The Top 25 Managers -- The Losers

Worst Firing/Worst Hiring

-- Auction house Christie's eased out CEO CHRISTOPHER DAVIDGE, who then turned over notes about a six-year price-fixing scheme with Sotheby's to U.S. prosecutors. Christie's and Sotheby's were each fined $512 million.

-- Sotheby's then-chairman, Alfred Taubman, appointed DIANA BROOKS CEO in 1994. Brooks pleaded guilty to a single charge of violating antitrust laws in October, laid blame for her participation in the price-fixing conspiracy squarely on her former mentor, and agreed to assist the government in its continuing probe of Taubman.