Storied auction house Sotheby's reported on Monday that sales had dipped last year to $7.9 billion, down $100 million from the record-breaking 2022 which was lifted by pent-up demand following the pandemic.The $7.9 billion total for 2023, which includes everything from art auctions to classic car sales, is down 0.8 percent from the previous year, but up 40 percent up on 2019, the last year before the pandemic hit.