Earl of Westmorland; Former Chairman of Sotheby’s

The 15th Earl of Westmorland, 69, former chairman of Sotheby’s auction house and close friend of Queen Elizabeth II. Westmorland became chairman of Sotheby’s in 1980 but resigned two years later. Sotheby’s was taken over by an American consortium in 1983, and Westmorland remained a director and then a member of the advisory board. Born David Anthony Thomas Fane, he succeeded to the earldom on his father’s death in 1948. His service to the Royal Family began when he and his brother were pages at the coronation of King George VI, the queen’s father. He was lord in waiting to Elizabeth from 1955-1978. In London on Sept. 8 of the complications of a stroke.