Anatomy of the Rise and Fall of a Price-Fixing Conspiracy: Auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's

The Sotheby's–Christie's price-fixing scandal that endedin the public trial of Alfred Taubman provides a unique windowon a number of key economic and antitrust policy issues. Thetrial provided detailed evidence as to how the price-fixingworked, and the economic conditions under which it was startedand began to fall apart. The role of the amnesty program wasimportant to the case, and does not appear to have had a rolein the cartel's enforcement of price-fixing or the cartel'sdemise. The outcome of the case also provides evidence on theauction process used to choose the lead counsel for the civilsettlement. Finally, though buyers received the bulk of thedamages, a straightforward application of the economic theoryof auctions shows that it is unlikely that successful buyersas a group were injured.