Ex-Sotheby's chief lied on fixing

FORMER Sotheby's chief executive Diana 'DeDe' Brooks has admitted that she repeatedly lied to hide her own role in a conspiracy to fix commission fees with rival auction house Christie's.

Miss Brooks was facing cross-examination in the trial of her former boss, Alfred Taubman, who is accused of setting up the secret deal to rig the fees charged on sales by both companies. She was revealed to have lied to journalists on several occasions, telling one American TV reporter that Sotheby's was 'setting a new level of standards in the business because, after all, our integrity is all we have'.

Asked about an earlier case in which Sotheby's was accused of smuggling art out of Italy, Miss Brooks was quoted in a British paper as saying: 'I take the question of ethics and integrity very seriously. I have lived my life that way. My name is all I have.'

Once one of the most powerful figures on the international art scene, Miss Brooks has already admitted conspiracy charges but has agreed to give evidence for the prosecution against Taubman, who is still Sotheby's biggest shareholder, in the hope of avoiding a prison sentence. During her testimony, she seemed close to tears on several occasions and her voice cracked as she spoke.

She was under cross-examination by Taubman's legal team after earlier claiming that he had asked her to organise the conspiracy with Christie's and arrange meetings with Sir Anthony Tennant, then running Christie's. Tennant, who is now living in London, has refused to come to New York to answer similar charges.

Lawyers for Taubman claimed Brooks, 51, had her own motives for setting up the conspiracy on her own because she had thousands of stock options in Sotheby's that could not be cashed in unless the auction firm's share price improved. Under questioning, she admitted that she was a willing member of the price fixing conspiracy. 'I was nervous about it, but I agreed to do it,' she told the court.

The secret deal with Christie's may have cost Sotheby's clients £10m alone, she said, but argued that the arrangement was needed to keep the company afloat.

'We were extremely concerned about financial results and we saw ourselves in a death struggle in terms of the direction the business was heading,' she said in an earlier testimony that was read out in court for the first time. The trial continues.