June 13, 1983

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's election triumph in Britain, after the conservative victory in West Germany's elections three months ago, could persuade the Kremlin to reassess its approach to the Geneva talks on medium-range missiles, Western diplomats here believe. The British election result, returning a Government that has been staunch in its support of Washington's stand in the Geneva talks, effectively closes the door on Soviet hopes of achieving a favorable outcome in the talks through the processes of Western European politics, in the view of a number of well-placed European diplomats who have been monitoring Soviet negotiating strategy. Although elections are to be held next month in Italy, a third nation that has agreed to accept United States medium-range missiles if no agreement is reached in Geneva, the diplomats believe the outcome there is likely to have little impact on Soviet thinking, even if it strengthens left-wing parties opposed to the proposed cruise missile deployments in Sicily. Soviet 'Twin Track' Approach In the diplomats' view, the Kremlin has been pursuing its own version of the West's ''twin-track'' approach to the missile issue - negotiating tentatively at Geneva, while hoping that public opposition to the American missiles would overwhelm the governments that agreed to accept them, eliminating the necessity for substantial Soviet concessions.

In an article Saturday on a possible takeover bid for Sotheby Parke Bernet, the number of shares in the art-auction house held by A. Alfred Taubman was incorrect. Mr. Taubman owns more than 5 percent of the total stock, which is 11 million shares.

The Yankees struggled evenly with Mike Caldwell for 11 innings today before he went reluctantly to the showers. But they still lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-5, in the 12th as Jim Gantner singled home Cecil Cooper with the bases filled, two out and Rudy May pitching with the count at 3-2. The result was a disappointment not only to the Yankees, who have started a long stretch of games against Eastern Division rivals, but also to May, who was scheduled to make his first start since last August on Tuesday in Cleveland. Teammates came over to the veteran and tapped him on the shoulder as he stared, speechless, in the clubhouse after the game. In the Brewer clubhouse, Caldwell was not smiling, either. He has the finest career mark of pitchers who have defeated the Yankees at least 10 times - 12-3, an .800 percentage. But he was lifted after the 11th with the score 5-5.

The United States, Britain, West Germany and Japan should expand their economies more quickly to help avert an international debt crisis and foster world recovery, the Bank for International Settlements said in its annual report. By doing so, the bank said, the four nations would raise demand for the exports of developing countries, enabling them to repay their heavy debts. (Page D1.)

Ever since 1870, when George Garvin Brown sealed the first bottle of Old Forester bourbon and affixed a handwritten label to it, the Brown-Forman Distillers Corporation has not strayed from its basic spirits and wine business. It has been steadfast even through Prohibition, when the Government allowed Brown-Forman to sell its products only by prescription, and more recently, during a slowdown in the growth of industry sales to less than 2 percent a year. But last week, the distiller made its first attempt to diversify. William Lee Lyons Brown Jr., Brown-Forman's 47-year-old president and the great grandson of its founder, announced an offer to acquire Lenox Inc., a maker of fine china, luggage, crystal and rings for an indicated price of $413 million.