Sotheby’s names as its next Asia head the son of auctioneers’ owner, French billionaire Patrick Drahi

Nathan Drahi, the 26-year-old son of Sotheby’s owner Patrick Drahi, will take over from Kevin Ching when he retires at the end of 2021

Describing himself as more a ‘manager of the old world’, Ching said Drahi was the right person to take the company forward

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Kevin Ching (seated), Sotheby’s outgoing Asia CEO, and Nathan Drahi, the 26-year-old son of Sotheby’s owner Patrick Drahi, who will take on the role of the company’s managing director in Asia at the end of the year.

Published: 3:31pm, 8 Apr 2021Updated: 4:16pm, 8 Apr 2021

Nathan Drahi, the 26-year-old son of Sotheby’s owner Patrick Drahi, will be put in charge of the day-to-day operations of the auction house in Asia as its managing director when Kevin Ching Sau-hong retires as the company’s long-time chief executive officer at the end of the year.

The announcement on Thursday marks a further changing of the guard at the 277-year-old auction house since Drahi senior, the French billionaire owner of European telecoms company Altice, acquired the publicly listed Sotheby’s for US$3.7 billion in 2019 and turned it into a private, family-owned business.

Soon after that, Sotheby’s president and global CEO Tad Smith was replaced by Charles Stewart, previously the chief financial officer of Altice USA.

The new management took over during a particularly challenging time for the industry. Global auctions sales fell 17 per cent year on year in 2019 and by 30 per cent in 2020, according to the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, as many physical sales were cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Patrick Drahi, the French billionaire owner of European telecoms company Altice, acquired the publicly listed Sotheby’s for US$3.7 billion in 2019.

The switch to virtual sales during the pandemic has added to a long list of fundamental shifts in the auctions industry in recent years, Ching says – among them the growing complexity of financing arrangements and the prominent role that big data plays in determining business strategies, as well as the lower average age of collectors, especially in Asia.

“I am more of a manager of the old world. Nathan is from a totally different world. Looking at where Sotheby’s is going and how he loves being in Asia, he should be the person to take the company forward,” Ching says.