Sotheby's is the world's third oldest auction house in continuous operation. The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674 and the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest is Uppsala Auktionskammare founded in 1731, all Swedish. Sotheby's predecessor, Baker's, was founded in London, England on 11 March 1744 when Samuel Baker presided over the disposal of "several hundred scarce and valuable" books from the library of a certain Rt.

Hon. Sir John Stanley. This disposal however was not by means of auction and as Frank Herrmann and Brian Learmount observe, the business did not seek to auction fine arts in general until much later, their first major success in this field being the sale of a Frans Hals painting for 9 thousand guineas as late as 1913.

The current business dates back to 1804 when two of the partners of the original business (Leigh and Sotheby) left to set up their own book dealership. Today, the firm has an annual turnover of approximately $3 billion, and offices on London's New Bond Street and Manhattan's York Avenue. This position has been achieved through natural growth, acquisitions (most notably the 1964 purchase of the United States' largest auctioneer of fine art, Parke-Bernet), and management during the cyclical "art recessions" of the 20th century.

Sotheby's New York completed renovations on its York Avenue headquarters in 2001 adding the unique capability to store works on the same premises as the specialist departments, galleries, and auction spaces. Sotheby's New York's offices also house Aulden Cellars (an in-house wine cellar) and the former Bid (an American contemporary restaurant and later bistro), which was closed due to poor attendance.

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