Art Market Watch:

It’s sweet times at Sotheby’s auction house -- at least for Sotheby’s stockholders and top management of the company.

Sotheby’s stock is now near $50 a share, up considerably from the doldrums of March 2009, when shares in the firm were trading for under $7. Were you one of the smart ones who had confidence in the art market’s upside potential?

Sotheby’s top management is being rewarded, according to a recent report by Skate’s Art Market Research, with the top five executives taking home $15 million in their pay packets, which is more than double their compensation in 2009.

Sotheby’s president and CEO William F. Ruprecht collected almost $6 million, about 250 percent of the $2.5 mil he earned in 2009.

Meanwhile, Sotheby’s is expanding its board, and famed restaurateur Danny Meyer, whose restaurants include Eleven Madison Park, Gramercy Tavern and Tabla, has been nominated. If elected, Meyer, 53, would become Sotheby’s youngest board member.

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