If you plan to visit Sotheby's in New York, you would usually head to the corner of 72nd Street and York Avenue on the Upper East Side. But that address has already been packed up, as the auction house is preparing to move its headquarters. The new location brings Sotheby's closer to Fifth Avenue’s Museum Mile, alongside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim and the Frick Collection. The building itself has been part of New York’s art scene for almost sixty years, making it a fitting addition to the neighbourhood.
945 Madison Avenue, better known as the Breuer Building, is a listed Brutalist landmark designed by Marcel Breuer with Hamilton P. Smith. It was built for the Whitney Museum of American Art, which was based there from 1966 until 2014 before moving to the Meatpacking District. From 2016 to 2020, the Metropolitan Museum used the building for its modern and contemporary collection under the name Met Breuer. After that, it became the temporary home of the Frick Collection during the renovation of its own building, which reopened earlier this year.
See also: This is Why Brutalist Architecture Became the Post-War Aesthetic
Sotheby’s purchase of the Breuer Building in June 2023 adds a new chapter to its history as a place for art. For Sotheby’s it is also something of a return, as the auction house was once based on Madison Avenue before relocating to York Avenue, only a short walk from its new home.
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The building has been redesigned for Sotheby’s by the Swiss architectural practice Herzog & de Meuron. Visitors will be able to see the results from November 8 2025, when the new global headquarters opens with an exhibition marking its Marquee Week auctions.
