Now that I’ve published my Wall Street Journal Whitney piece, I’m playing catch-up on other stories, including the upcoming contemporary art auctions. I went first to Sotheby’s, to cover the 9 a.m. annual shareholders’ meeting and to preview the contemporary offerings.
Photo by Lee Rosenbaum
While there, I decided to connect my smartphone to the auction house’s public wi-fi network. I know that communications over public networks aren’t secure, and I’ve clicked on many disclaimer messages before joining networks.
But this one was unusually fearsome:
NOTICE!!!
This system is solely for the use of authorized users for official business purposes.
You have no expectation of privacy. Individuals using this wireless network are subject to having all of their activities monitored and recorded by system personnel.
Use of this network evidences an express consent to such monitoring and agreement that if such monitoring reveals evidence of possible abuse or illegal or impermissible activity, system personnel may provide the results of such monitoring to appropriate officials.
Wait a minute! Would tweeting about Sotheby’s over its wi-fi network constitute “possible abuse or impermissible activity”? I decided to wait till I got home to let you know that I went to its annual shareholders’ meeting today, where new president and CEO Tad Smith‘s fleeting appearance (which I surreptitiously photographed, perhaps inviting a report to “appropriate officials”) was a blur.
Blurry photo by Lee Rosenbaum
Tad surprisingly said nothing at his first Sotheby’s annual meeting, disappointing me and fellow members of the scribe tribe, Katya Kazakina and Philip Boroff. Former CEO William Ruprecht had customarily been more voluble.
After the shareholders’ approval of several proposals was announced, Smith and Domenico De Sole, the board’s lead independent director and chairman-elect (center in the above photo), got no questions from the small audience of shareholders. (Journalists were kept in silent mode.) The uneventful meeting concluded.
More interesting was the online proxy statement that listed (on p. 3 of the pdf) the proposals that were approved. That document also disclosed a wealth of information about the terms of Smith’s munificent compensation (pp. 76-77), as well as Ruprecht’s past compensation (p. 73) and his generous severance agreement (pp. 79-80), which includes a non-compete stricture that lasts one year, until Mar. 31, 2016.
A veteran Sotheby’s official later told me that Smith, who has been on an extensive “listening tour” since assuming his post on Mar. 31, seems more enthusiastic about personal contact with clients than was his predecessor, and does not seem to want to interfere in the specialists’ work (a good thing, since he has been candid about lacking art expertise).
But what exactly he intends to do to enhance Sotheby’s “brand” and boost shareholder value, two of his stated objectives, is yet to be seen.