title: Sotheby's

text: Sotheby's was established on 11 March 1744 in London by Samuel Baker, a bookseller. In 1767 the firm became Baker & Leigh, after George Leigh became a partner, and was renamed to Leigh and Sotheby in 1778 after Baker's death when Leigh's nephew, John Sotheby, inherited Leigh's share. Other former names include: Leigh, Sotheby and Wilkinson; Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge (1864–1924); Sotheby and Company (1924–83); Mssrs Sotheby; Sotheby & Wilkinson; Sotheby Mak van Waay; and Sotheby's & Co.


title: Sotheby's

text: The American holding company was initially incorporated in August 1983 in Michigan as Sotheby's Holdings, Inc. In June 2006, it was reincorporated in the State of Delaware and was renamed Sotheby's. In July 2016, Chinese insurance company Taikang Life became Sotheby's largest shareholder. In June 2019, Sotheby's announced that it was being acquired by French-Israeli businessman Patrick Drahi at a 61% market premium.


title: Sotheby's

text: Sotheby's Institute of Art (an educational facility), Sotheby's International Realty (real estate dealers), and RM Sotheby's (classic car dealers) are subsidiaries or partner organisations.


title: Sotheby's

text: Sotheby's was established on 11 March 1744 in London by Samuel Baker, a bookseller. In 1767 the firm became Baker & Leigh, after Samuel Baker auctioned several hundred valuable books from the library of The Rt Hon Sir John Stanley, 1st Baronet, of Grangegorman and became business partners with George Leigh. The library Napoleon took with him into exile at St Helena, as well as the library collections of John Wilkes, Benjamin Heywood Bright and the Dukes of Devonshire and of Buckingham (both related to George Leigh), were sold through Samuel Baker's auctions.


title: Sotheby's

text: After Baker's death in 1778, the business was left to Leigh and his nephew John Sotheby, where it became a prominent book auction house and was renamed Leigh and Sotheby.


title: Sotheby's

text: George Leigh died in 1816, but not before recruiting Samuel E Leigh into the business. Under the Sotheby family, the auction house extended its activities to auctioning prints, medals, and coins. John Wilkinson, Sotheby's Senior Accountant, became a partner and eventually the company's new head of the company when the last member of the Sotheby family died in 1861.


title: Sotheby's

text: The business did not seek to auction fine arts initially. Their first major success in this field was the sale of a Frans Hals painting for nine thousand guineas in 1913.


title: Sotheby's

text: Other former names include: Leigh, Sotheby and Wilkinson; Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge (1864–1924); Sotheby and Company (1924–83); Mssrs Sotheby; Sotheby & Wilkinson; Sotheby Mak van Waay; and Sotheby's & Co. In 1917, Sotheby's relocated from 13 Wellington Street to 34–35 New Bond Street, which remains as its London base to this day. They soon came to rival Christie's as leaders of the London auction market, which capitalised on the arts. In 1964, Sotheby's purchased Parke-Bernet, the largest auctioneer of fine art in the United States at the time. In the following year, Sotheby's moved to 980 Madison Avenue, New York. With the international fine art auction industry growing, Sotheby's opened offices in Paris and Los Angeles in 1967, and became the first auction house to operate in Hong Kong in 1973, and Moscow in 1988.


title: Sotheby's

text: As well as numerous high-profile real life auctions being held at Sotheby's, the firm's auctioneers have also been used in various films, including the 1983 James Bond film "Octopussy".


title: Sotheby's

text: With private transactions constituting an essential and increasingly profitable business segment, through the years Sotheby's has bought art galleries and helped dealers finance purchases. It has also gone into partnership with dealers on private sales. In 1990, Sotheby's teamed up with dealer William Acquavella, to form Acquavella Modern Art, a Nevada general partnership and a subsidiary of Sotheby's Holding Company. The subsidiary paid $143 million for the contents of the Pierre Matisse Gallery in Manhattan, which included about 2,300 works by such artists as Miró, Jean Dubuffet, Alberto Giacometti, and Marc Chagall, and began selling the works both at auction and privately. In 1996, Sotheby's acquired Andre Emmerich Gallery to operate a division called Emmerich/Sotheby's, and in 1997 it purchased a 50% interest in Deitch Projects. As a consequence, the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, the main beneficiary of the artists' estates, as well as the estates of Morris Louis and Milton Avery announced that they would not renew their Emmerich contracts. That decision came right after it was disclosed that Sotheby's had decided to close Emmerich's prime space at 41 East 57th Street, and that its artists would be handled out of Deitch Projects. Sotheby's subsequently closed Andre Emmerich in 1998 and later sold its share in Deitch Projects back to Jeffrey Deitch. In 2006, Sotheby's acquired a Dutch dealership, Noortman Master Paintings, from its owner, Robert Noortman, for $82.5 million ($56.5 million worth of Sotheby's stock and assumption of more than $26 million in gallery debt, including $11.7 million owed to the auction house). Sotheby's and Noortman had collaborated before in 1995, when the sales of Dutch plastic millionaire Joost Ritman were divided between the two companies. Already in 1990, Sotheby's New York had successfully lobbied for a zoning change permitting the construction of a 27-story residential tower above the five-story headquarters; this expansion was never realised. Instead, Sotheby's throughout the 1990s expressed interest in sites that ranged from the old Alexander's building on East 59th Street to the New York Coliseum site on Columbus Circle, and was even considering moving into the old B. Altman Building on Fifth Avenue.


title: Sotheby's

text: The company eventually bought its York Avenue building for $11 million in 2000 and completed a $140 million expansion and renovation in 2001, adding six floors and 240,000 square feet. The renovation added the capability to store works on the same premises as the specialist departments, galleries, and auction spaces. Sotheby's New York's offices also house Sotheby's Wine and the former Bid (an American contemporary restaurant and later bistro), which was closed due to poor attendance. The company sold the building in 2002 for $175 million. In May 2007, Sotheby's opened an office in Moscow in response to rapidly growing interest among Russian buyers in the international art market and held sales in Qatar in 2009.


title: Sotheby's

text: As many industries took a blow from the economic crisis of 2008, the art market also saw a contraction. In international figures, art prices fell by 7.5% in Q1 of 2008 in comparison to the previous quarter. In September and October 2008, major auction houses saw a sharp decline in sales: artprice.com, the world leader in art market information, coined the term "Black October". Sotheby's bought-in rate was 27%, Christie's was 45% and Phillips de Pury's was 46%. However, the total values of global and United States Fine Art auction sales were US$8.3 billion and US$2.9 billion, respectively. In 2009, art collector Steven A. Cohen built a 6 percent stake in the auction house for his hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors.


title: Sotheby's

text: In 2011, Noortman's Amsterdam space was closed and the gallery moved to London. Two years later, Sotheby's closed Noortmans, after having written down $8.3 million of inventory and started selling off lower-valued works of art through other auction houses. , Sotheby's is present in over 40 countries, with 80 locations. In 2012, the company signed a 10-year joint-venture agreement to form Sotheby's (Beijing) Auction Co. Ltd., the first international auction house in China; under the agreement, it invested $1.2 million to take an 80 percent stake in the venture with state-owned Beijing Gehua Cultural Development Group.


title: Sotheby's

text: As of 2012, the firm had an annual revenue of approximately US$831.8 million and offices on Manhattan's York Avenue and London's New Bond Street.


title: Sotheby's

text: Sotheby's shares a rivalry with Christie's for the position of the world's pre-eminent fine art auctioneer, a title of much subjectivity. In August 2004, Sotheby's introduced an online system – MySotheby's – allowing clients to track lots and create "wishlists" that could be automatically updated as new works became available. Sotheby's also created the BIDnow service, which allows bidders to bid real-time online while watching the broadcast auctions, with the exception of Wine auctions. LiveBid is Sotheby's online bidding system exclusively for wine auctions.


title: Sotheby's

text: In the meantime, income from classic auctioneering has fallen, as Sotheby's reported a decrease of 42% in net income in the first half of 2012.


title: Sotheby's

text: In February 2015 Sotheby's acquired a 25% stake in classic and vintage automobile auctioneer RM Auctions.


title: Sotheby's

text: On 17 March 2015, it was announced that Tad Smith, former president and chief executive of New York's Madison Square Garden, would succeed William F. Ruprecht as CEO of Sotheby's. Smith had no experience in the auction industry but had overseen a doubling of profits during his time at Madison Square Garden. In 2015, the auction house's longest serving auctioneer, David Redden, and Vice-Chairman retired.


title: Sotheby's

text: In 2016, the company spent sent shockwaves through the trade after spending $50 million on Art Agency Partners, run by Amy Cappellazzo, Allan Schwartzman and Adam Chinn. The price was shared among the trio, as well as $35 million performance-related bonus. The five year contract expired in 2021.


title: Sotheby's

text: In February 2019, Sotheby's announced a redesign and expansion of its New York headquarters on the Upper East Side that is being led by the designer Shohei Shigematsu of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). The exhibition space there will grow to over 90,000 square feet from 67,000, and the project will include the addition of several new galleries.


title: Sotheby's

text: In 2019, Sotheby's introduced an online valuations platform to their website to facilitate the provision of estimates.


title: Sotheby's

text: In June 2019, Sotheby's announced that it was being acquired by French-Israeli businessman Patrick Drahi at a 61% market premium. On 28 October 2019, Sotheby's named Charles F. Stewart as their new CEO. Sotheby's former CEO Tad Smith transitioned to an advisory role.


title: Sotheby's

text: In 2020, Sotheby’s overtook Christie’s as the world’s top auction house for the first time since 2011, with over $5 billion in aggregate sales compared to its rival’s $4.4 billion.


title: Sotheby's

text: Sotheby's became a UK public company in 1977. In 1980, after a drop in sales, Sotheby's relocated its North American headquarters from Madison Avenue to a former cigar factory at 1334 York Avenue, New York. The auction house closed its Madison Avenue galleries at East 76th Street. The Los Angeles galleries were sold and West Coast auctions moved to New York.


title: Sotheby's

text: The following year, a group of investors (including American millionaire Alfred Taubman) purchased and privatized Sotheby's. Sotheby's was initially incorporated as Sotheby's Holdings, Inc. in Michigan in August 1983. In 1988, Taubman took Sotheby's public and listed the company's shares on the New York Stock Exchange, making Sotheby's the oldest publicly traded company on the NYSE under the ticker symbol "BID". In June 2006, Sotheby's Holdings, Inc. reincorporated in the State of Delaware and was renamed Sotheby's shortly after.


title: Sotheby's

text: After Sotheby’s was acquired & taken private by Patrick Drahi for $3.7 billion in 2019, the company is no longer available for public trading on the New York Stock Exchange.


title: Sotheby's

text: Sotheby's auctions are usually held during the day. The majority are free and open to the public, with the exception of occasional evening auctions, which require tickets. Attendees have no obligation to bid.


title: Sotheby's

text: Bidding finishes when only one bidder remains willing to purchase the lot at the bidder's declared price. The auctioneer "knocks down" the lot, declaring it sold to the winning bidder. The winning bid for a lot is also called the hammer price. Sotheby's organises the delivery of the lot in private with the buyer.


title: Sotheby's

text: Buyers can find out what is for sale at Sotheby's by browsing e-catalogues, visiting pre-sale exhibitions, purchasing print catalogues and registering for e-mail alerts. Buyers can register to bid in person at Sotheby's offices, or online. Sotheby's requires that prospective buyers provide government-issued proof of identity and sometimes a bank reference. There are four ways buyers can bid: in person at the auction rooms, by telephone, bid live online or make an absentee bid online. When a bid is successful, Sotheby's calculates and sums the hammer price, the buyer's premium and taxes.


title: Sotheby's

text: Sellers are required to submit an Auction Estimate Form, providing thorough information and a photograph of the item. Once accepted for auction, the seller and Sotheby's sign a contract, which sets out the reserve price and the seller's commission. If bidding on a seller's lot does not reach the reserve price, the item is not sold.


title: Sotheby's

text: Sotheby's links sellers with prospective buyers in private if sellers do not want a public auction. The identities of buyers and consignors are not disclosed. Sotheby's Private Sales works with clients with confidentiality and tailors the buying and selling process in a private setting. Private Sales accounted for 16.5% of all Sotheby's sales in 2011. That year, Sotheby's inaugurated a new gallery space called S2 at its York Avenue headquarters with a show of work by American abstract painter Sam Francis. Unlike Haunch of Venison, a gallery that Christie's bought in 2007, S2 is solely devoted to showcasing the auction house's private sales. In 2013, Sotheby's opened a gallery for private sales close to its branch in London, in a five-story block at 31 George Street. The auction house also conducts private sales through its selling exhibitions of monumental sculpture at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, and at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.


title: Sotheby's

text: Established in 1988, Sotheby's Financial Services offers loans for consigned property and loans against the value of client's items through customized terms. The auction house also makes term loans, for a defined period of time, on works that clients aren't planning to sell, in part to "establish or enhance mutually beneficial relationships with borrowers" that can lead to future consignments. While traditional lenders such as banks provide loans at a lower cost to borrowers, Sotheby's said in its 2011 annual report, few will accept works of art as the sole collateral.


title: Sotheby's

text: Sotheby's Picture Library contained images in a variety of formats available for licensing, and was one of the image suppliers to various databases such as the British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies (BAPLA). However, only the image archive mentioned on the Sotheby's website is an out-of-date reference to the Cecil Beaton Studio Archive, which Cecil Beaton sold to Sotheby's in 1977.


title: Sotheby's

text: In October 2019, Sotheby's launched "Sotheby's Own Label Collection", a line of a dozen wines. The project took two years to complete, and is based on Sotheby's best-selling wines, both those represented in-store and on its e-commerce platform. Additionally, the collection reflects some of the long-standing relationships Sotheby's has with producers around the world. "The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia" has been published in several editions since 1988, written by Tom Stevenson.


title: Sotheby's

text: Sotheby's has produced a bimonthly online magazine since November–December 2018, "Sotheby's Magazine".


title: Sotheby's

text: In 1969, Sotheby's founded Sotheby's Institute of Art in London. The Institute now offers full-time accredited master's degrees as well as a range of online and other courses.


title: Sotheby's

text: Sotheby's International Realty is a luxury real estate brand founded in 1976 by Sotheby's. It operates as a franchise.


title: Sotheby's

text: RM Sotheby's deals in classic cars, headquartered in Canada with offices across the US and Europe. Formerly RM Auctions, the company has been part-owned by Sotheby's since 2015.


title: Sotheby's

text: The Sotheby's Prize, launched in 2017, is a $250,000 annual award given to museums that exhibit what are vaguely described as "groundbreaking shows". The inaugural winners were "Many Tongues: Art, Language and Revolution in the Middle East and South Asia" curated by Omer Kholeif of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and "Pop América: Contesting Freedom, 1965–1975" curated by Esther Gabara of the Nasher Museum. The Sotheby's Prize program concluded in 2020, following a promise to honor existing commitments to shows that are still in formation.


title: Sotheby's

text: Sotheby's has set, then later reset, a number of world records for auctioned works of art. The following monetary values are given in United States dollars.


title: Sotheby's

text: In recent years, Sotheby's has been selling sneakers, both vintage designs in a "buy-now" sneaker shop, and high-value pairs, some worn by famous people, by auction. Sneaker auctions have brought in large numbers new to Sotheby's, from as young as 19 years old and across the world. Notable auction record-breaking sales include:


title: Sotheby's

text: On 9 July 2021, Sotheby's sold a 101.38-carat diamond for $12.3 million in cryptocurrency. The sale became the most expensive physical object ever publicly offered for purchase with cryptocurrency at the time.


title: Sotheby's

text: In 1997, a Channel 4 "Dispatches" programme alleged that Sotheby's had been trading in antiquities with no published provenance, and that the organisation continued to use dealers involved in the smuggling of artefacts. From the late 1980s through to the early 1990s, the antiquities department in London was managed by Brendan Lynch and Oliver Forge. Lynch travelled to India frequently and bought unprovenanced pieces from Vaman Ghiya in Rajasthan, which turned out to be stolen from temples and other sites. British historian and journalist Peter Watson wrote "Sotheby’s: The Inside Story" (1997), outlining these illicit activities, which he also exposed on CBS’s "60 Minutes". As a result of this exposé, Sotheby's commissioned their own report into illegal antiquities, and made assurances that only legal items with published provenance would be traded in the future. It ceased its regular Asian art sales in London said that they would henceforth only be selling Asian pieces from New York, where their legitimacy could be better monitored. Forge and Lynch were removed from their posts but never charged, and they opened a consultancy in London and continued to trade.


title: Sotheby's

text: In India, Ghiya was eventually arrested in 2003, only convicted in 2008 and sentenced to life in prison; however, in 2014 an Indian High Court quashed the conviction. Some of the illicit Asian pieces found their way to the National Gallery of Australia, and from there a piece known as "Dancing Shiva" found its way to the Art Gallery of South Australia. After doubts were raised and the piece became the object of an investigation beginning in 2014, it was established that it was most likely a stolen piece, and was repatriated to India in 2019.


title: Sotheby's

text: In 2012, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved to seize a 10th-century Cambodian sandstone statue from Sotheby's, alleging in a civil complaint before the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York that the company had put the work up for auction "despite knowing that it had been stolen from a temple" in Koh Ker.


title: Sotheby's

text: In February 2000, A. Alfred Taubman and Diana (Dede) Brooks, the CEO of the company, stepped down amidst a price fixing scandal. The FBI had been investigating auction practices in which it was revealed that collusion involving commission fixing between Christie's and Sotheby's was occurring. In October 2000, Brooks admitted her guilt in hopes of receiving a reduced sentence, implicating Taubman. In December 2001, jurors in a high-profile New York City courtroom found Taubman guilty of conspiracy. He served ten months of a one-year sentence in prison, while Brooks received a six-month home confinement and a penalty of US$350,000. Sotheby's was sentenced to pay a fine of US$45 million. No staff from Christie's were charged.


title: Sotheby's

text: Growing out of the four-year criminal antitrust investigation by the United States Department of Justice, some 130,000 buyers and sellers filed class-action lawsuit, arguing they were cheated in the price-fixing conspiracy by Sotheby's and Christie's. In 2001, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York gave final approval to a US$512 million agreement. The structure of the settlement was said to have helped stave off insolvency for both companies, especially the publicly held Sotheby's.


title: Sotheby's

text: In 2012, art dealer Marc Jancou filed suit in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, suing both Sotheby's and artist Cady Noland after the auction house pulled a work he had consigned by the artist from a sale, apparently at her request. The suit argued that this presented a breach of the consignment agreement. Noland had told Sotheby's there were problems with the condition of her painting "Cowboys Milking" (1990), estimated to sell for between US$260,000 and $350,000. Jancou sued Sotheby's for US$6 million in compensatory damages, and Noland for US$20 million in punitive damages. Both Sotheby's and Noland argued withdrawing the work from auction was well within the artist's rights under the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) and New York's Artists' Authorship Rights Act (AARA).


title: Sotheby's

text: Sotheby's London auction house had outsourced its cleaning and other support services to Contract Cleaning and Maintenance (London) Limited (CCML). In early 2015, the UVW union initiated a formal trade dispute over low pay, insufficient sick pay, and issues summarised in an Early Day Motion signed by 24 Members of Parliament, highlighting:"the unwarranted suspension of a porter following a grievance he made about poor treatment, the refusal to stop using certain chemicals which leave cleaners with breathing difficulties, chest pains and rashes, the unwarranted deduction of wages and working hours, overworking and shouting at porters and cleaners, reprimanding a porter for using the toilet outside his official break time, threatening a cleaner with suspension for not being clean shaven"After CCML conceded the majority of UVW's demands, Sotheby's decided to contract all support services to a new company, Servest. This backfired when UVW staged a noisy, sit-down protest outside the Sotheby's entrance while clients arrived for a record-breaking summer night of contemporary art auctions, including lots by Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon. Four workers were suspended and investigated for their involvement in the protest, which led to another Early Day Motion signed by 42 MPs, condemning:"that Sotheby's and Servest consider peaceful protest to be an act of misconduct; further condemns Sotheby's decision to ban from the site cleaners and porters who took part in a lawful, peaceful protest to call for a real Living Wage, contractual sick pay and an end to trade union victimisation"With only two of the four workers reinstated, another UVW protest disrupted a Sotheby's classic car auction in London's Battersea. In February 2016 it was announced that Sotheby's and Servest had reached an agreement to pay all outsourced workers the London Living Wage and improved sick pay.


title: Sotheby's

text: In 2016, three New York art traders – Warren Adelson, president of Adelson Galleries, as well as New York-based art dealers Alexander Parish and Robert Simon – planned to sue Sotheby's for alleged fraud over the resale of Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, which they sold through Sotheby's in 2013 for $80 million. After learning that the buyer of the painting, Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier, sold it on to Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev for $127.5 million, the traders felt deceived by the auction house as to the painting's true value. According to court papers, the traders inquired whether Sotheby's knew the art work could have been sold for more, and whether they were "misled into selling the work for a smaller amount by Sotheby’s because Bouvier is an esteemed client." The auction house has denied knowing that Rybolovlev was the intended buyer, and sought to dismiss the lawsuit pre-emptively.


title: Sotheby's

text: In a related development, Rybolovlev sued Sotheby's for $380 million in damages for this alleged collusion with Yves Bouvier in 2018, claiming the company "materially assisted the largest art fraud in history", due to Sotheby's vice chairman of private sales worldwide writing "bullish assessments, which Bouvier forwarded to Rybolovlev’s team, about some of the same artworks that Bouvier bought privately through Sotheby’s and flipped to the Russian at higher prices." Rybolovlev alleged that Yves Bouvier defrauded him out of $1 billion through this practice, over several years. Sotheby's dismissed these allegations as "entirely without merit" and stated it would seek to have the case thrown out.


title: Sotheby's

text: However, on 25 June 2019, a US federal court denied Sotheby's request to have the case dismissed, arguing that "although there is parallel litigation ongoing in Switzerland, Sotheby’s fails to establish that there are 'exceptional circumstances' justifying dismissal." The court also issued an order for Sotheby's to submit all previously confidential information relating to the litigation and rejected the auction house's request to redact specific details from court documents. In a statement, Sotheby's called the court decision "disappointing" and stated it would "vigorously litigate the merits of the case in Switzerland and New York."


title: Sotheby's

text: On 13 November 2019, the New York Court of Appeals upheld the decision, requiring Sotheby's to hand over the case relevant files. Sotheby's had argued that handing over the documents would breach confidentiality and insisted that because it was named in ongoing proceedings in Switzerland, it should "be shielded from orders to produce the documents," both of which the court rejected.


title: Sotheby's

text: In 2013 and 2014, Sotheby's was the target of a takeover attempt by activist investor Daniel S. Loeb of Third Point LLC, a registered investment adviser founded in 1995 and headquartered in New York with over $14 billion in assets under management. Third Point began acquiring shares in Sotheby's in February 2013. By July 2013, Loeb's stake in Sotheby's increased to 3.7%, and in August he raised his stake to 5.7%, and requested to talk with the management and board. In July, activists at Marcato Capital Management revealed a 6.6% stake, saying that the shares were undervalued. At that point, Marcato and Third Point were Sotheby's second and third-largest shareholders, following BlackRock Fund Advisors. Third Point's August purchase brought its stake in Sotheby's to 3.9 million shares.


title: Sotheby's

text: On 2 October, Third Point increased its share of Sotheby's to 9.3 percent and, in a letter to Sotheby's president, CEO, and Chairman William F. Ruprecht, called for a change in management, due to "the company's chronically weak operating margins and deteriorating competitive position relative to Christie's, as evidenced by each of the contemporary and modern art evening sales over the last several years." Loeb wanted the firm to expand globally and offered to "join the Board immediately and to help recruit several new directors".


title: Sotheby's

text: On 3 October 2013, Sotheby's responded to Third Point's rapid accumulation of Sotheby's stock by announcing its adoption of a shareholder rights plan, known generally as a "poison pill", whereby it forcibly diluted investor holdings in an attempt to ward off a hostile takeover. Third Point described the action as "a disproportionate response" and "a relic from the 1980s".


title: Sotheby's

text: Between October 2013 and February 2014, representatives of Sotheby's and Third Point "held a number of in-person and telephonic meetings" in which "they discussed Third Point’s ideas about how to increase stockholder value." At these meetings, Third Point insisted on multiple seats on Sotheby's board; the firm offered only a single seat for Loeb himself.


title: Sotheby's

text: In February 2014, Third Point, which by now was Sotheby's largest stockholder, stated in a filing that it would nominate three people – Loeb, Harry Wilson, and Olivier Reza – to Sotheby's board, saying that current board members "lack the fresh perspective necessary to overhaul the company's challenged operational structure and cure its cultural malaise." Informing Sotheby's formally on 27 February 2014, of its nomination of Loeb, Wilson, and Reza as board candidates, Third Point commended Sotheby's for having taken certain actions that Third Point considered productive, but stated that "there remains much to be done to enhance" the firm's "competitive position, refocus its strategy, and boost stockholder value." It was reported in early March that Marcato would support Third Point's nominees to the board.


title: Sotheby's

text: On 13 March, a day after Third Point increased its stake in Sotheby's slightly to 9.6%, the firm rejected Third Point's board nominees. Instead, the firm nominated executive Jessica Bibliowicz and former AOL and Univision executive Kevin Conroy.


title: Sotheby's

text: On 24 April 2014, the investor shareholder advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended that Sotheby's investors should vote for two of the three board members recommended by Daniel Loeb, including himself. The second board member recommended by the ISS was Olivier Reza, "a former investment banker whose jeweler family has done business with Sotheby's."


title: Sotheby's

text: Prior to the ISS recommendation, on 21 April 2014, Mr. Loeb wrote a letter to the Sotheby's board noting the following:


title: Sotheby's

text: We are convinced that having an owner's perspective in the boardroom yields better results, that this board is in dire need of fresh insights, and that our candidates are more qualified than the company's emissaries we are seeking to replace.


title: Sotheby's

text: In the report the ISS noted that, "the particulars of their criticisms of things like commission margin, there is credible reason to believe their larger criticism about strategic myopia has some credibility". ISS recommended shareholders vote for Loeb and Olivier Reza and that introducing change into the boardroom was warranted. Writing for "The New York Times" on 24 April, of 2014, Alexandria Stevenson notes:


title: Sotheby's

text: Mr. Loeb has accused Sotheby's of rebating the fees its takes for selling multimillion-dollar works, while also taking less of the buyer's fees to attract more business. He has taken issue with the auction house's strategy of focusing on top clients and headline sales. He has even criticized board members' relatively low holdings of their own company’s stock.


title: Sotheby's

text: We believe that Sotheby's shareholders should vote for all of Sotheby's director nominees. We note that ISS rejected one of Third Point's nominees and recommends that shareholders vote for our Say on Pay proposal.


title: Sotheby's

text: On 5 May, Dan Loeb and Sotheby's reached an agreement which stipulated that Dan Loeb, Olivier Reza and Harry J. Wilson joined the board in exchange for Third Point having an ownership cap at 15%, William Ruprecht would stay as CEO and the proxy context to be held at Sotheby's AGM would cease On the newest board members, Bill Ruprecht, Chairman, President and CEO of Sotheby's noted:


title: Sotheby's

text: We welcome our newest directors to the Board and look forward to working with them, confident that we share the common goal of delivering the greatest value to Sotheby's clients and shareholders. This agreement ensures that our focus is on the business and that we will benefit from five fresh voices and viewpoints.


title: Sotheby's

text: Disclosed on 27 July 2016, Chinese insurance company Taikang Life Insurance (), run by Chen Dongsheng, the grandson-in-law of Mao Zedong, bought a 13.5% stake in Sotheby's, holding the highest active stake of the auction house.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: Pontus ( ) was a Hellenistic kingdom centered in the historical region of Pontus and ruled by the Mithridatic dynasty (of Persian origin), which possibly may have been directly related to Darius the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty. The kingdom was proclaimed by Mithridates I in 281BC and lasted until its conquest by the Roman Republic in 63BC. The Kingdom of Pontus reached its largest extent under Mithridates VI the Great, who conquered Colchis, Cappadocia, Bithynia, the Greek colonies of the Tauric Chersonesos, and for a brief time the Roman province of Asia. After a long struggle with Rome in the Mithridatic Wars, Pontus was defeated. The western part of it was incorporated into the Roman Republic as the province Bithynia et Pontus; the eastern half survived as a client kingdom until 62 AD.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: As the greater part of the kingdom lay within the region of Cappadocia, which in early ages extended from the borders of Cilicia to the Euxine (Black Sea), the kingdom as a whole was at first called 'Cappadocia by Pontus' or 'Cappadocia by the Euxine', but afterwards simply 'Pontus', the name Cappadocia henceforth being used to refer to the southern half of the region previously included under that name.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: The kingdom had three cultural strands which often fused together: Greek (mostly on the coast), Persian and Anatolian, with Greek becoming the official language in the 3rd century BC.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: The Kingdom of Pontus was divided into two distinct areas: the coastal region and the Pontic interior. The coastal region bordering the Black Sea was separated from the mountainous inland area by the Pontic Alps, which run parallel to the coast. The river valleys of Pontus also ran parallel to the coast and were quite fertile, supporting cattle herds, millet, and fruit trees, including cherry, apple, and pear. ("Cherry" and "Cerasus" are probably cognates.) The coastal region was dominated by Greek cities such as Amastris and Sinope, which became the Pontic capital after its capture. The coast was rich in timber, fishing, and olives. Pontus was also rich in iron and silver, which were mined near the coast south of Pharnacia; steel from the Chalybian mountains became quite famous in Greece. There were also copper, lead, zinc and arsenic. The Pontic interior also had fertile river valleys such as the river Lycus and Iris. The major city of the interior was Amasia, the early Pontic capital, where the Pontic kings had their palace and royal tombs. Besides Amasia and a few other cities, the interior was dominated mainly by small villages. The kingdom of Pontus was divided into districts named Eparchies.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: The division between coast and interior was also cultural. The coast was mainly Greek and focused on sea trade. The interior was occupied by the Anatolian Cappadocians and Paphlagonians ruled by an Iranian aristocracy that went back to the Persian empire. The interior also had powerful temples with large estates. The gods of the Kingdom were mostly syncretic, with features of local gods along with Persian and Greek deities. Major gods included the Persian Ahuramazda, who was termed Zeus Stratios; the moon god Men Pharnacou; and Ma (interpreted as Cybele).


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: Sun gods were particularly popular, with the royal house being identified with the Persian god Ahuramazda of the Achaemenid dynasty; both Apollo and Mithras were worshipped by the Kings. Indeed, the name used by the majority of the Pontic kings was Mithridates, which means "given by Mithras". Pontic culture represented a synthesis between Iranian, Anatolian and Greek elements, with the former two mostly associated with the interior parts, and the latter more so with the coastal region. By the time of MithridatesVI Eupator, Greek was the official language of the Kingdom, though Anatolian languages continued to be spoken in the interior.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: The region of Pontus was originally part of the Persian satrapy of Cappadocia (Katpatuka). The Persian dynasty which was to found this kingdom had, during the 4th century BC, ruled the Greek city of Cius (or Kios) in Mysia, with its first known member being Mithridates of Cius. His son AriobarzanesII became satrap of Phrygia. He became a strong ally of Athens and revolted against Artaxerxes, but was betrayed by his son Mithridates II of Cius. MithridatesII remained as ruler after Alexander's conquests and was a vassal to Antigonus I Monophthalmus, who briefly ruled Asia Minor after the Partition of Triparadisus. Mithridates was killed by Antigonus in 302BC under suspicion that he was working with his enemy Cassander. Antigonus planned to kill Mithridates' son, also called Mithridates (later named Ktistes, 'founder') but DemetriusI warned him and he escaped to the east with six horsemen. Mithridates first went to the city of Cimiata in Paphlagonia and later to Amasya in Cappadocia. He ruled from 302 to 266BC, fought against Seleucus I and, in 281 (or 280) BC, declared himself king ("basileus") of a state in northern Cappadocia and eastern Paphlagonia. He further expanded his kingdom to the river Sangrius in the west. His son Ariobarzanes captured Amastris in 279, its first important Black sea port. Mithridates also allied with the newly arrived Galatians and defeated a force sent against him by Ptolemy I. Ptolemy had been expanding his territory in Asia Minor since the beginning of the First Syrian war against Antiochus in the mid-270s and was allied with Mithridates' enemy, Heraclea Pontica.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: We know little of Ariobarzanes' short reign, except that when he died his son MithridatesII (c.250—189) became king and was attacked by the Galatians. MithridatesII received aid from Heraclea Pontica, who was also at war with the Galatians at this time. Mithridates went on to support Antiochus Hierax against his brother SeleucusII Callinicus. Seleucus was defeated in Anatolia by Hierax, Mithridates, and the Galatians. Mithridates also attacked Sinope in 220 but failed to take the city. He married SeleucusII's sister and gave his daughter in marriage to AntiochusIII, to obtain recognition for his new kingdom and create strong ties with the Seleucid Empire. The sources are silent on Pontus for the years following the death of MithridatesII, when his son MithridatesIII ruled (c.220–198/88).


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: Pharnaces I of Pontus (189–159 BC) was much more successful in his expansion of the kingdom at the expense of the Greek coastal cities. He joined in a war with Prusias I of Bithynia against Eumenes of Pergamon in 188 BC, but the two made peace in 183 after Bithynia suffered a series of reversals. He took Sinope in 182BC and although the Rhodians complained to Rome about this, nothing was done. Pharnaces also took the coastal cities of Cotyora, Pharnacia, and Trapezus in the east, effectively gaining control of most of the northern Anatolian coastline. Despite Roman attempts to keep the peace, Pharnaces fought against Eumenes of Pergamon and Ariarathes of Cappadocia. While initially successful, it seems he was overmatched by 179 when he was forced to sign a treaty. He had to give up all lands he had obtained in Galatia, and Paphlagonia and the city of Tium, but he kept Sinope. Seeking to extend his influence to the north, Pharnaces allied with the cities in the Chersonesus and with other Black Sea cities such as Odessus on the Bulgarian coast. Pharnaces' brother, MithridatesIV Philopator Philadelphus adopted a peaceful, pro-Roman policy. He sent aid to the Roman ally Attalus II Philadelphus of Pergamon against Prusias II of Bithynia in 155.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: His successor, Mithridates V of Pontus Euergetes, remained a friend of Rome and in 149 BC sent ships and a small force of auxiliaries to aid Rome in the third Punic War. He also sent troops for the war against Eumenes III (Aristonicus), who had usurped the Pergamene throne after the death of Attalus III. After Rome received the Kingdom of Pergamon in the will of AttalusIII in the absence of an heir, they turned part of it into the province of Asia, while giving the rest to loyal allied kings. For his loyalty Mithridates was awarded the region of Phrygia Major. The kingdom of Cappadocia received Lycaonia. Because of this it seems reasonable to assume that Pontus had some degree of control over Galatia, since Phrygia does not border Pontus directly. It is possible that Mithridates inherited part of Paphlagonia after the death of its King, Pylaemenes. MithridatesV married his daughter Laodice to the king of Cappadocia, Ariarathes VI of Cappadocia, and he also went on to invade Cappadocia, though the details of this war are unknown. Hellenization continued under MithridatesV. He was the first king to widely recruit Greek mercenaries in the Aegean, he was honored at Delos, and he depicted himself as Apollo on his coins. Mithridates was assassinated at Sinope in 121/0, the details of which are unclear.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: Because both the sons of Mithridates V, MithridatesVI and Mithridates Chrestus, were still children, Pontus now came under the regency of his wife Laodice. She favored Chrestus, and MithridatesVI escaped the Pontic court. Legend would later say this was the time he traveled through Asia Minor, building his resistance to poisons and learning all of the languages of his subjects. He returned in 113BC to depose his mother; she was thrown into prison, and he eventually had his brother killed.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: Mithridates VI Eupator, 'the Good Father', followed a decisive anti-Roman agenda, extolling Greek and Iranian culture against ever-expanding Roman influence. Rome had recently created the province of Asia in Anatolia, and it had also rescinded the region of Phrygia Major from Pontus during the reign of Laodice. Mithridates began his expansion by inheriting Lesser Armenia from King Antipater (precise date unknown, c.115–106) and by conquering the Kingdom of Colchis. Colchis was an important region in Black Sea traderich with gold, wax, hemp, and honey. The cities of the Tauric Chersonesus now appealed for his aid against the Scythians in the north. Mithridates sent 6,000 men under General Diophantus. After various campaigns in the north of the Crimea he controlled all of the Chersonesus. Mithridates also developed trade links with cities on the western Black Sea coast.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: At the time, Rome was fighting the Jugurthine and Cimbric wars. Mithridates and Nicomedes of Bithynia both invaded Paphlagonia and divided it amongst themselves. A Roman embassy was sent, but it accomplished nothing. Mithridates also took a part of Galatia that had previously been part of his father's kingdom and intervened in Cappadocia, where his sister Laodice was queen. In 116 the king of Cappadocia, AriarathesVI, was murdered by the Cappadocian noble Gordius at the behest of Mithridates, and Laodice ruled as regent over the sons of Ariarathes until 102BC. After Nicomedes III of Bithynia married Laodice, he tried to intervene in the region by sending troops; Mithridates swiftly invaded, placing his nephew Ariarathes VII of Cappadocia on the throne of Cappadocia. War soon broke out between the two, and Mithridates invaded with a large Pontic army, but AriarathesVII was murdered in 101BC before any battle was fought. Mithridates then installed his eight-year-old son, Ariarathes IX of Cappadocia as king, with Gordius as regent. In 97 Cappadocia rebelled, but the uprising was swiftly put down by Mithridates. Afterwards, Mithridates and NicomedesIII both sent embassies to Rome. The Roman Senate decreed that Mithridates had to withdraw from Cappadocia and Nicomedes from Paphlagonia. Mithridates obliged, and the Romans installed Ariobarzanes in Cappadocia. In 91/90BC, while Rome was busy in the Social War in Italy, Mithridates encouraged his new ally and son-in-law, King Tigranes the Great of Armenia, to invade Cappadocia, which he did, and Ariobarzanes fled to Rome. Mithridates then deposed NicomedesIV from Bithynia, placing Socrates Chrestus on the throne.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: A Roman army under Manius Aquillius arrived in Asia Minor in 90BC, which prompted Mithridates and Tigranes to withdraw. Cappadocia and Bithynia were restored to their respective monarchs, but then faced large debts to Rome due to their bribes for the Roman senators, and NicomedesIV was eventually convinced by Aquillius to attack Pontus in order to repay the debts. He plundered as far as Amastris, and returned with much loot. Mithridates invaded Cappadocia once again, and Rome declared war.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: In the summer of 89 BC, Mithridates invaded Bithynia and defeated Nicomedes and Aquillius in battle. He moved swiftly into Roman Asia and resistance crumbled; by 88 he had obtained the surrender of most of the newly created province. He was welcomed in many cities, where the residents chafed under Roman tax farming. In 88 Mithridates also ordered the massacre of at least 80,000 Romans and Italians in what became known as the 'Asiatic Vespers'. Many Greek cities in Asia Minor happily carried out the orders; this ensured that they could no longer return to an alliance with Rome. In the autumn of 88 Mithridates also placed Rhodes under siege, but he failed to take it.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: In Athens, anti-Roman elements were emboldened by the news and soon formed an alliance with Mithridates. A joint Pontic–Athenian naval expedition took Delos in 88BC, and granted the city to Athens. Many Greek city-states now joined Mithridates, including Sparta, the Achaean League, and most of the Boeotian League except Thespiae. Finally, in 87 BC, Lucius Cornelius Sulla set out from Italy with five legions. He marched through Boeotia, which quickly surrendered, and began laying siege to Athens and the Piraeus (the Athenian port city, no longer connected by the Long Walls). Athens fell in March 86BC, and the city was sacked. After stiff resistance, Archelaus, the Pontic general in Piraeus, left by sea, and Sulla utterly destroyed the port city. Meanwhile, Mithridates had sent his son Arcathias with a large army via Thrace into Greece.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: Sulla now headed north, seeking the fertile plains of Boeotia to supply his army. At the Battle of Chaeronea, Sulla inflicted severe casualties on Archelaus, who nevertheless retreated and continued to raid Greece with the Pontic fleet. Archelaus regrouped and attacked a second time at the Battle of Orchomenus in 85BC but was once again defeated and suffered heavy losses. As a result of the losses and the unrest they stirred in Asia Minor, as well as the presence of the Roman army now campaigning in Bithynia, Mithridates was forced to accept a peace deal. Mithridates and Sulla met in 85BC at Dardanus. Sulla decreed that Mithridates had to surrender Roman Asia and return Bithynia and Cappadocia to their former kings. He also had to pay 2,000 talents and provide ships. Mithridates would retain the rest of his holdings and become an ally of Rome.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: The treaty agreed with Sulla was not to last. From 83 to 82BC Mithridates fought against and defeated Licinius Murena, who had been left by Sulla to organize the province of Asia. The so-called Second Mithridatic war ended without any territorial gains by either side. The Romans now began securing the coastal region of Lycia and Pamphylia from pirates and established control over Pisidia and Lycaonia. When in 74 the consul Lucullus took over Cilicia, Mithridates faced Roman commanders on two fronts. The Cilician pirates had not been completely defeated, and Mithridates signed an alliance with them. He was also allied with the government of Quintus Sertorius in Spain and with his help reorganized some of his troops in the Roman legionary pattern with short stabbing swords.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: The Third Mithridatic war broke out when NicomedesIV of Bithynia died without heirs in 75 and left his kingdom to Rome. In 74BC Rome mobilized its armies in Asia Minor, probably provoked by some move made by Mithridates, but our sources are not clear on this. In 73 Mithridates invaded Bithynia, and his fleet defeated the Romans off Chalcedon and laid siege to Cyzicus. Lucullus marched from Phrygia with his five legions and forced Mithridates to retreat to Pontus. In 72BC Lucullus invaded Pontus through Galatia and marched north following the river Halys to the north coast, he besieged Amisus, which withstood until 70BC. In 71 he marched through the Iris and Lycus river valleys and established his base in Cabeira. Mithridates sent his cavalry to cut the Roman supply line to Cappadocia in the south, but they suffered heavy casualties. Mithridates, still unwilling to fight a decisive engagement, now began a retreat to Lesser Armenia, where he expected aid from his ally Tigranes the Great. Because of his now weakened cavalry, the retreat turned into an all-out rout, and most of the Pontic army was destroyed or captured. These events led Machares, the son of Mithridates and ruler of the Crimean Bosporus, to seek an alliance with Rome. Mithridates fled to Armenia.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: In the summer of 69 Lucullus invaded Armenian territory, marching with 12,000 men through Cappadocia into Sophene. His target was Tigranocerta, the new capital of Tigranes's empire. Tigranes retreated to gather his forces. Lucullus laid siege to the city, and Tigranes returned with his army, including large numbers of heavily armored cavalrymen, termed Cataphracts, vastly outnumbering Lucullus' force. Despite this, Lucullus led his men in a charge against the Armenian horses and won a great victory at the Battle of Tigranocerta. Tigranes fled north while Lucullus destroyed his new capital city and dismantled his holdings in the south by granting independence to Sophene and returning Syria to the Seleucid king Antiochus XIII Asiaticus. In 68BC Lucullus invaded northern Armenia, ravaging the country and capturing Nisibis, but Tigranes avoided battle. Meanwhile, Mithridates invaded Pontus, and in 67 he defeated a large Roman force near Zela. Lucullus, now in command of tired and discontented troops, withdrew to Pontus, then to Galatia. He was replaced by two new consuls arriving from Italy with fresh legions, Marcius Rex and Acilius Glabrio. Mithridates now recovered Pontus while Tigranes invaded Cappadocia.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: In response to increasing pirate activity in the eastern Mediterranean, the senate granted Pompey extensive proconsular Imperium throughout the Mediterranean in 67BC. Pompey eliminated the pirates, and in 66 he was assigned command in Asia Minor to deal with Pontus. Pompey organized his forces, close to 45,000 legionaries, including Lucullus' troops, and signed an alliance with the Parthians, who attacked and kept Tigranes busy in the east. Mithridates massed his army, some 30,000 men and 2,000–3,000 cavalry, in the heights of Dasteira in lesser Armenia. Pompey fought to encircle him with earthworks for six weeks, but Mithridates eventually retreated north. Pompey pursued and managed to catch his forces by surprise in the night, and the Pontic army suffered heavy casualties. After the battle, Pompey founded the city of Nicopolis. Mithridates fled to Colchis, and later to his son Machares in the Crimea in 65BC. Pompey now headed east into Armenia, where Tigranes submitted to him, placing his royal diadem at his feet. Pompey took most of Tigranes' empire in the east but allowed him to remain as king of Armenia. Meanwhile, Mithridates was organizing a defense of the Crimea when his son Pharnaces led the army in revolt; Mithridates was forced to commit suicide or was assassinated.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: Most of the western half of Pontus and the Greek cities of the coast, including Sinope, were annexed by Rome directly as part of the Roman province of Bithynia et Pontus. The interior and eastern coast remained an independent client kingdom. The Bosporan Kingdom also remained independent under Pharnaces II of Pontus as an ally and friend of Rome. Colchis was also made into a client kingdom. PharnacesII later made an attempt at reconquering Pontus. During the civil war of Caesar and Pompey, he invaded Asia Minor (48BC), taking Colchis, lesser Armenia, Pontus, and Cappadocia and defeating a Roman army at Nicopolis. Caesar responded swiftly and defeated him at Zela, where he uttered the famous phrase 'Veni, vidi, vici'. Pontic kings continued to rule the client Kingdom of Pontus, Colchis, and Cilicia until PolemonII was forced to abdicate the Pontic throne by Nero in AD 62.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: Although the Pontic kings claimed descent from the Persian royal house, they generally acted as Hellenistic kings and portrayed themselves as such in their coins, mimicking Alexander's royal "stater".


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: The army of the Pontic Kingdom had a varied ethnic composition, as it recruited its soldiers from all over the kingdom. The standing army included Armenians, Bithynians, Cappadocians, Galatians, Heniochoi, Iazyges, Koralloi, Leucosyrians, Phrygians, Sarmatians, Scythians, Tauri, Thracians and Vasternoi, as well as soldiers from other areas around the Black Sea. The Greeks who served in the military were not part of the standing army, but rather fought as citizens of their respective cities. Like many Hellenistic armies, the army of Pontus adopted the Macedonian phalanx; it fielded a corps of "Chalkaspides" ('bronze-shields'), for example against Sulla at the Battle of Chaeronea, while at the same battle 15,000 phalangites were recruited from freed slaves. Pontus also fielded various cavalry units, including cataphracts. In addition to normal cavalry Pontus also fielded scythed chariots. Under Mithridates VI Pontus also fielded a corps of 120,000 troops armed "in the Roman fashion" and "drilled in the Roman phalanx formation". These units imitated Roman legions, although it is disputed to what degree they achieved this.


title: Kingdom of Pontus

text: The navy was organized in a similar fashion as the army. While the kingdom itself provided the main contingent of ships, a small portion represented the Greek cities. The crewmen either came from the various tribes of the kingdom, or were of Greek origin.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: Pete (also called Peg-Leg Pete, Bad Pete and Black Pete, among other names) is a fictional character of The Walt Disney Company. Created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, Pete is traditionally depicted as the arch-nemesis of Mickey Mouse and his associates in various cartoons and comics. He originally bore the appearance of an anthropomorphic bear, but with the advent of Mickey in 1928, he was defined as a cat. Pete is the oldest continuing Disney character, having debuted three years before Mickey Mouse in the cartoon "Alice Solves the Puzzle" (1925). Pete was unnamed in the first year of Mickey Mouse cartoons until 1930, when he was given the name “Peg-Leg Pete”.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: Pete appeared in 67 animated short films between 1925 and 1954, having been featured in the "Alice Comedies" and "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" cartoons, and later in the "Mickey Mouse", "Donald Duck", and "Goofy" cartoons. Pete's final appearance during this era was "The Lone Chipmunks" (1954), which was the final installment of a three-part "Chip n' Dale" series. He also appeared in the short films "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (1983), "The Prince and the Pauper" (1990), "" (2004), and "Get a Horse!" (2013).


title: Pete (Disney)

text: Pete has also made many appearances in Disney comics. He appeared as Sylvester Shyster's dimwitted sidekick in the early "Mickey Mouse" comic strips before evolving into the main antagonist. In the Italian comics production he has been given a girlfriend, Trudy, and has come to be the central character in some stories. Pete later made several appearances in television, most extensively in "Goof Troop" (1992–1993) where he was given a different continuity, having a family and a regular job as a used car salesman and being a friend (albeit a poor one) to Goofy. He reprises this incarnation in 1999's "Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas." Pete also appears in "House of Mouse" (2001–2003) as the greedy property owner who is always trying to exploit devious ways and loopholes to get the club shut down.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: Although Pete is often typecast as a villain, he has shown great versatility within the role, playing everything from a hardened criminal ("The Dognapper", "The Lone Chipmunks" and most of his depictions in comics) to a legitimate authority figure ("Moving Day", "Donald Gets Drafted", "Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip"), and from a menacing trouble maker ("Building a Building", "Trombone Trouble") to a victim of mischief himself ("Timber", "The Vanishing Private"). On some occasions, Pete has even played a sympathetic character, all the while maintaining his underlying menacing nature. ("Symphony Hour", "How to Be a Detective") In the animated TV series "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse", which is aimed at preschoolers, he is largely a friendly character, although his antics can occasionally prove an annoyance.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: Pete first appeared in the Walt Disney-produced 1920s "Alice Comedies" short subject series. He first appeared in "Alice Solves the Puzzle" (February 15, 1925) as Bootleg Pete. His nickname was a reference to his career of bootlegging alcoholic beverages during Prohibition in the United States (1920-1933). In the cartoon, Pete's activities bring him to a beach in time to see Alice working on a crossword puzzle. Pete happens to be a collector of crossword puzzles, and identifies Alice's puzzle being a rare one missing from his collection. The rest of the short focuses on his antagonizing Alice and her drunk-on-moonshine cat Julius in order to steal it. The menacing, peg-legged bear villain commanded quite a presence on the screen and was destined to return. In various later Alice Comedies, the character again battled and competed with Alice and Julius, often under the aliases Putrid Pete and Pegleg Pete.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: Disney needed a villain to place against his new star Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and Pete was introduced to his new adversary in the sixth Oswald short "The Ocean Hop" (September 8, 1927). Apparently inspired by Charles Lindbergh, the two enter an aeroplane race across the Atlantic Ocean. By the time producer Charles Mintz moved production of the Oswald series to his own studio, Pete had been established as the most consistently appearing supporting character to Oswald, and the character continued to appear in that role in the Oswald films directed and produced by Walter Lantz until 1937, making him essentially the only cartoon character at the time to frequently appear in shorts produced by two rival animation studios. His most notable non-Disney appearance was arguably as a captain in "Permanent Wave" (September 29, 1929).


title: Pete (Disney)

text: After leaving the Oswald series, Disney and his team created a cat villain for their new protagonist Mickey Mouse. Originally unnamed in the cartoons and called "Terrible Tom" in a January 1930 comic strip, the villain was called Pegleg Pete by April 1930, formalizing him as a new incarnation of the pre-Mickey bad guy. Animator Norm Ferguson, known for developing Pluto, also developed Pete's character in several shorts and he was made to resemble actor Wallace Beery.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: Pete appeared as Mickey's enemy beginning with the 1928 cartoons "The Gallopin' Gaucho" and "Steamboat Willie". While he was seen with two legs in those films, he first appeared with a peg-leg in 1930's "The Cactus Kid" and would speak for the first time. He would first appear in color in "Moving Day" (1936), which would drop the peg-leg. In the cartoons of the 1930s, Pete would be Mickey Mouse's nemesis, but would vary in professions, from an all-out outlaw ("Gallopin' Gaucho", "The Cactus Kid", "Two-Gun Mickey") to a brutal law-enforcer ("Moving Day", where Pete is a sheriff who serves Mickey and Donald Duck with an eviction notice). On the other hand, in the 1942 cartoon "Symphony Hour", Pete is a sympathetic impresario who sponsors Mickey's orchestra in a concert, which goes terribly wrong but is a great success. As Mickey's popularity declined, Pete would serve as an antagonist for Donald Duck and to a lesser extent Goofy and Chip 'n' Dale.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: In Disney comics, Pete is consistently depicted as a hardened criminal, who often teams up with Mickey Mouse enemies Sylvester Shyster, Eli Squinch, or the Phantom Blot.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: In a promotional strip for the "Mickey Mouse" comic strip in early 1930, he was announced as "Terrible Tom – The Vile Villain", but this name was never used afterwards. In the April 24, 1930 strip, Mickey refers to him as "Pegleg Pete", and the name sticks. Pete first appeared in the "Mickey Mouse" comic strip on April 21, 1930, in the story "Mickey Mouse in Death Valley." This appearance is the first time since the "Alice Comedies" that Pete has a pegleg. Floyd Gottfredson occasionally committed goofs, with the pegleg switching from Pete's right leg to his left one. In the August 26, 1930 strip, Pete's peg swaps from right to left between one panel to the next. Pete's pegleg also appears on the left in the July 11 strip, and for the week of September 3 to 9. In Gottfredson's story "The Mystery at Hidden River" (1941–42), the pegleg disappeared, with Pete having two normal legs: when Mickey expressed surprise at this, Pete described one of his legs as a new, "streamlined, modern" artificial leg.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: In 1944, Walt Disney decided to retire the character from the shorts; comics historian Alberto Becattini writes that this was "partly because he was concerned that it seemed to be a case of mocking the afflicted, partly because the animators could never remember which leg was the wooden one." Pete also left the comic strip for a few years; his last appearance was in "The World of Tomorrow", which ran from July to September 1944.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: However, Pete continued to appear in the comic books – in 1945, he was the heavy in the Donald Duck comic "Frozen Gold" ("Four Color" #62, Jan 1945) and in Mickey's "The Riddle of the Red Hat" ("Four Color" #79, Aug 1945). He surfaced again in a number of "giveaway" comics in 1946 and '47 – "Mickey's Christmas Trees" ("Donald and Mickey Merry Christmas", 1946), "Donald and the Pirates" (Cheerios Premium #W1, 1947), "Mickey Mouse and the Haunted House" (Cheerios Premium #W4, 1947), "Mickey Mouse at the Rodeo" (Cheerios Premium #X4, 1947), "Mickey Mouse's Helicopter" ("Boys and Girls March of Comics Giveaway" #8, 1947) – and came back to the comic books in "Mickey Mouse and the Submarine Pirates" ("Four Color" #141, March 1947).


title: Pete (Disney)

text: With Pete still appearing in comic books, Gottfredson brought him back to the comic strip in "Pegleg Pete Reforms" (March 1947). His last appearance in the strip was in "The Isle of Moola-La" (April-Oct 1952). From then on, he made many more appearances in the comic books.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: In "Mickey Mouse in Death Valley" and in several subsequent storylines, Pete was portrayed as Sylvester Shyster's henchman. From 1934, he gradually started to work on his own. Sometimes, Pete also teams up with other bad guys in the Disney universe, such as Scrooge McDuck's enemies (the Beagle Boys and Magica De Spell), Mad Madam Mim, Captain Hook, and the Evil Queen. In various comics stories, his right-hand man is a skinny, bearded criminal named Scuttle. In Italian comics, his girlfriend Trudy (Trudy Van Tubb) is his frequent partner-in-crime. His cousin the "mad scientist" Portis is another, less frequent, accomplice.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: In the 1943 comic strip story "Mickey Mouse on a Secret Mission", he was an agent of Nazi Germany, working as the henchman of Gestapo spy Von Weasel. In the 1950 comic strip story "The Moook Treasure", he is even portrayed as the Beria-like deputy chief of intelligence in a totalitarian state on the other side of the iron curtain.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: His name in Italy has remained "Pietro Gambadilegno" ("Pegleg Peter"), or simply "Gambadilegno" ("Pegleg") even though it has been a long time since he was actually depicted with a pegleg in either comics or animated cartoons. In an Italian story by Romano Scarpa, "Topolino e la dimensione Delta" ("Mickey Mouse and the Delta Dimension", first published in 1959), Pete briefly removes his artificial leg, revealing his old foot-high pegleg underneath. Usually, Gambadilegno is depicted as the antagonist of Chief Seamus O'Hara ("commissario Adamo Basettoni") and Detective Casey ("ispettore Manetta") and is either a rival or a partner-in-crime of the Phantom Blot ("Macchia Nera").


title: Pete (Disney)

text: During World War II, Pete was "drafted" by Walt Disney and appeared as the official mascot of the United States Merchant Marine. He appeared in Donald Duck's series of army films where he plays Donald's Drill Sergeant and later Sergeant and Jumpmaster. In the "Mickey Mouse" comic strip, he was a spy for Nazi Germany in the episode "Mickey Mouse on a Secret Mission" (1943), his motivation being the money.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: Comic book stories have depicted Pete as being descended from a long line of villains, highwaymen and outlaws. Even historical figures such as Attila the Hun, Blackbeard, Antonio López de Santa Anna, Billy The Kid, and Cao Cao have been included among his ancestors. His mother is known only as Maw Pete and was mentioned in the story "Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold" by Carl Barks and Jack Hannah (first published October 1942) as a resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her only appearance was in "The River Pirates" ("Walt Disney's Comics and Stories" #336-338, published September-November 1968) by Carl Fallberg and Paul Murry. The same story introduced Li'l Pete, Black Pete's short fraternal twin brother. In December 1998, the "Mickey Mouse" comic strip introduced an older sister of Pete. Petula is the television host of the cooking show "Petula's Pantry". She finds time, however, to seek revenge against Mickey for condemning her "baby brother" to life imprisonment.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: Better-known and more enduring as characters are two figures created by Romano Scarpa for Italian Disney comics. The first, Trudy Van Tubb, was introduced in "Topolino e la collana Chirikawa" (published in English as "The Chirikawa Necklace", first published on March 10, 1960). This female partner of Pete was presented as a childhood acquaintance of his: they are even shown as kids kidnapping Mickey when he was a baby. However, Trudy soon became Pete's girlfriend, his partner-in-crime and roommate—whenever they hold residence out of prison, that is. Their relationship seems to have evolved to a long-standing common-law marriage. This is occasionally used in contrast to Mickey's eternal engagement to Minnie Mouse and Goofy's determination to remain a bachelor. Trudy and Pete also have two hellion nephews named Pierino and Pieretto who often serve as foils for Mickey or Mickey's nephews Morty and Ferdie.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: The second character to be created by Scarpa is Pete's cousin, the criminal scientist Portis (Plottigat in the original Italian version; English name first used in "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories" 695, 2008). Portis first appeared in "Topolino e il Pippo-lupo"" (published in English as "The Weregoof's Curse"; January 9, 1977).


title: Pete (Disney)

text: Ed Nofziger is responsible for a third recurring character, an alternative girlfriend of Pete named Chirpy Bird. She first appeared in "Topolino e i piccioni "poliziotti"" ("Mickey Mouse and the Pidgeon Police", first published in December 1981) and starred as Pete's partner-in-crime in eight stories from 1981 to 1984. In France, she and Trudy are presented as the same character, being both renamed Gertrude, despite Trudy being a cat and Chirpy being a canary.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: In "Mickey Mouse Works", Pete has another cousin named Zeke. Zeke is a criminal like Pete, but is wary of his cousin's attempts to double-cross him "Just like old Times". Mickey often uses this distrust to turn the two against one-another.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: In "Goof Troop", Pete has a wife, Peg, and two children, PJ and Pistol. Alternatively, the comic book story "Mickey's Strange Mission" from "Walt Disney's Comics & Stories" #245 (1961, by Carl Fallberg and Paul Murry) suggests a cultured ancestry for Pete, giving his full name as the genteel Percy P. Percival.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: In the Italian comic story of 1998, "Topolino e il diario di zia Topolinda" ("Mickey Mouse and Aunt Melinda's diary") Pete's grandma appears, depicted as the only honest member of his family.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: In the first season of the 1987 TV series "DuckTales", Pete appeared in a few episodes. However, he was portrayed as a different character in each of his appearances. Because of this, he was not always a true villain, but sometimes just a selfish individual with no evil agenda. In a few episodes, he even makes peace with Scrooge's group in the end. The various Petes appear to be their own characters, as two of them lived in different time periods, and because Scrooge never "recognizes" him, despite any previous encounters he may have had with any of the other Petes. In all of his appearances Pete was voiced by Will Ryan.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: In the 1992 TV series "Goof Troop", Pete has a family who includes his wife Peg, their two children Pete Junior (or PJ for short) and Pistol, and their dog Chainsaw with Pete taking on a more canine-like appearance. They live next door to Goofy (who went to high school with Pete) and his son Max. In the series, Pete is often the victim of Goofy's clumsiness and mishaps, usually resulting in the destruction of his property or great personal injury. Pete owns a used-car dealership, and though no longer openly villainous, is still conniving (as well as abrasive, obnoxious, truculent and suspicious) and often exploits his good-hearted and somewhat addled friend Goofy. Often, his schemes backfire, or he feels guilty about his oafish behavior and works to set things right. His wife Peg often attempts to rid Pete of his uncouth attitude, and his son PJ is a complete opposite of his father in behavior, as he is good friends with Goofy's son Max in the series and its spin-off movies "A Goofy Movie" (1995) and "An Extremely Goofy Movie" (2000). Jim Cummings provided Pete's booming bass voice starting from that series, and to date is still the character's voice in all media. It is eventually revealed in the series' pilot episode "Forever Goof" that one of the reasons why Pete dislikes Goofy so much is that when Pete was a high school quarterback in a big football game, it was Goofy who accidentally caused Pete to fumble the ball and lose the game by hitting him in the face with a pom pom (Goofy was on the cheerleading squad).


title: Pete (Disney)

text: After "Goof Troop", Pete reverted to his evil ways on "Mickey Mouse Works", where he frequently bullied the other characters and occasionally kidnapped Minnie Mouse. He would also play an average criminal (i.e. a house burglar). Then in "House of Mouse", he plays the role of the evil landlord. Several episodes involved his attempts to close the club by sabotaging the show, though there were times when he helped out the crew.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: Pete appears in numerous episodes of "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse". He maintains his protagonist and semi-antagonist role, but is significantly toned down for its preschool audience—he is less malicious and more mischievous. Viewers will find that Mickey and gang are very forgiving of Pete and his escapades. He often appears as a seller of objects the gang needs, and will give them an item in exchange for beans. He is much nicer than his previous incarnations—in one episode, he invites the group to a Halloween party; in "Pete's Beach Blanket Luau", he even invites everyone to the titular party.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: While "Clubhouse" has a great deal of fun at Pete's expense (or "expanse", as he is the biggest and fattest character; they use his overalls for a sail in "Mickey and Minnie's Jungle Safari"), it also depicts him in a sympathetic light; he is openly sentimental in "Clarabelle's Clubhouse Carnival", not wanting to part with his "Petey doll" prizes. He even changes Baby Goofy's diaper (willingly) in "Goofy Baby".


title: Pete (Disney)

text: The "Carnival" episode also gives us the closest approximation of Pete's weight; he is shown to be the same size and weight as Humphrey the Bear.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: In "Mickey's Great Clubhouse Hunt", he is the only character not invited to the Easter Egg Hunt (or so he thinks), so he tries to gatecrash, but messes up the secret word, causing the clubhouse to float away. At the end, he apologizes and is invited to the egg hunt after all. He is also revealed as the owner of Butch the Bulldog, who is friends with Mickey's dog, Pluto.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: Pete also appears in "Mickey and the Roadster Racers" as a recurring character, either competing against Mickey and friends in races or as a civilian in various locales. The series also features various alter egos/relatives of Pete:


title: Pete (Disney)

text: Pete appears in the 2013 "Mickey Mouse" cartoon series, and its 2020 spin-off "The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse". In both shows, he is designed based on his appearances in the early Mickey Mouse cartoons, complete with a peg-leg. Like "Mickey Mouse Works" and "House of Mouse", he has reverted to his evil ways, and again his booming bass voice is provided by Jim Cummings.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: In the 1983 short film "Mickey's Christmas Carol", an adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel "A Christmas Carol" featuring Disney characters, Pete was cast as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, who reveals himself by removing his hood and lighting a cigar, which also lights up the engraving on Scrooge's grave, and having only one line ("Why "yours", Ebenezer. The richest man in the cemetery!", in response to Scrooge's question about whose grave it was) and laughing cruelly while Scrooge struggles to escape from his open grave as the gates of Hell are opening. Pete also made a non-speaking cameo appearance as a Toontown police officer in the very final scene of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" - he is viewed from the back, alongside Tom and Jerry's Spike and Horace Horsecollar in security uniforms, just before Porky Pig and Tinkerbell close the movie. Pete later appeared in "A Goofy Movie" and its sequel where he was shown in a much lighter tone as these movies are based on "Goof Troop". He is Goofy's best friend and confidant in the films. However, he is still arrogant and somewhat grouchy.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: In this Disney version of Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper", Pete once again played as the primary villain, this time as the English king's captain of the guard. When he saw that his ruler's life was slowly diminishing, he and his henchmen, a band of anthropomorphic weasels (from "The Wind in the Willows") who now act as the king's guards, seized the opportunity to terrorize England's citizens and rob them of their goods in "favor" of the king. After kicking out a disguised Prince, whom he mistook for the peasant boy Mickey Mouse, out of his kingdom, he later receives word from one of his guards that the Prince was seen a causing a commotion in the village, as the guard claimed that he "acted like a nobleman and he had the royal ring!" Pete suddenly realizes that it was indeed the Prince he "booted out" and seizes another opportunity out of this. That night, after the king passes away, Pete finds the "phony prince" (Mickey), threatening the life of his dog, Pluto, unless Mickey follows his commands. In the village, he soon finds and captures the real Prince and takes him to the castle's dungeon to lock him up. On the day of the Prince's coronation, Pete plots to get Mickey crowned as king, though Mickey is still subservient to Pete's orders. His plan, however, is thwarted when the Prince suddenly appears in the throne room, having busted out of the dungeon and evading the guards with the help of Goofy (Mickey's peasant friend) and Donald Duck (the Prince's valet). A sudden battle in the throne room (Mickey and the Prince vs. Pete; Goofy and Donald vs. the Weasel Guards) results in Pete's defeat, as Goofy's bumbling antics cause a chandelier to fall on the weasels, bundle them together, and send them rolling towards Pete. Pete, seeing this, tries to flee but is slowed down by his ripped-down pants (courtesy of the Prince's swashbuckling skills) and tripped by both the Prince and Mickey, causing him to get rolled over and caught on the chandelier, which sends him and his men rolling through a stained glass window and falling out of the castle.


title: Pete (Disney)

text: In the 2002 direct-to-video "House of Mouse" spinoff film "Mickey's House of Villains", Pete and other Disney villains' guest appearances from "House of Mouse" are featured. He takes part in the musical number "It's Our House Now."


title: Pete (Disney)

text: In the 2004 made-for-video animated film "" (with Mickey, Donald Duck, and Goofy playing the title roles), Pete again appeared under the name Peg-Leg Pete. He served as the main antagonist of the film. Here, he was the Captain of the Musketeers, aiming to take over France, with the help of his lieutenant, Clarabelle Cow, and the Beagle Boys. To do so, he must get Princess Minnie out of the way, but it proves to be difficult for him, even when he hires the film's titular trio to be her bodyguards, believing they will not do a good job protecting her. He received his own "bad guy song", using the classic music piece "In the Hall of the Mountain King".


title: Pete (Disney)

text: Pete makes a cameo appearance in the 2022 film "", where he was seen riding the Magic Carpet and dressed as Prince Ali from the 1992 version of "Aladdin".


title: Pete (Disney)

text: Pete is depicted as a recurring villain within the "Kingdom Hearts" video game series. He was originally a steamboat captain, with Mickey Mouse as his deck hand (as they were seen in "Steamboat Willie"), and later the captain of the Royal Musketeers until his plans for a coup were foiled by Mickey (as they were seen in "The Three Musketeers"). After Disney Castle was built in their world, with Mickey its new king, Pete began causing all sorts of mischief until he was banished to another dimension. He was subsequently freed by Maleficent, to whom he became indebted, and vowed to amass an army of Heartless, creatures born from the darkness of people's hearts, to return the favor.


title: American Girl

text: American Girl is an American line of dolls released on May 5, 1986, by Pleasant Company. The dolls portray eight- to fourteen-year-old boys and girls of a variety of ethnicities, faiths, and social classes from different time periods throughout history. They are sold with accompanying books told from the viewpoint of the girls. Originally the stories focused on various periods of American history, but were expanded to include characters and stories from contemporary life. Aside from the original American Girl dolls, buyers also have the option to purchase dolls that look like themselves. The options for the line of "Truly Me" dolls include eye color, face mold, skin color, hair texture, and hair length. A variety of related clothing and accessories is also available. A service for ordering a custom-made doll with features and clothing specified by the owner, dubbed "Create Your Own", has also been introduced in 2017.


title: American Girl

text: Pleasant Company was founded in 1986 by Pleasant Rowland in Middleton, Wisconsin, and its products were originally purchasable by mail order only. In 1998, Pleasant Company became a subsidiary of Mattel after Mattel purchased the company for $700 million. The company has been awarded the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Award eight times, and was inducted in the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2021.


title: American Girl

text: The "Historical Characters" line of 18-inch dolls, which were derived from the 18-inch dolls made by Götz in West Germany (known as Germany from October 1990) during the late 1980s to the 1990s, were initially the main focus of Pleasant Company, founded by Pleasant Rowland in 1986. This product line aims to teach aspects of American history through a six-book series from the perspective of a girl living in that time period. Pleasant Rowland came up with the idea after she returned from a trip to Colonial Williamsburg, where she noticed there was a significant void in the toy market for younger aged dolls and saw an opportunity to provide an alternative to baby and adult dolls. Although the books are written for girls who are at least eight years old, they endeavor to cover significant topics such as child labor, child abuse, poverty, racism, slavery, animal abuse and war in manners appropriate for the understanding and sensibilities of their young audience.


title: American Girl

text: In 1994, Pleasant Company released a line of contemporary dolls called "American Girl of Today". In 2006, the product line was renamed "Just Like You"; it was changed again in 2010 to "My American Girl", and in 2015 to "Truly Me". This line has included ninety-two different dolls over the years. Each doll has a different combination of face mold, skin tone, eye color, and hair color, length, texture, and/or style. American Girl states that this variety allows customers to choose dolls that "represent the individuality and diversity of today's American girls." A wide variety of contemporary clothing, accessories, and furniture is also available, and there are regular releases and retirements to update this line. Each year, a "Girl of the Year" doll is released who has her own special talent; for example, Mia St. Clair, the Girl of the Year for 2008, was an ice skater, and Marisol Luna, the Girl of the Year for 2005, was a dancer.


title: American Girl

text: "Girls of Many Lands" was released by American Girl in the holiday season of 2002. Each doll was 9 inches tall and represented a 12-year-old girl from a time in history; in addition, each doll came with an accompanying book. Along with specific ethnicities, the dolls were given a home country and time period, such as 1592 England, 1711 France, 1846 Ethiopia, and more. Sculpted by Helen Kish, the dolls were meant for display only and were priced from $48 to $54. The doll line lasted until Fall of 2005.


title: American Girl

text: Bitty Baby is a line of 15" baby dolls targeted to children aged three and older. They are cheaper than the 18" dolls, and currently retail at $60 each. In 2013, American Girl Publishing released Bitty Baby books, picture books aimed at girls ages 3-6.


title: American Girl

text: The "Bitty Twins" line debuted in 2003 to represent slightly older toddlers and/or preschoolers. The "Bitty Twins" were the same size as the "Bitty Baby" dolls. They were discontinued in June 2016.


title: American Girl

text: "Hopscotch Hill School" was released by American Girl in 2003. The dolls were tall, came with jointed limbs and painted eyes, and had a slimmer overall body shape. They, along with the stories which came with the dolls written by Valerie Tripp, were aimed at elementary-age girls from four to six years old, and were sold until 2006.


title: American Girl

text: A reboot of the "Historical Characters" line dubbed as "BeForever" was launched in August 2014, complete with redesigned outfits, a two-volume compilation of previously released books, and a "Journey Book" for each character, with players taking the role of a present-day girl who found her way to the past and met up with one of the Historical girls. The line also coincided with the relaunch of Samantha Parkington, whose collection was previously discontinued in 2008.


title: American Girl

text: In June 2016, American Girl unveiled "Wellie Wishers", a separate doll line similar to "Hopscotch Hill School" aimed for younger children and with a focus on the outdoors, positioning it between "Bitty Bab"y and the "BeForever"/"Girl of the Year"/"Truly Me" dolls. As the name implies, dolls from the line wear Wellington (wellie) boots, and have a body design distinct from the classic, Götz-derived American Girl dolls. The line was released on June 23, 2016. The names of the Wellie Wishers are: Willa, Camille, Kendall, Emerson, Ashlyn, and Bryant.


title: American Girl

text: In February 2017, American Girl released a new line of 18" dolls called contemporary characters. The first doll in the line was Tenney Grant, an aspiring country singer and songwriter. Other dolls of the contemporary line include Logan, Tenney's bandmate and American Girl's first ever boy doll, and Z Yang, who is interested in photography and making stop motion videos.


title: American Girl

text: In December 2019, there is a report of declining sales for The American Girl Doll Brand. Following four years of declining sales at Mattel, American Girls sales rose 13% in the fourth quarter of 2020.


title: American Girl

text: Following Mattel's commitment to diversity, growing calls from consumers for more racial diversity in the brand, and the 2020 racial justice protests in the United States, American Girl released a new line of 18" dolls called "World by Us". The dolls and their books promote messages of social justice that is age-appropriate for the line's target audience, and cover subjects such as racism, immigration, and climate change. The line debuted in September 2021 with three dolls: Makena Williams, Maritza Ochoa, and Evette Peeters. The line also features doll outfits designed by Harlem's Fashion Row fashion designers.


title: American Girl

text: In 2004, American Girl teamed with Julia Roberts' Red Om production company and to create the first American Girl direct-to-video movie, "". The film spawned a franchise that was followed by "" (2005), "" (2006), along with the 2008 theatrically released film "", starring Abigail Breslin. In 2009, HBO premiered "". In July 2012, American Girl released a direct-to-video movie, "McKenna Shoots for the Stars". A seventh movie based on Saige Copeland's stories entitled "" was released in July 2013, and a television film, "Isabelle Dances Into the Spotlight", based on Girl of the Year 2014, Isabelle Palmer, was released in 2014. A ninth film based on 2015 Girl of the Year, Grace Thomas, was released under the title "", with Olivia Rodrigo playing the title role. The tenth film, "Lea To The Rescue," was released on June 14, 2016, with Maggie Elizabeth Jones playing Lea Clark.


title: American Girl

text: A live-action web special based on Melody Ellison's stories entitled "" was released by Amazon, starring Marsai Martin as the title character. "Love Has to Win" was then followed by "", starring Alyvia Alyn Lind as Maryellen Larkin and released by Amazon Prime Video on November 25, 2016. Another film entitled "An American Girl Story - Ivy & Julie 1976: A Happy Balance," starring Nina Lu as Ivy Ling and Hannah Nordberg as Julie Albright, was released by Amazon on March 24, 2017.


title: American Girl

text: In February 2019, Mattel Films and MGM announced the development of a live action movie based on the doll line.


title: American Girl

text: The American Girl store sells American Girl dolls, clothes, and accessories. The first store, the 35,000 square-foot American Girl Place, designed by Nancye Green of Donovan/Green, debuted in Chicago in 1998. The original American Girl Place on Chicago Avenue also had a restaurant and 150-seat theater. It was followed by stores in New York City and Los Angeles.


title: American Girl

text: In May 2014, Mattel American Girl opened new stores in Toronto, Ontario and Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada in partnership with Indigo Books and Music. The company has also expressed interest in other overseas ventures, as they are seeing orders from Europe and Latin America. In 2015, the company announced that they were expanding operations in Mexico with two stores at El Palacio de Hierro’s Perisur and Interlomas in Mexico City, and a third in Polanco. In July 2022, the company had 12 retails stores.


title: American Girl

text: The "American Girl" magazine was run by the American Girl company. It was started by the Pleasant Company in Middleton, Wisconsin in 1992, with the first issue dated November/December 1992. Aimed towards girls ages 8–14, the bimonthly magazine included articles, recipes, advice columns, fiction, arts and crafts, and activity ideas. "American Girl" announced in late 2018 that the January/February 2019 issue would be the magazine's last.


title: American Girl

text: American Girl launched Innerstar University, an online virtual world featuring the My American Girl contemporary doll line, on July 13, 2010. Access to the online world is via a Campus Guide, bundled with the purchase of a My American Girl doll, which contains an access code for the creation of a doll avatar that then navigates to various games, shops, and challenges offered on the virtual campus of Innerstar U. In 2015, when My American Girl dolls were changed to "Truly Me" dolls, this website was closed down. The launch was simultaneous with Shine on Now, a fund-raising effort for Kids In Distressed Situations, National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions, National Wildlife Federation, and Save the Children charities. The company has also donated "almost $500,000" over several years to national non-profit homeless housing group HomeAid. These contributions are mainly through its Project Playhouse program.


title: American Girl

text: The company has drawn criticism for the expense of the dolls, which cost $115 without accessories as of December 2014. Buyers can easily spend more than $600 for a doll, outfits, accessories and lunch in the company's store in New York.


title: American Girl

text: Some aspects of the doll's characters and history have also provoked controversy. Some observers questioned why Addy, American Girl's first African-American historical character released in 1993, was portrayed first as a slave (in later stories Addy and her family gain their freedom after the Civil War), while Cecile Rey, American Girl's second black historical character, was portrayed as a well-to-do black girl in New Orleans. American Girl later went on with releasing their first African-American Girl of the Year, Gabriela McBride, who is portrayed as a dancer, artist, and poet. In 2005, residents of Pilsen (a neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois) criticized a passage in the book associated with the Latina-American doll Marisol, claiming it inaccurately depicted their neighborhood as dangerous. A senior public relations associate for American Girl responded to critics saying: “We feel that this brief passage has been taken out of context in the book." The 2009 limited-edition release of Gwen, a homeless American Girl character, was also controversial.


title: American Girl

text: In 2005, some anti-abortion and Catholic groups criticized the company for donating funds to the organization Girls, Inc., which supports underprivileged girls and promotes abortion rights and LGBT acceptance.


title: American Girl

text: The American Girl Place store in New York City was the center of a labor dispute with Actors' Equity Association (AEA). On August 3, 2006, 14 of the 18 adult actors at the store's now defunct theater went on strike. AEA reached a two-year contract effective April 1, 2008. All American Girl Place theatres were subsequently closed in September of that year.


title: American Girl

text: In May 2014, the company was met with criticism on social media over its decision to discontinue four characters from the historical collection, two of them, namely African-American Cécile Rey and Chinese-American Ivy Ling, representing ethnic minorities. They however defended their move as a business decision, as they decided to "move away from the character-friend strategy within the line". A petition has since been filed through the activist group 18MillionRising.org for the company to provide a replacement for Ivy. The company has also drawn criticism for its recent focus on the contemporary line, specifically the Girl of the Year characters and their backstory, to which was viewed as lacking depth and more important issues in comparison to the Historical/BeForever characters' backstories. "" series creator Lauren Faust also expressed her concern and criticism of the line in a Twitter post, stating it "was once radically positive for girls before it was homogenized for money".


title: American Girl

text: In July 2020, an internet meme in the form of a parody advertisement for a fictional Girl of the Year character depicted as a personification of the "Karen" stereotype, wearing a track suit, bob haircut and openly carrying a semi-automatic pistol while defiantly violating face mask guidelines mandated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, provoked criticism from American Girl who took umbrage to the use of their name and trade dress, stating that they were "disgusted" by a post from brand strategist Adam Padilla under the online persona "Adam the Creator", and "are working with the appropriate teams at American Girl to ensure this copyright violation is handled appropriately." Boing Boing however expressed doubts over the merits of American Girl's proposed legal action against the "Karen" parodies citing the Streisand effect, though it has also noted the debate on whether the satirical intent of the parody advertisement is protected by law.


title: American Girl

text: Kaya'aton'my, a Nez Perce character whose story takes place in 1764, and Josefina, a Latina girl from New Mexico in 1824, are both set before colonization and have been criticized for avoiding the topic of genocide through these pre-Western contact settings. With the most noticeably native marketed doll Kaya'aton'my, being the chronologically oldest character in out of all the Historical line's timelines as her story starts in 1764 and by making her the oldest doll in the line, American Girl has been accused of perpetuating the myth that native people are set in the past and ignores modern day natives. Setting Kaya'aton'my in the past also perpetuates the “memory of the Indian” as a fixture of the past and being necessary to the American manifest destiny belief that resulted in the genocide of native people across north America. Nanea's story being set in a colonized Hawaii in 1941, could have fixed this aspect of the avoidance of genocide and colonization, but her story does not mention either of these aspects and depicts Hawaiians to be happy to be a part of the United States as per United States military pamphlets portray of the same time period.


title: American Girl

text: A main critique of the doll line in relation to their native characters is that the dolls themselves are inaccessible to the communities they are intended to be representing. This issue has been brought up before as the dolls have a price tag of over 100 dollars USD, and are not accessible for the average American with children that is the intended audience for the doll brand. This issue of lack of accessibility is compounded by the limited locations available to purchase these dolls as American Girl has a few outlet stores across the United States, and is not accessible to many native people who live on reservations.


title: American Girl

text: Another issue critics have with the American Girl's native representation is that it is coming from a majority non-native company. Although American Girl has a page on their website dedicated to inclusion from voices of black women authors and creators, many other voices are missing from marginalized groups, including native ones.


title: American Girl

text: American Girl worked with a Nez Perce advisory board in the creation of Kaya, and according to senior designer manager Heather Northrop Kaya's face sculpt was made specifically for her according to the Nimiipuu's people's beliefs that baring teeth is considered to be aggressive.


title: American Girl

text: Nanea was based off of a real native Hawaiian woman's experience with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Dorinda Makanaonalani Nicholson. American Girl contacted Nicholson after reading her book "Pearl Harbor Child: A Child's View of Pearl Harbor from Attack to Peace", and invited her to their advisory panel to help develop Nanea's story. Nanea's character is Hawaiian on her mother's side and European on her father's side, so American Girl consulted with Dorinda Makanaonalani Nicholson, a woman with the same heritage, as part of an effort to tell more inclusive and authentic stories.


title: American Girl

text: American Girl attracted considerable criticism in February 2017 when they announced that they will be changing the dolls' bodies to incorporate permanently stitched panties on contemporary dolls and certain "BeForever" character dolls, namely Maryellen, Melody and Julie. Public reaction to the permanent underwear—the first major change since the transition to flesh-colored bodies in 1991 following the release of the Felicity doll—was overwhelmingly negative, as fans of the franchise complained that it stifles customization and devalued a well-established and successful brand "from heirloom quality to be passed down for generations to low-quality retail."