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Former Sotheby's chairman convicted on price fixing charges

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A jury Wednesday found the former chairman of the world's largest auction house guilty of conspiring to fix the price of commission rates.

A jury of eight men and four women convicted former Sotheby's chairman Alfred Taubman, 76, of one count of price fixing after deliberating for nine hours over two days.

Taubman sat impassively as jurors were polled to affirm their guilty verdict.

"We're, of course, very disappointed in the verdict," said Taubman's attorney, Robert Fiske. "We will review our options and decide what's next."

Taubman was accused of conspiring to fix prices at Sotheby's in the 1990s along with Diana "Dede" Brooks, the former president and chief executive at the auction house.

Brooks testified that she helped rig prices on Taubman's orders. She pleaded guilty to violation of U.S. antitrust laws in October 2000. She faces up to three years in prison when she's sentenced later this month.

Brooks, the first woman to head the 256-year-old Sotheby's, was instrumental in securing one of its most successful collections -- the $35 million sale of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' estate.