Auction houses are usually the ones making the big sales, but Epiris, the London-based private equity firm that owns Bonhams, is looking to sell the centuries-old house itself. First reported by Bloomberg, Epiris tapped JPMorgan Chase & Co. to advise in the possible sale, which is estimated to be worth up to $1b USD.
Epiris first acquired Bonham’s in 2018 and has bolstered revenue to a record $1b USD in 2022, including seeing an increase in global salesrooms, offices and departments. Artnet News has previously attributed this rapid growth to a series of acquisitions of smaller regional auction houses, such as Bukowskis in Stockholm and Cornette de Saint Cyr in Paris — surmounting to $300m USD in 2021 altogether.
2022 saw an array of offerings from the British auctioneer, where amongst the lots to hit auction, the library of late-Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg sold for $2.4m USD and a slice of Keith Haring’s “Grace House Mural” was also valued at $1m USD. A sale for the auction house itself is yet to be made, but Bloomberg noted that both Epiris and JPMorgan declined to comment.
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