Sotheby’s was bought by a mall builder who said art sold like root beer.
In 1983 A. Alfred Taubman, who built American shopping malls and owned the A&W root beer chain, bought the auction house to rescue it from a hostile takeover. “Selling art has much in common with selling root beer,” he said. “People don’t need root beer and they don’t need to buy a painting, either.”
Sotheby’s on Brandseum