First Paragraph

It is a job requirement of auction house experts to keep a dinner jacket and black tie on the back of their office door. Private views and cocktail parties come straight after work - so at 6:00 P.M. one brisk April evening in 1996, every lavatory and spare corner of Sotheby's, New York, was alive with staff slithering into their smart evening outfits.

- From Sotheby's: Bidding for Class by Robert Lacey