Sotheby’s is acquiring an art advisory business managed by Amy Cappellazzo, a former executive from Christie’s, Allan Schwartzman, and Adam Chinn for $85 million, which includes potential earnings based on performance, according to a report by Robin Pogrebin in theNew York Times. The almost two-year-old firm is called Art Agency, Partners and will lead a new fine art division within Sotheby’s auction house, focusing primarily on twentieth-century and contemporary art. This major financial investment comes just on the heels of the house’s strategic decrease in staff, as well as another grab from rival house Christie’s staff.

Cappellazzo is the former chairwoman of Christie’s postwar and contemporary art department. The other managers of Art Agency, Partners are veteran advisor Schwartzman and Chinn, a cofounder of the investment bank Centerview Partners and a former partner at the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. They will bring a fifteen-member staff to Sotheby’s, with Cappellazzo and Schwartzman overseeing specialists in the areas of Impressionist, Modern, and contemporary art departments as well as private sales and the development of a retainer-based advisory business within Sotheby’s. Chinn will take on the role of executive vice president for worldwide transaction support, succeeding the retiring Mitchell Zuckerman.