Great. Thank you Nova.

Good morning and thanks for joining us today. With me here are Tad Smith, Sotheby's President and Chief Executive Officer and Dennis Weibling, Interim Chief Financial Officer.

GAAP refers to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States of America. In this earnings call, financial measures are presented in accordance with GAAP and also on an adjusted non-GAAP basis.

An explanation of the non-GAAP financial measures used in this earnings call, as well as reconciliation to the comparable GAAP amounts, is provided as an Appendix to the earnings release which can be found on the Investor Relations section of the Company's website. Also, during the course of this call, the Company may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of the Company.

We wish to caution you that such projections and statements are only predictions and involve risks and uncertainties, resulting in the possibility that the actual events or performance will differ materially from such predictions. We refer you to the documents the Company files periodically with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the Company's most recently filed Forms 10-Q and 10-K.

These documents identify important factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in the projections or forward-looking statements. Please see our investor webpage for a slide presentation which outlines Sotheby's full-year financial results.

We have a lot to cover this morning, so please also find it transcript of our prepared remarks online. With that, I'll turn the call over to Tad.

Thank you Jennifer. Good morning.

Thank you everyone for joining us and for your interest in Sotheby's. As a reminder, we pre-announced our fourth quarter earnings at the end of last month, so today's call will give us a chance to share a number of important updates on the market, as well as our progress against the four priorities outlined when I first joined.

I will begin by briefly touching on 2015 results and Dennis will elaborate on these later in the call after which I will provide an update of our progress against our Company's strategy and then close my portion with the early picture in 2016. Adjusted net income for 2015 is $143 million or $2.07 per diluted share which is virtually flat versus 2014 and slightly above the range we pre-announced last month.

Turning now to an update on the four priorities for the business I outlined back in March, as a reminder, they are, first, develop and implement a compelling growth strategy; second, embrace technology more effectively, both internally and through client-facing products; third, allocate capital well; fourth, attract, develop and retain the talent within the organization as well as implement the processes to sustain the first three priorities. With respect to the first priority, develop and implement a compelling growth strategy, the first element of this strategy was to improve our position within the fine art market and we took an important step in that direction with the acquisition of Art Agency Partners in January.

The three principals of the firm, Allan Schwartzman, Amy Cappellazzo and Adam Chinn, together with outstanding talent among our existing staff and other recent hires, will form the foundation of a new Fine Art Division focused primarily on 20th and 21st Century Art. Our new organizational design will enable us to better allocate resources, provide efficiencies for superior deal-making, improve communications across categories and create additional cross-selling opportunities The second strategic element was to improve our private sales business.

It was clear that we needed a more coordinated and expert approach to grow our private sales. Bringing together buyers and sellers of art in private transactions is one of Art Agency Partners' successful lines of business and they will be central to these efforts.

The third strategic element was to reinforce Sotheby's client-first mentality. Building an in-house advisory service is a key component and the acquisition we made in January provides us with the core infrastructure, expertise and team to grow that business aommitment to data and research complements the relationships and experience of our talented team.

We have added resources in marketing analytics and commissioned customer research to improve the client experience, both offline and online. I will elaborate on some of these additional online developments later in the call but first, a word on examples of the operational improvements we're undertaking based, in part, on the customer feedback we've collected.

We have begun improving and standardizing all basic client communications, including billing and shipping. We will be launching an on-site pack-and-ship alternative for clients, rather than relying solely on outside carriers.

We're developing custom post-sale services tailored to the value of the property which will provide a better client experience. We're working on a plan to improve traffic flow and client engagement for events, auctions and exhibitions, particularly in our Manhattan headquarters.

Just some examples, the fourth strategic element was to improve our position in the middle market. As a reminder, we define the middle market as items with prices between $25,000 and $1 million.

Continued online development is critical to significant growth in the middle market, especially attracting new buyers and having greater reach through tools such as social media. I will elaborate on aspects of our digital development later in the call, but here are a few examples where we have had success attracting and engaging new audiences.

A pilot program of five online-only sales which were successful with an average sell-through rate of 95% across all sales, but more importantly, were a draw for new clients, 64% of buyers were new to Sotheby's. Going forward, we're focused on developing cost-effective operations for selling in the middle market.

Among the solutions currently under consideration are, additional online-only auctions; a possible retail storefront for Sotheby's online; organizational focus on the middle market, potentially across selling categories with staff who are aligned to grow it and continued innovations in our digital marketing. The fifth strategic element was a systematic review of our position within various markets and we have filled a number of gaps in our regional scope.

After substantially deepening our operations on the West Coast, we have promoted the leader of that group to oversee all of our regional offices in the Americas. We reinforced our long-standing commitment to the West Coast, opening new offices in Los Angeles in Century City and San Francisco in the Financial District.

Both locations feature exhibition space and will serve as a nexus for our clients, our international specialists and local audiences. We opened an office in Mumbai, building upon nearly three decades of working with the leading collectors and staging regular events in India.

We have begun plans to extend our operation in the Middle East, complementing the Company's existing presence in Doha. Looking ahead, we expect to share new organizational designs for Europe and the Americas with our staff next week.

The sixth strategic element was to use the Sotheby's brand to enhance its growth profile in categories such as jewelry, automobiles, collectibles, financial services, wine and, in subsequent years, potentially more lines of business. With respect to two examples, one is cars, for example in 2015, RM Sotheby's set the standard for the market with auction sales totaling $525 million and an annual sell-through rate of 90%.

RM Sotheby's also sold the top car of the year, the 1956 Ferrari 290 MM which commanded $28.1 million in our December sale in New York. Sotheby's Financial Services remains an area of focus for the Company and an opportunity for us to serve both client and shareholder interests.

Dennis will elaborate later in the call, but for 2015, the average loan portfolio balance was $733 million, a 26% increase from the prior year. Now turning to the second priority embracing technology more effectively, both internally and through client-facing products.

Technology and digital development at Sotheby's have never been more aligned and we have made great strides over the last year. We saw a six-fold increase in visibility online in 2015, driven in part by the largest, fastest-growing and most engaged social network in the auction business.

In December, Sotheby's became the first major auction house to launch an app on the new Apple TV which Apple named one of the Best New Apps, within a day of launch. The app provides additional reach for our videos as well as access to a new audience, in over 80 countries, for all live and HD-streamed sales, already driving additional video views.

In 2015, traffic to our website increased 29%, contributing to a 48% increase in online registration, a 53% increase in online bidders and a 39% increase in online buyers, resulting in online sales totaling more than $100 million, an 18% increase on 2014 and a 44% increase in the number of lots sold online This is a trend we're continuing to see so far in this year. Year-to-date, the total number of lots sold online increased 75%, compared to the prior year, in part, driven by a 133% increase in online bidders.

As I mentioned earlier, part of our strategy is to expand and experiment with sales formats. Last fall, we launched a series of five online-only sales to appeal to a wider audience and experiment with new categories and price points.

We had great success. While the sales totals were relatively modest, each sale expanded our reach to new collector bases, 49% of registrants and 72% of bidders were new to Sotheby's.

Creating a seamless experience for our clients, new and established, is a priority for us online and offline and we have made headway on a number of process and technology improvements. We conducted focus groups to test the usability of our website and are using those findings to improve the registration process which has been a hurdle, with significant bailout in the final steps of the process.

We simplified the registration process for new clients by removing a 24-hour hold, for example and we will continue to make additional improvements. We also introduced credit card payment for lots below $50,000.

Looking ahead, we will continue to experiment with online sales and we have several plans for 2016. We will also continue to experiment with sale format, live-online, time-based and, possibly, buy now.

While some portion of lots failing to sell at auction are subsequently sold privately or reconsigned to later sales, more than 50% of unsold lots are returned to consignors. We believe there are alternate sale formats for the unsold lots as well as the lots we inevitably turn away based on a variety of factors and we will be developing these over the course of the year.

These will deliver great value to consignors and to our business. Next week, we will submit an iPhone app to Apple.

It's just the first phase, but it's rich with content, including video and we will continue to push out new releases on a regular basis. We also have an updated iPad app we expect to release by the end of the second quarter.

We're making improvements to our e-catalogs so we can publish information about upcoming lots and sales much sooner, a win for both consignors and potential bidders. Our third priority is to allocate capital well.

I will turn things over to Dennis shortly to provide an update, but, first, let me take this opportunity to remind everyone that the clear priority of the Board in allocating capital is as follows, manage the business and balance sheet prudently for long term shareholder return; be conservative with guarantees; be careful with capital expenditures; invest to grow the business long term and divert excess cash to repurchase shares at current prices. Turning to our fourth priority, people.

We must attract, develop and retain the talent within the organization as well as create the processes to sustain the first three priorities. We remain focused on creating a high-quality work environment to further enhance the passion and creativity that is integral to our success.

In the past year, we have made changes to our Senior Management Team and in key areas of the business. There have been significant hires, promotions and a number of people have departed.

We wish them well. I'm very proud of our organization.

We're well positioned, with a strong, experienced and unified team of winners poised to execute our strategic plan. And with particular respect to specialist areas, there is no question that we're absolutely the best now in Contemporary, Modern and Impressionist, as well as in our more traditional strengths, including Old Masters.

The Board has also approved changes to our incentive programs which will drive accountability and teamwork. Our 2016 bonus program will evaluate our performance against annual Company, team and individual goals that support our business strategy.

The performance metrics will vary by role but will focus on profitability and client service. Our long term plan will align to the creation of shareholder value, measuring a long term return on invested capital.

Finally, we have done a review of our talent at all levels and I was energized by the quality and quantity of high-potential talent deep into our organization. Now, let me shift for a moment to what we're experiencing so far in the first quarter of 2016.

We recently held our sales of Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary Art in London which had a number of bright spots and provided us with some tangible data points after intense anticipation by the media and collectors in the lead-up to the auctions. While our London sales of $307 million were down 40% compared to last year's record totals, our sell-through rates were comparable to last February and we witnessed an appetite on behalf of collectors to pursue great works of art with enthusiasm, sometimes at buoyant prices and oftentimes with confidence when priced well.

Sotheby's sold 7 of the top 10 lots for the two-week period and among the highlights was Lucian Freud's Pregnant Girl which sold for $23.2 million, above the pre-sale high estimate of $14.5 million. Last month, in New York, our sales of Old Master paintings totaled $94.8 million, short of pre-sale expectations, but our highest total for the annual series in five years.

The undisputed star of the week was Orazio Gentileschi's Baroque masterpiece, Danae which sold for $30.5 million to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

There's a lot of focus on the markets in Asia and speculation as to what impact the economic volatility in the region will have on a variety of markets, including ours. So far in 2016, our share of lots sold to Asian clients has fallen somewhat, but because Asian clients have bought some valuable works of art, the share of buyer hammer from our Asian clients has grown slightly.

Quarter to date, our total aggregate sales are $438 million, 33% below where they were during the same period last year and are at levels that fall somewhere between 2002 and 2013. In terms of our outlook and Dennis will give you more color in a moment, our Company has a very bright future.

At the same time, we operate in a cyclical business. Some of the cycles are shallow and short, others might be a bit deeper and a bit more prolonged.

The most recent sales of the Company confirmed that we have, in recent months, been experiencing a period of lower sales in the art market than in the 2013 and 2014 period. At the same time, we're incredibly excited about our future.

After a year of transition, we have a super team, with a clear mandate to build a more valuable business for shareholders and a more responsive one for new and existing clients. We will likely have one or more difficult quarters as we ride through the current cycle, but we're being careful on guarantees and capital commitments, looking over the balance sheet carefully and the Company's operation for sources of cash; watching our liquidity carefully; continuing to invest in the people and capabilities that will drive our future success and taking the opportunity with our excess cash to repurchase shares to the benefit of our shareholders.

We're confident in our future and managing the business through uncertainty with a clear eye on creating value now for shareholders and clients. With that, I think it makes sense to turn things over to Dennis to speak first about capital allocation.

He will then take us through the 2015 numbers as well as the outlook for the first quarter of 2016.

Thank you, Tad. Good morning.

I'm pleased with the progress we have made so far with the repurchase of our shares. We have been buying shares on the open market since shortly after we pre-announced fourth quarter earnings last month.

Since then, we have repurchased 4 million shares or 6% of the outstanding shares. Our capital allocation framework considers the full array of our capital needs, supporting business requirements and opportunities, pursuing growth initiatives and, importantly, ensuring appropriate liquidity for any environment.

It includes a comprehensive examination of Sotheby's capital structure, liquidity, cost structure and opportunities for growth. We stress tested the business through the cycle and under different market conditions over the last 10 years.

I'm very comfortable that we can breakeven operationally on a cash basis on significantly lower net sales levels than reported today. As I said on our earnings pre-announcement call, this is quite a robust process and I have a good deal of confidence in our work.

The detailed examination of our capital structure demonstrates the resilience of the business through an economic cycle. And, as Tad has just stated, no one can predict art market cycles with certainty.

Sotheby's, through many cycles over the years, has worked to structure reduced cost implementation in down cycles and be able to invest to cover increased activity in more robust times. We continue to push hard on costs and, as we have more certainty on what this means, we will provide you with specifics.

A key element of our capital allocation is, of course, real estate. That said, we own our York Avenue headquarters in New York, so we have flexibility to continue considering our options.

And not to overlook London, we iterate that we're in the right location on New Bond Street and there is currently no mortgage on that property. Closing our comments on capital allocation, some additional thoughts on our debt structure.

There are currently three debt facilities with outstanding balances. First, the mortgage on our New York headquarters which was refinanced for significant net proceeds, at an attractive rate and with the goal of ensuring flexibility.

If we leased this property instead of owned it, the lease payments would be significantly higher than our current debt service costs. We had $542 million in borrowings related to the financial services business at 12/31 which funds a majority of the $682 million in loans at that time.

The SFS debt is backed by substantial collateral that has a target 50% loan-to-value ratio and a maximum 60% loan to value under our credit agreement. That target LTV, loan-to-value ratio, our underwriting skills and our expertise in conservatively valuing loan collateral, greatly insulates us from risks and losses.

In fact, we have had only 20 basis points of loan losses on over $4.7 billion of cumulative financial services loans since 1991. Finally, our third credit facility is $300 million in senior notes for the Agency business which is not due until 2022.

These can be supported by substantial assets on our balance sheet. With that, let me turn to our 2015 financials and I'll use the slide presentation we published this morning for my comments.

Please turn to slide 2 of the deck. Full-year 2015 adjusted net income is $143 million and adjusted diluted earnings per share is $2.07, compared to $142 million and $2.03, respectively, a year ago.

The adjusted figures exclude restructuring and special charges, as well as leadership transition costs, charges related to Sotheby's voluntary separation incentive programs and income tax charges associated with the repatriation of pre-2014 foreign earnings. On an unadjusted GAAP basis, 2015 net income is $44 million or $0.63 per diluted share, as compared to net income of $118 million or $1.68 per diluted share in 2014.

The difference is largely due to income tax charges related to the repatriation of foreign earnings. For the fourth quarter of 2015, adjusted net income is $81 million or $1.19 per diluted share, a 3% and 6% increase from the prior-year period, respectively.

On an unadjusted GAAP basis, fourth quarter 2015 net loss is $11 million or a negative $0.17 per share, due to income tax charges related to the repatriation of foreign earnings taken in the period. Before I turn to our main operating segments, I wanted to make a brief comment on the impact on foreign exchange movements on a number of categories I will reference.

Overall, foreign currency exchange rate changes had a net unfavorable impact of approximately $7 million on Sotheby's operating income in 2015 as compared to 2014. Revenues unfavorably impacted by around $33 million and expenses were favorably impacted by $26 million.

Now let's turn to the Agency segment on slide 3. Excluding foreign currency impact, 2015 Agency segment gross profit decreased by $14.7 million or 2%.

Changes in foreign currency exchange rates contributed $28 million to an overall $43 million, a 6% decrease, to $682 million as compared to 2014. Excluding foreign currency impact, net auction sales increased $39 million or 1%, in 2015.

When you include foreign currency exchange rates which contributed $174 million to an overall decrease, net auction sales decreased $135 million, a 3% decrease. The Taubman Collection brought net auction sales of $383 million in 2015, but with no related auction commission revenues.

For all other sales excluding Taubman, auction commission margin would have been 15.5% in 2015 which is an 80-basis-point increase from the prior year. Taking the Taubman Collection into consideration, auction commission margin decreased from 14.7% in 2014, to 14.3% in 2015.

And, for the fourth quarter of 2015, for all other sales excluding Taubman Collection, auction commission margin would have been 15.9% which again is a significant improvement from the fourth quarter 2014 margin of 13.7%, partly due to the low margin Mellon sales in November 2014. Excluding a $2.5 million foreign currency impact, private sale commission revenues increased $3.6 million, 6% when compared to 2014, due to an increased number of high-value transactions completed during the year.

Foreign currency impact, however, brings the increase down to $1 million or 2%. In 2015, changes in foreign currency exchange rates reduced auction direct costs by $2.7 million.

Excluding foreign currency impact, auction direct costs increased $8.2 million which is 10%, primarily due to approximately $6 million of cost incurred to promote and conduct sales of the Taubman Collection. Now moving to slide 4, we will deal with the Finance segment.

We see continued strength in Sotheby's financial services business. For 2015, the average loan portfolio balance was $733 million, a 26% increase from prior year.

As of the end of December, the period-ending loan portfolio balance was $682 million and credit facility borrowings were $542 million, resulting in a leverage ratio of approximately 79%. Finance segment revenues increased $18 million or 38%, in 2015, reflecting the growth of the portfolio which can be attributed to the increased ability to fund loans through revolving credit facility borrowings; the relatively low nominal interest rate environment and the improved global reach of Sotheby's Art Financing business, all of which allowed Sotheby's to fund a number of significant new term loans during the first half of the year.

Finance segment gross profit which is net of borrowing costs, increased $11 million or 28%, in 2015. The overall improvement in Finance segment gross profit is partially offset by the higher cost of revolving credit facility borrowings and financing of the loans portfolio with debt.

This began in February 2014 and continues throughout 2015. In 2015, marketing expenses increased $2.8 million or 17%, as a result of costs incurred to enhance Sotheby's brand preeminence and accessibilities.

Next, on slide 5, salaries and related costs decreased $8 million overall or 3%, in 2015 as compared to 2014. This was largely due to a $19 million reduction in incentive compensation expense.

2015 results are impacted by leadership transition severance costs of $13 million, incurred in association with the departure of certain executive officers. Full-time salaries decreased $4 million or 3%, in 2015, principally due to changes in foreign currency exchanges, $6.6 million.

Excluding foreign currency impact, full-time salaries would have increased by $3 million or 3%, in 2015. Share based payment expense increased $5 million or 22%, in 2015, largely due to the accelerated recognition of $3 million of compensation expense related to the terms of severance agreements with Sotheby's former Chief Financial Officer and former Chief Operating Officer, as well as higher amortization of CEO share-based payment awards.

Excluding foreign exchange impact, overall salaries and related costs increased $6 million or 2%, in 2015. As I just mentioned, a large portion of the year-to-date increase is attributable to leadership transition severance costs.

Turning to slide 6, general and administrative expenses were largely flat in 2015 when compared to 2014. Excluding foreign exchange impact, general and administrative expenses increased $7 million or 4%, in 2015 when compared to the prior year.

The increase in the year-to-date period is due, in part, to a charge related to an unexpected authenticity claim related to a property sold several years ago. Net interest expense decreased $2.3 million or 7%, in 2015, almost entirely due to the July 2015 refinancing of the mortgage on Sotheby's York Avenue headquarters.

Sotheby's effective income tax rate was 77.5% in 2015, compared to 39.2% in 2014. This was primarily due to income tax expense of $65.7 million recorded in the fourth quarter of 2015 to recognize incremental income tax on the pre-2014 accumulated foreign earnings that are no longer going to be indefinitely reinvested outside of the U.S.

Now, moving to this year's first quarter, a year ago, our first quarter results were our second-highest in Company history, only eclipsed by a record-breaking 2007. The 2014 results included a number of very strong events such as, record London February Impressionist and Contemporary sales of $533 million; robust New York March Asia Week and January Old Master sales, as well as the London Contemporary single owner Bear Witness sale last March which totaled $50 million.

Today, with our year-to-date aggregate auction sales 33% below where they were during the same period last year, we anticipate a significant net loss for the first quarter in 2016. This concludes our comments on today's announcements and Tad and I would be happy to address your questions.

Tad, I had one short term question and then a long term question and I will ask the short term question first. You mentioned one or more difficult quarters ahead.

We're obviously just starting to enter the spring consignment season, so I'm curious about your comments up against that along with the turnover that you are having in terms of people. How disruptive is that in the short term?

In terms of the consignments, yes, I would say, generally speaking, the market is a little tighter on consignments this year as people are in a wait-and-see mode. With respect to the turnover we're having, I should point out when we set out on evaluating the Company and I spend an enormous amount of time with collectors, it was pretty clear to me that there were going to have to be some changes to the organization.

And I would say, with particular respect to the New York operation. I think I mentioned in my first March call a year ago, that we needed to improve our position, mainly there in the Contemporary art area.

So there were undoubtedly going to be some adjustments and part of that was, in my mind, when I was thinking about things such as how do we shore up the area through things such as the Art Agency Partners and so I would say the dislocations, as a result of that, are largely what I've expected. They are invariably a bit noisy, there's no question about it.

But they are what we predicted and to some extent, we didn't want them, of course, but they are what we predicted and I think we're going to get through them very well. I will say the thing the thing that heartens me the most about them is that where we stand right now and as we look forward, we have the best team period in Contemporary, in Modern, in Impressionist, in Old Masters, in pretty much every category.

And we have long had it on the other side of the pond and now we have it on both sides of the pond and I couldn't be more thrilled and more proud with it. Will it create some invariable communications and other things in the near term, George?

Yes, it certainly will and I would say if we were going to have a little bit of that, it is better to have it in a slightly more challenging market then where there is relatively fewer consignments out there than it is when there is more. The one thing I will say, George, just to close that thought is we're publicly traded and frankly, we're the bellwether for the industry.

The press follows us very carefully because everything we do is reported. But I will say, for what it's worth, there are a large number of inbound resumes as well.

And then relative to the long term, so you're obviously now starting to show some of the changes I think you wanted to make when you first came, relative to increasing service levels and there's certainly more of a focus on the middle market. Can you talk about the long term addressable market that you are looking at now relative to when you first came?

How much larger is that and also, as you look at margin potential for the business, how might that change with some of these alterations?

Let me address the long term. And so George, you phrased the question, I think, to the long term and I just want to be clear that my answer is specifically to the long term.

I would say, when you look at it, the art market itself is approximately $60 billion to $70 billion. It goes up, it goes down a little bit.

The major auction houses, they are roughly in the $10 billion to $15 billion and depends on whether you include the Chinese auctions and some of the other independents to get a little higher. The private sales market that was addressable by us.

I think we estimated a $20 billion to $24 billion, plus or minus, in the category that we focused on. And if you look at where our actual penetration there is, within the middle market, we're a very relatively small player in proportion to the total market.

So I see substantial long term appreciation, both in terms of margin and also growth there and I see even in areas of private sales, a substantially underpenetrated market. By the way, the Art Agency Partners people here have arrived and they see lots of areas where we could be doing things better and that is very exciting to me and so that's reaffirmed in my mind the idea that we could be a stronger player in that area.

Honestly, I think there are things that we could be doing by virtue of just even in the most competitive area, on the high end of the fine art market, honestly, just better expertise and better specialists that we now have that we didn't have a year ago. What I mean by that is, if you compare, for example, our own performance on London in some things or some of the stronger departments here versus some of the not as strong departments, what you see is that the quality of expertise matters.

The ability to, number one, understand the art; number two, to do extremely skilled dealmaking and number three, to have deep and enduring trusting relationships in the collectors. All of those were down to higher margins and we have them now here in New York.

We've had them overseas and we have them over the world. I'm really, really excited about it and I think the future is really quite bright.

That said, we're on a cycle; there is no question.

So the buyer's premium as you sort of anniversary the increase, what do you think of the next chapters in terms of that line item and the strategic initiatives that you're pursuing? And then your details on the Asian clients are really helpful.

What factors are kind of controllable to you to reaccelerate your shares sold there? If you could highlight things on your side of the house that would be strategic and tactical, that would be great.

Oliver, the buyer's premium question is a very, very good one. And we're actively thinking about the right posture on that.

I view a buyer's premium as an opportunity to improve and charge for better services and better delivery of value to clients and it is something that we could make an adjustment to, at any point. We have thus far chosen not to do it but we could make a change to that at any point.

I'm not really sure I should say more than that at the moment. On the other one, I would say, with respect to the Asian clients, I think we've got a strong franchise there.

I'm really enthusiastic to see what the online opportunity could be to develop a substantially greater middle market over there. And moreover, the other thing I was just talking to the Chief Executive of Asia last night my time, I guess it would have been this morning his time and I think there's some exciting things we could be thinking about, potentially not just selling Asia art over there, but in fact, thinking about other forms of Western art and selling them over there that's been internally generally an issue between departments but if we could smooth that out in the Fine Art division in a lot of exciting ways, I think there's some ways to move stuff around.

That could deepen and expand our ability to attract additional dollars over there in those regions. By the way, I was talking about East Asia with that.

Obviously, the opening of the office in Mumbai should help develop the South Asia market and the near Eastern Asia market will also be developed just by expanding our reach outside of Doha.

And a question we're receiving from clients is regarding the Art Agency Partners deal, can you help us understand, will it be a material revenue driver as we model 2016 in our models? And what are your learnings thus far as you look as you integrate the Advisory services on a retained basis and maintain healthy objectivity in the marketplace, as this is now a part of Sotheby's?

Okay. I'm going to.

I give the second part of your question of retained advisory to Allan Schwartzman in just a minute. With respect to the first one, I would say there are really two dimensions to your question.

The first is what effect does the Art Agency Partners acquisition have on the enterprise as a whole? And on that, it's early days.

But what I sure like what I'm seeing so far and lots of ways to find money and to improve our operation and that should translate into better market position, better growth and potentially, better margins. And then the second thing is in terms of the business aspects that we purchased when we brought them in, including the retained Advisory business, I think I'm going to pass it over to Alan to give a sense for how that is going.

All of our core advisory clients, that we've worked with on a long term basis in a comprehensive way, remain happily with us. We continue to evolve the work that we do with them and indeed, have had more success in placing great works in the first part of this year than we have in the previous two years.

And we're in the process of defining several formats through which we can be offering expanded advisory services, both within the Art Agency Partners' structure and also drawing from the depth of clientele within Sotheby's, both through specialists and through the private client group relationships.

Lastly Tad, as you embark on the, regarding the CFO search, could you just brief us on priorities you may have in terms of looking for the right candidate? It's a very unique business and you've had a unique strategic perspective on changes you've made thus far.

So curious about your thoughts there and a framework for the right kind of talent?

Well, the conditions were, first, I think it is really, really helpful in this business to have a CFO that has a prior experience as a CFO of a publicly traded company. I think that is really important.

I think someone that has a really, really terrific strategic mind to understand, at every point, how all the elements of our business that can benefit shareholders and how to manage those various pieces and parts of it, allocating capital wisely, communicating to investors consistently and in a way that is transparent and credibility-inducing and also fair and sensible and getting the right balance. And note, by the way, all those qualities we have, interestingly enough, in our interim CFO, so we're very well situated at the moment.

But one other thing, I would say which is really, really helpful and energizing for me. Two qualities, one is a lot of wisdom and the last one, I would say is a really deep understanding of how operations, in businesses that are complex, work.

If we can find somebody also that understands people businesses where talent is really the major thing that makes the difference between merely mediocre and truly outstanding and has a winning personality. That's exactly the kind of person we're looking for.

First question is, I just want to follow-up on some of the senior level departures and was hoping you can just maybe comment on how the departures may affect with the loss of relationships in business down the road?

Well, we work carefully and the departures by the way, one of the great aspects of having a voluntary program is that as part of that, you can be very careful on making sure the client relationships are transitioned. We work through that, for sure.

By the way, thus far, elements of that are working really well and other elements, by the way, are covered by other acquisitions and new hires that we brought in. That said, it is invariably a delicate process and we're going to manage it carefully but we're going to have to watch how it goes, for sure.

Okay and then with regards to bringing on Mark Porter, can he start any earlier than the 2017?

Well, he can start as soon as his obligations to another entity are completed and those will be completed when they are completed.

When are they supposed to be completed? The timing of that?

Is it 2017--

I'm not at liberty to say.

Okay and you think about the commission margins and guarantees, obviously, you are going to be more conservative with guarantees, how should we think about the rebating? Can we expect you to do less rebating of the buyers' commission back to the sellers to win consignments going forward?

Well, I would like to divide that into two pieces. One is sort of the large-scale auction consignments of multiple lots.

Those are reasonably competitive and the givebacks continue to be fairly significant. The other is sort of lot by lot pieces here and there and honestly, already I've seen an encouraging development in our deal-making and I'm hopeful that, that will continue on a good path.

Okay and then Dennis, you've indicated a couple times last call and this call that the Company can be breakeven on significantly lower revenues. Can you give us some idea to quantify what you mean by significantly lower?

Is that 20%? 15%?

The last downturn revenues were essentially cut in half and consequently, the Company incurred significant losses. So I'm just wondering if this is a prolonged downturn and we do see revenues go down 40%, 50%, are you saying you could still be breakeven?

That's a good question and we can't talk about specific percentages in regards to that. As I mentioned, there's different triggers that would have to be pulled along the way, depending on market conditions and that is what we look for.

And that's what we continually practice over the years, what the cyclical businesses do, really watch what is going on in the market and react to it accordingly.

Is the largest trigger, is that headcount? The people?

In this business, there are a number of different factors and again, I think which triggers get pulled and when is not something we can talk about, unfortunately.

Okay and then just one final question. Tad, I was wondering if maybe you can talk about what you are seeing as far as consignments garnering supply for the May auction?

Well, I don't really have anything to add when I -- except what I said to George's comment or question earlier which is, we're in a more subdued market and the consignments are more subdued. And that said, we're talking about a market that looks a little bit lighter than 2014, 2013 but there is a lot of active demand for the right stuff.

There's a lot of demand for it and for things that are appropriately priced, I think things look really good.

Thank you all for joining us and you have a very good weekend.