Charles F. Stewart

Spear’s Review

Sotheby’s CEO Charles F. Stewart has embraced technology, transparency and growth since taking the helm of the auction house in 2019. ‘One of the great strengths of Sotheby’s is its 280-year-old heritage, but sometimes it feels like a several-hundred-year-old company,’ Stewart tells Spear’s in a 2024 interview. 

Under Stewart’s leadership, Sotheby’s has forged a formidable reputation in digital sales and online auctions, and has worked to improve back-end functionality, including the client database and authentication of works. There have also been new spaces unveiled in major ‘selling cities around the world’ and a renewed focus on one-off events to lure UHNW clients.

Stewart started his career with an almost 20-year stint at Morgan Stanley before moving to London as CEO of Itaú BBA International, the international arm of the largest bank in Latin America. ‘The client base between Sotheby’s and investment banking is very similar,’ Stewart observes. ‘It’s just in one, you’re spending time on their commercial endeavours and financial interests, and here you’re spending time on their passions, personal interests and collections.’

Stewart was brought into Sotheby’s by its majority shareholder, French-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi, the founder and controlling shareholder of telecom group Altice, after serving as co-president and CFO of Altice USA. In 2017, Stewart helped deliver the company’s successful $2.1 billion initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange.