in your user account on our website (e.g., your passwords and other contact information) by visiting the “Profile” area of your account on our website or by contacting Sotheby's via the email address at the end of this Policy. We will endeavor to respond to your request as soon as practicable. Before we are able to provide you with any information, correct any inaccuracies, or delete any information, however, we may ask you to verify your identity and to provide other details to help us to respond to your request.
-Your public profile on Sotheby's Metaverse and Metaverse notifications. Details of your bidding activity, your collection (i.e. any lots you have won) and your saved items (i.e. saved lots) will be displayed in your public profile on Sotheby's Metaverse if you are a Metaverse user. These details will be publicly available unless you change your settings. You will also receive notifications regarding saved items and items you have bid on. You can go to your Settings on Metaverse to change your settings in respect of the information that will be displayed as part of your public profile and the notifications you receive in relation to the Metaverse at any time.
Sotheby's is a global company. We receive data collected locally by members of the Sotheby's group and collect data online directly from individuals in countries around the world. Sotheby's may in the normal course of its business transfer your personal information internationally to Sotheby's salesrooms, offices and representatives, and to other organisations who need to process your data in connection with the services that Sotheby's provides. We may process that data on servers globally. Your data will also be held on our servers in the USA. We have put recognized protections in place for the transfer of data from members of the Sotheby's group in the UK and EEA to regulate the processing of personal data outside of these countries.
We protect your information using physical, technical, and administrative security measures to reduce the risks of loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, and alteration. Please be aware, though, that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. You remain responsible for protecting your username and password and for the security of information you transmit to us over the Internet.
We will keep your personal information for as long as we have a relationship with you. Once our relationship with you has come to an end, we will retain your personal information for a period of time that enables us to:
We will delete your personal information when it is no longer required for these purposes.
Our websites are directed to adults. We do not accept children as clients or knowingly collect data about them.
Our websites may contain links to other websites not owned or controlled by Sotheby's. Those websites may collect information about you. Sotheby's is not responsible for their practices or content.
Additionally, we may work with auction partners so that you can bid on Sotheby's items from other sites or platforms. If you participate in an online auction on another company's site or platform, please note that those companies may transfer data about you to us to fulfill successful bids and that we may use that data in a manner consistent with this Policy. Please note that if you use another company's auction site, you should review the posted privacy policy applicable to that site.
You may ask us if you have questions about the data we hold on you. Under certain circumstances, subject to local law requirements, you may have rights under data protection laws applicable to your personal data. These may include a right to a copy of your personal information, to correct it, erase it, restrict our use of it, or to transfer it to other organizations at your request subject to local law. You may also have rights to object to some processing and, where we have asked for your consent to process your data, to withdraw this consent. Please contact us at privacycompliance@sothebys.comif you wish to exercise any of the rights that apply to you and your personal data.
For residents of:
for more information about your privacy rights.
For questions about this Privacy Policy please email us at privacycompliance@sothebys.com or contact:
Sotheby's
Attn: Legal and Compliance Department
1334 York Avenue
New York, NY 10021
We may collect the following categories of personal information from and about you:
We collect information that may be considered sensitive under applicable laws, such as government identification numbers, login credentials for your Sotheby's account, precise geolocation, race or ethnic origin, religion, mental or physical health, sexual orientation, citizenship, or immigration status. We process such information only for those purposes expressly permitted under California law.
We collect and disclose all such information for the following business purposes:
We disclose all of the categories of personal information noted above with service providers that process personal information on our behalf (e.g., data storage providers, email services, Internet service providers, and research firms), business partners (e.g., event coordinators, professional advisors and consultants), government and law enforcement entities, advertising and marketing companies, and our affiliates.
We will keep your personal information for as long as we have a relationship with you. Once our relationship with you has come to an end, we will retain your personal information for a period of time that enables us to:
We will delete your personal information when it is no longer required for these purposes.
We also disclose certain personal information in exchange for services, insights, or other valuable consideration. Such disclosures may be considered “sales” even if no money is exchanged. And we disclose certain personal information for purposes of targeting advertising on unaffiliated or distinctly branded websites or applications. Such disclosures are considered a “share” under California law. We may share or sell the following categories of information to the third parties listed below:
Categories of personal information disclosed in exchange for valuable consideration or for targeted advertising | Categories of third parties to whom this information is or was disclosed in the past12 months |
Identifiers | Digital advertising and analytics companies, marketing partners, social media platforms, auction partners and event co-hosts. |
Internet activity | Digital advertising and analytics companies, social media platforms, and marketing partners. |
Transactions | Digital advertising and analytics companies, auction partners and event co-hosts, and marketing partners. |
Payment information | N/A |
Demographics | Digital advertising and analytics companies, marketing partners, social media platforms, auction partners and event co-hosts. |
Location information | Digital advertising and analytics companies, auction partners and event co-hosts. |
Professional and employment information | Marketing partners, auction partners, and event co-hosts. |
Video and audio information | Auction partners and event co-hosts. |
Inferences | Digital advertising and analytics companies, marketing partners, social media platforms, auction partners and event co-hosts. |
Residents of California and Virginia have the following rights:
Right to appeal. You may have the right to appeal a decision we make regarding your rights request.
If you would like to exercise any of the above rights, please submit your request at privacycompliance@sothebys.com.
Please note that we may request specific information from you in order to verify your identity, and there may be circumstances where we will not be able to honor your request. For example, if you request deletion, we may need to retain certain personal information to comply with our legal obligations or other permitted purposes. We will only use personal information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify your identity or authority to make the request. If you are submitting a request through an authorized agent, the authorized agent must provide us with your signed written permission stating that the agent is authorized to make the request on your behalf. We may also request that any authorized agents verify their identity and may reach out to you directly to confirm that you have provided the agent with your permission to submit the request on your behalf.
Who is responsible for your data?
If you transact in an auction or private sale in a Sotheby's office in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, then the Sotheby's entity running the auction or sale will be the data controller for that data. The name and contact details for this entity will be set out in your consignment agreement, private sale agreement, invoice, or Conditions of Business for the auction or sale.
If you visit Sothebys.com, Sotheby's Metaverse or use the Sotheby's Inc app, then the data controller will be Sotheby's, a US entity, and this Policy contains our contact details. Sotheby's main establishment in the EU is Sotheby's France. Sotheby's in London is the Sotheby's UK-based establishment.
What is the legal strongasis on which Sotheby's relies to process your data?
On some occasions, Sotheby's processes your data with your consent (e.g., when you agree that we may place cookies, or if you ask Sotheby's to send you information about upcoming events).
On other occasions, Sotheby's processes your data when we need to do this to fulfill a contract with you (e.g., for billing purposes) or where we are required to do this by law (e.g., where we have to fulfill anti-money laundering requirements). If it is mandatory for you to provide data for these purposes, we will make this clear at the time and will also explain what will happen if you do not provide the data (e.g., that we will not be able to process a bid at auction).
Sotheby's also processes your data when it is our legitimate interests to do this and when these interests are not overridden by your data protection rights. For example, Sotheby's has a legitimate interest in ensuring the security and integrity of our auctions, in learning about the interests and preferences of our current and prospective clients, in developing new business opportunities, in maintaining accurate business and provenance records, and in ensuring that our websites and apps operate effectively. When we process personal information to meet our legitimate interests, we put in place robust safeguards to ensure that your privacy is protected and to ensure that our legitimate interests are not overridden by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms.
Data transfers
Sotheby's may transfer personal information to countries outside the EEA, Switzerland and the UK, including to countries which have different data protection standards to those which apply in the EEA, Switzerland and the UK. Sotheby's has put in place European Commission approved standard contractual clauses to protect this data. For more information on the appropriate safeguards in place, please contact us at the details above.
Automatic Decision-Making
The way we analyse personal information for advertising and marketing purposes and for client development, risk assessment, or fraud prevention may involve profiling, which means that we may process your personal information using software that is able to evaluate your personal aspects and predict risks or outcomes. For example, we may use the information we collect (e.g., bidding and purchase information, browsing history, and consignment history) to infer your interests. And we may use those inferences to support automated decisions about the content, recommendations, and offers we present to you on our digital properties. We may use automated tools to flag for further review suspicious activities associated with our services (e.g., multiple logins from different locations within a short period of time or activities associated with suspicious IP addresses). These automated activities will not, in themselves, have legal or similar effects for you.
Your rights
You may ask Sotheby's for a copy of your personal information, to correct it, erase it, restrict our use of it, or to transfer it to other organizations at your request subject to local law. You also have rights to object to some processing and, where we have asked for your consent to process your data, to withdraw this consent. In particular, you have rights to object to direct marketing at any time.
Where we process your data because we have a legitimate interest in doing so (as explained above), you also have a right to object to this. These rights may be limited in some situations - for example, where we can demonstrate that we have a legal requirement to process your data.
If you would like to discuss or exercise such rights, please contact us at the details below. We encourage you to contact us to update or correct your information if it changes or if the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate. We will contact you if we need additional information from you in order to honor your requests.
We hope that we can satisfy queries you may have about the way we process your data. We are committed to working with you to obtain a fair resolution of any complaint or concern about privacy. However, if you have unresolved concerns and believe that we have not been able to assist with your complaint or concern, you also have the right to complain to data protection authorities.
For questions about this Privacy Policy please email us at privacycompliance@sothebys.com or contact:
Sotheby's
Attn: Legal and Compliance Department
1334 York Avenue
New York, NY 10021
There may be some circumstances where we will seek further consents from you. For example, if we change the purposes or legal basis for processing your personal information, how we process your personal information, recipients of your personal information, the types of personal information we process or when we process sensitive personal information. Please indicate your consent when prompted. Please note that if you do not provide your consent, we may not be able to provide some or all of our services to you.
In circumstances where your personal information is shared between and used by members of the Sotheby's group which are based outside China, each such member will process your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Policy. You may contact them by using the contact details mentioned in “How to Contact Us”. Where we ask for your separate consent for certain sharing and transfers, please indicate your consent when prompted. Please note that if you do not provide your consent, we may not be able to provide some or all of our services to you.
If you reside in mainland China or consign or transact there or use our Chinese apps or website your personal information may also be held on our servers in mainland China. Your account will be serviced by our international and Chinese based client teams.
Your Rights
You may ask Sotheby's for a copy of your personal information, to correct it, erase it, restrict our use of it, or to transfer it to other organizations at your request, subject to local law. You also have rights to object to some processing and, where we have asked for your consent to process your data, to withdraw this consent. In particular, you have rights to object to direct marketing at any time. Please note that if you withdraw your consent to processing your information, we may not be able to provide some or all of our services to you. We will advise you if a service is no longer available to you. You may also not be able to use all of the functionality that is available on our digital properties, websites or apps.
If you would like to discuss or exercise such rights, please contact us at privacycompliance@sothebys.com. We encourage you to contact us to update or correct your information if it changes or if the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate. We will contact you if we need additional information from you in order to honor your requests.
To exercise your rights in respect of your personal information, please contact us through the details set out in the “How to Contact Us” section above.
You may request a copy of this Policy from us using the contact details set out above. We may modify or update this Policy from time to time. If we change this Policy, we will notify you of the changes by updating this Policy on our website. Where changes to this Policy notice will have a fundamental impact on the nature of the processing or otherwise have a substantial impact on you, we will give you sufficient advance notice so that you have the opportunity to exercise your rights.