Bonhams Auction House Is up for Sale
Epiris, the private equity firm that owns the house has tapped JPMorgan to advise in the possible transaction.
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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