Sotheby's Lot Scraper

Extract auction lot data from Sotheby's — one of the world's oldest and most prestigious auction houses, offering fine art, jewelry, watches, furniture, and collectibles through in-room, online, and buy-now sales globally.

What You Can Scrape

• Upcoming auction lots with title, department, artist, estimate range, auction date, and location
• Buy-now listings with fixed prices and availability
• Past sold lots with realized prices
• Rich metadata: lot number, sale number, auction type, geographic region, full description

Output Fields

Field	Type	Description
lotId	String	Sotheby's internal lot identifier
title	String	Full lot title / description
department	String	Category (Contemporary Art, Jewelry, Watches, etc.)
artistName	String	Artist or maker name
brand	String	Brand name (for watches, jewelry, etc.)
auctionTitle	String	Name of the auction event
auctionType	String	In-Room / Online Auctions / etc.
saleType	String	auction or buy_now
lotNumber	String	Lot number within the sale
saleNumber	String	Sale identifier
auctionStartDate	String	ISO auction start date
auctionEndDate	String	ISO auction end date
auctionDetails	String	Human-readable date/location string
estimateLow	Float	Low estimate
estimateHigh	Float	High estimate
currency	String	Currency code (USD, GBP, EUR, etc.)
listPrice	Float	Buy-now price (for retail lots)
salePrice	Float	Final realized price (for sold lots)
location	String	Sale location city
region	String	Geographic region (Europe, North America, etc.)
description	String	Full lot description text
imageUrl	String	Primary image URL
imageAltText	String	Image alt text
lotUrl	String	Full URL of the lot page
slug	String	URL slug identifier
scrapedAt	String	ISO timestamp of when data was scraped

Input Parameters

Mode

Mode	Description
search	Search lots by keyword
byLot	Get details for a specific lot URL

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
mode	Enum	search	Scraping mode (required)
query	String	vintage watch	Search keyword (mode=search)
saleType	Enum	upcoming	Filter by upcoming or sold lots
department	Enum	All	Department/category filter
lotUrl	String	—	Full lot URL (mode=byLot)
maxItems	Integer	50	Maximum number of results

Sale Types

Value	Description
upcoming	Upcoming auctions and buy-now listings
sold	Past auction results with realized prices

Departments

Art, Jewelry, Watches, Furniture, Collectibles, Contemporary Art, Modern Art, Impressionist Art, Chinese Works of Art, Asian Art, Photographs, Books & Manuscripts, Wine, Automobilia.

Example Inputs

Search for upcoming watch auctions:

{
  "mode": "search",
  "query": "Rolex",
  "saleType": "upcoming",
  "maxItems": 20
}

Search past art sales:

{
  "mode": "search",
  "query": "impressionist painting",
  "saleType": "sold",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Filter by department:

{
  "mode": "search",
  "query": "diamond",
  "saleType": "upcoming",
  "department": "Jewelry",
  "maxItems": 30
}

Get specific lot:

{
  "mode": "byLot",
  "lotUrl": "https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/_vintage-patek-philippe-hour-glass-reference-1593-86c0"
}

Sample Output

{
  "lotId": "DHYXZ",
  "title": "Vintage Patek Philippe Hour Glass (Reference 1593). A 39mm yellow gold manual wind wristwatch.",
  "department": "Watches",
  "artistName": "Patek Philippe",
  "brand": "Patek Philippe",
  "saleType": "buy_now",
  "estimateLow": 28000.0,
  "estimateHigh": 28000.0,
  "currency": "USD",
  "listPrice": 28000.0,
  "location": "US",
  "imageUrl": "https://sothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/watch.jpg",
  "lotUrl": "https://sothebys.com/en/buy/_vintage-patek-philippe-hour-glass-reference-1593-86c0",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-25T12:00:00+00:00"
}

{
  "lotId": "DCZ9P",
  "title": "two studies for self-portrait",
  "department": "Contemporary Art",
  "artistName": "Francis Bacon",
  "brand": "Francis Bacon",
  "auctionTitle": "Fine Jewelry",
  "auctionType": "Online Auctions",
  "saleType": "auction",
  "lotNumber": "234",
  "saleNumber": "L26050",
  "auctionDetails": "20 May–3 June 2026 | 2:00 PM BST | London",
  "auctionEndDate": "2026-06-03T13:00:00+00:00",
  "estimateLow": 8000000.0,
  "estimateHigh": 12000000.0,
  "currency": "GBP",
  "location": "London",
  "region": "Europe",
  "imageUrl": "https://sothebys-com.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/bacon.jpg",
  "lotUrl": "https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/lot.234.html",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-25T12:00:00+00:00"
}

Use Cases

• Art market research: Track estimates and realized prices for specific artists or periods
• Auction monitoring: Stay updated on upcoming sales matching your collecting interests
• Price benchmarking: Compare Sotheby's prices against other auction houses
• Investment research: Analyze auction trends for fine art, jewelry, and watches
• Collection valuation: Research current market estimates for similar pieces
• Academic research: Build datasets of auction results for art market analysis

FAQ

Does this scraper require login or API keys? No. All scraped data is from Sotheby's publicly accessible search pages. No credentials needed.

How many results can I get per search? Sotheby's typically returns up to 32 results per query on the search page. Set maxItems accordingly.

What currencies are used? Lots are denominated in the sale's local currency — typically USD (New York), GBP (London), EUR (Paris/Milan), or HKD (Hong Kong).

Can I get results from specific sale categories? Yes. Use the department parameter to filter by Art, Jewelry, Watches, Furniture, etc.

What's the difference between upcoming and sold sale types? upcoming returns active listings (auction lots and buy-now items). sold returns past auction results, including realized prices when available.

Are estimates always in the same currency as the sale? Yes. The estimate currency reflects the sale's primary currency.

Is the description field always populated? No. Description and full text are only included when available in the search results. Always use strip_nulls behavior (already implemented) — only populated fields appear in the output.