Alfred Taubman, mall developer and auction house owner, 1924-2015

Alfred Taubman, who has died aged 91, was the US shopping mall developer best known for buying Sotheby's in 1983 and reviving the venerable auction house — before landing in jail.

That came as a result of a 2001 antitrust conviction for price collusion with the rival Christie’s. Sentenced by a US court to a year, he served nearly 10 months. Sir Anthony Tennant, his opposite number at Christie’s, refused to stand trial and no extradition succeeded by the time of the Briton’s death in 2011.

Taubman had always protested his innocence, saying he was dragged into the scandal by a plea bargain granted to Diana Brooks, his chief executive, in which she admitted guilt but was given six months’ house arrest instead of prison.

Friends were also quoted as saying his white knight purchase of Sotheby's — in which his own art knowledge made his takeover preferable to that of other bidders — took him into a world where the commercial rules were rather different from those that apply in property.

Christopher Davidge, Ms Brooks’s Christie’s counterpart, supplied enough evidence to win himself an amnesty. Between them, the two houses paid clients $530m in compensation for the price fixing.

“Alfred opened the auction process to private collectors in a way that had never been done before and he played a critical role in shaping a modern vision for the art market,” said Domenico De Sole, Chairman of Sotheby’s board. “We are deeply saddened by his passing.”

Robert Taubman, who along with his brother William runs the Michigan based Taubman Centers, a New York listed real estate investment trust that emerged from the company their father founded 65 years ago, told staff the nonagenarian had suffered a heart attack after dinner on Friday night.

“Just last month he was in Puerto Rico to celebrate with us the grand opening of The Mall of San Juan,” Mr Taubman added. That was the latest high-end shopping destination in an empire that extended from its Midwest base to both US coasts as well as China and South Korea.

Taubman was noted for a meticulous attention to detail in planning the interiors of his developments and the fastest way to get to and from them by car. Often, too, he chose to locate them at sparsely populated city edges, betting that housebuilders would follow.

Michael Plummer, who worked with Taubman Sotheby’s at the height the company’s legal trouble described him as a retailing genius and one of the founders of the current auction house business.

His attention to detail extended to the size of the print font used in the auction house’s catalogues.

“One time we were proposing a new catalogue design, he threw a prototype down on this desk and said: ‘And just how old do you think our clients are, twenty? Only a young person can read type this small! You need to make it big enough for our real clients, older folks like me!’’’, Mr Plummer said.

In addition to his sons he is survived by a daughter and his second wife.

He trained as an architect but never qualified, choosing a business route after an impoverished childhood. Born on January 31 1924 to Jewish immigrants from imperial Russia, his father built houses but lost everything in the Depression.

Estimated by Forbes to have had a net worth of $3.1bn, he had sold his controlling stake in Sotheby's in 2006 and supported philanthropic and educational projects. His final public appearance came on Wednesday at the groundbreaking ceremony for a new wing at Michigan university’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.