Sotheby's, the auction house that sold about $6 billion of art last year, agreed to buy its New York City headquarters for $370 million from RFR Holding Corp. RFR, the New York real estate company controlled by developer Aby Rosen, will receive certain terms on the sale of art works through Sotheby's as part of the deal, Sotheby's said in a regulatory filing today. Sotheby's paid about $750 a square foot. Sotheby's, whose auction totals rose 46 percent last year, is taking advantage of an art boom to repurchase the building, at 1334 York Ave. at 72nd Street, from RFR. The auction house agreed to sell the 493,000-square foot property to an RFR unit for $175 million in late 2002, when Sotheby's was hit with antitrust fines, and closed the sale in February 2003. "This is a strategic asset that is valued by our key clients and by our shareholders," said William Sheridan, Sotheby's chief financial officer, in a telephone interview today. "We had to sell it to pay fines and now our fortunes are really positive and we're back where we started." Sotheby's relations with the developer haven't always been smooth. A year ago, RFR said it was marketing the York Avenue building and had offers of at least $500 million. In August, Sotheby's said RFR violated the terms of its lease, which required the landlord to offer the tower to Sotheby's first. Issues Resolved The auction house said today the purchase "will resolve all open issues" between RFR and the company. German-born Rosen became a figure in New York real estate with the $375 million purchase of the Seagram Building on Park Avenue in 2000. He is a collector who holds contemporary art shows in his Lever House building, is often seen at fairs and auctions and has a seat on the advisory board of Sotheby's smaller rival, Phillips de Pury & Co. U.K. artist Damien Hirst's "The Virgin Mother," a sculpture of a half-skinned pregnant woman, stands outside the landmark Lever House. Asked if Rosen would benefit from not paying commissions when he bought or sold art through Sotheby's, Sheridan said the agreement was "something along those lines." The value of the benefits was "not that material," Sheridan said. Rosen, president of RFR Holding LLC, couldn't be reached for comment. New Credit Deal Sotheby's signed the purchase contract for York Avenue on Jan. 11 and expects to close by July 1, 2009, or before. It plans to finance the deal by assuming an existing $235 million mortgage and using available cash and credit lines, Sotheby's said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The deal required Sotheby's to amend credit agreements with banks and lenders. "It's a fair price, especially considering the lack of offices in that submarket and the tremendous demand from medical institutions for that area of Manhattan," said Dan Fasulo, director of market analysis for Real Capital Analytics Inc., which tracks building sales. "It's like hospital row over there. If that was a vacant building, one of those hospitals would scoop that up in a second." It's also in a neighborhood that boasts some of the highest residential condominium prices in the city. "If you're buying at $750 a foot, you're in good shape long-term,"he said. Sotheby's has auction rooms on York Avenue and in London. London-based Christie's International, Sotheby's main competitor, which also sold about $6 billion of art in 2007, has its New York salerooms across town at 20 Rockefeller Plaza. Sotheby's rose $1.03, or 3.1 percent, to $33.83 at 4:16 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, giving the company a market value of $2.25 billion. In the nine months ended Sept. 30, Sotheby's net income tripled to $110.7 million, or $1.69 a share, from the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 42 percent to $572 million.