Sotheby’s has been sued for allegedly failing to pay a $10.2 million commission tied to the $510 million sale of its former New York headquarters, according to a report by Artnet News.
The lawsuit, filed April 9 in New York State Supreme Court by the real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, centers on the auction house’s 2025 sale of its longtime home at 1334 York Avenue to Weill Cornell Medicine. The brokerage firm claims it helped secure the medical school as a tenant in 2023, a deal it says “laid the groundwork” for the eventual sale and triggered a contractual right to a 2 percent commission.
Cushman alleges that Sotheby’s has refused to pay, choosing instead to retain the funds amid mounting financial pressure. Sotheby’s disputes the claim, calling the suit “baseless” in a statement to Artnet and saying it will defend itself in court.
The case lands at an awkward moment for the auction house. As the Financial Times reported this week, Sotheby’s has been offering sellers interest—around 7 percent—to delay payouts, part of what it describes as “extended settlement terms” introduced in 2025 as the company manages a cash squeeze. The auction house posted a pre-tax loss of $248 million in 2024 and carried more than $1 billion in client payables, even as total sales reached $7.1 billion in 2025.
Cushman further claims it was kept in the dark as the deal progressed, learning of the sale only through press reports. In its filing, the firm accuses Sotheby’s of interfering with its contractual rights and depriving it of the commission tied to the transaction.
A Sotheby’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to ARTnews’s request for comment.
The York Avenue building itself reflects Sotheby’s long cycle of expansion and retrenchment. The company bought the property in 1980, sold it in 2002 amid financial strain, and repurchased it in 2009. More recently, Sotheby’s has shifted operations to Queens and moved its headquarters to the Breuer Building, part of a broader effort to rebalance its footprint.
