Art Advisory

The Financial Times has an interesting article on how the top art advisory firms are able to influence the art market. The article gives some good insight into the art advisory profession as well as some history, and how it has rapidly grown over the past decade. The top advisors have access where many others dont, and are able take advantage the best opportunities offered from dealers and art fairs. Art advisory covers much territory from educating clients, to seeking the best work at the best prices, arranging financial transactions, and being familiar with tax issues, as well as working with dealers and artist to properly "place" pieces.

The FT reports on art advisors

As an occupation, art advising mainly started after the mid-twentieth century and has really exploded in the past 10 years. Before that, collectors generally relied on art dealers, or were guided by their local museum directors and curators. In the 19th and early twentieth centuries the driving force behind many great collections – often now in museums – were legendary merchants such as Duveen (Morgan, Frick and Mellon), Agnews (Kenwood House) or Vollard (Schukin and Morozov). But “advising is not as new as one might think”, Westreich points out, noting that Velásquez counselled King Philip IV of Spain on his acquisitions in the 17th century.

“Today the playing field is far bigger, and there is no longer a single way of building up a collection,” she says. The vastly expanded art market is not now just concentrated in western Europe and the US; China, India, the Middle East and Latin America all offer a lot of new art and artists. The events are worldwide as well: from art fairs such as Hong Kong and Dubai to biennales, triennials and other happenings, from Yokohama to São Paulo. And the choice is rich, from the proliferation of art galleries to the sophisticated operations of the auction houses. Buyers – who are often busy making money – simply don’t have the time to stay informed about everything that is happening. Advisers’ mobility is important, says Noah Horowitz, author of The Art of the Deal: Contemporary Art in a Global Financial Market. “Their numbers have increased in lockstep with those of independent curators,” he says, adding that “advisers also provide valuable financial services, on tax for instance”.

“Our typical clients are time-poor but very wealthy and savvy,” says Spencer Ewen of the London advisers Seymours. “They like the fact that we are independent from both dealers and the auction rooms.”

Today most of the very wealthy wouldn’t dream of buying art without an adviser. Dasha Zhukova, partner of Roman Abramovich and founder of the Moscow Garage Centre for Contemporary Art, hired the former Gagosian director Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst (she has now moved to run Pace’s new London operation). Hedge fund honcho Steve Cohen works with the New York-based Sandy Heller, who also advises Abramovich. The Dallas philanthropist and collector Howard Rachofsky has been a long-term client of the influential Allan Schwartzman, who also advises Brazilian mining billionaire Bernardo Paz.

To read the full FT article, click HERE.