Art consultant Mollie Dent Brocklehurst,
and Larry Gagosian
Source: artinfo.com


Art Consultant Tea Uestreych
Source: artinfo.com

art consultants have been around for a long time, but over the last decade the demand for their services has grown significantly. Previously, customers relied largely on the opinion of trusted dealers or on your own taste. Now, however, wealthy collectors are increasingly attracted to participate in the transaction a third party - a competent person of the art environment, the material is not interested in its results.

Professional art consultants began to appear in the last third of the last century. In the XIX and first half of XX century, the creation of many major collections, which later formed the basis of collections of famous museums, were legendary art dealers like Joseph Briton Dyuvina ( Joseph Duveen) Frenchman Ambroise Vollard, or (Ambroise Vollard), whose clients were, for example, our famous compatriots Morozov and Shchukin. But the roots go deep into the profession of history: in the XVII century, Diego Velázquez (Diego Velázquez) acted as adviser to King Philip IV of Spain to acquire works of art.

consultants today on the art of serving people which habitually have a staff of assistants and advisers. Chefs, stylists, personal trainers, lawyers, financial consultants, nurses - they are all on the first call are ready to fulfill any whim of the client. Why not add more to this team and a consultant on art? Rich people usually spend most if not all their time caring about money management and to increase it. Creating Art "capital" (purchase and associated social status) also takes time - so it's makes sense to entrust it to a simple matter knowledgeable person. New York's top-class consultant Uestreych Tea (Thea Westreich) explains it this way: "So people want to be sure that there are people who take good care of their special needs." Among the clients Uestreych - Pritzker family (Pritzker) Chicago, one of the wealthiest families in America (owned by the Pritzker, in particular, the hotel chain Hyatt. - AI. ), a prominent businessman Richard Crumley (Richard Kramlich), and those with a large fortune wife Nora and Norman Stone (Norah and Norman Stone). «Our typical customer - a very limited time, a very rich and readable - says Spencer Ewen ( Spencer Ewen), consultant Art of the London-based Seymours, - these people are impressed that we are apart, and from dealers and from auction houses ».

consultant on art - a kind of coveted ticket to the most desirable for collectors. Collector can not just come into a large gallery, throw on the table and $ 20 million to come out with a piece of art under his arm. There is a certain procedure to be followed. Art dealer to be sure that the buyer is not going to somehow capitalize on the work, resell it, for example, the following year at the auction and thereby causing damage to the reputation of the gallery and the artist. Trust in the art business, as in any business, often lining up for years, and the most famous art consultants already have a tried and tested links that make the buying process in the galleries is much easier and faster. Today many collectors sometimes do not even go to those galleries where they get work for their collections. In general, have developed a whole layer of collectors who are in a terrible dream and not dream about what you can do when buying works of art without a consultant specialist. According to Noah Horowitz (Noah Horowitz), author of "The Art of Business: contemporary art and global financial markets» ( The Art of the Deal: Contemporary Art in a Global Financial Market), art consultants, in addition to purely artistic aspects are also involved and the financial side of transactions, such as helping clients to resolve tax issues.

In principle, any former employee of the gallery can write on his business card that he is "art consultant" . Another question - would a serious clients to work with him. The best consultants who earn a very worthy - they are people who have worked for many years in the field of art, often in leadership positions in major galleries or auction houses. A striking example of this is Mollie Dent Brocklehurst, (Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst), former art consultant infamous Dasha Zhukova. Dent-Brocklehurst is not a novice in the art business - in the past she served as Larry Gagosian Gallery (Larry Gagosian) , and is currently the director of the upcoming opening of the London gallery Pace. This series can continue. An influential businessman Steve Cohen (Steve Cohen), for example, uses the services of Sandy Heller (Sandy Heller), who also advises the Roman Abramovich. Howard Rakhiv (Howard Rachofsky), a well-known collector and philanthropist from Dallas, has long cooperated with the influential art adviser Allan Schwartzman (Allan Schwartzman), who also works with a Brazilian billionaire Bernardo Paz (Bernardo Paz) and other famous people.

art career consultant can also help to membership in the Association of Professional Consultants Art (Association of Professional Art Advisors). However, many top-class consultants prefer not to register the organization, as save at least some anonymity.

Collectibles novice counselors become agents in the art world, often filling in gaps in education and helping them to better understand the difficult to understand the works of contemporary artists. Schwartzman cites the work of Robert Reimann (Robert Ryman), many of the paintings which are painted with white paint canvases. "When you first see a picture Reimann at the art fair, you may not realize is absolutely no significance to his art, nor why his works are sold for the money».

But consultants themselves disagree on how much taste and personal preference adviser on art to influence the client. They agree on one thing: their main task - to find the best product for the customer to the best market prices. Some, such as Allan Schwartzman, trying to simultaneously open up new horizons to customers. Thus, to meet with billionaire Schwartzman Bernardo Paz collected works exclusively Brazilian modernists. Now, for his museum Inotim (Inhotim) as he buys the work of leading artists from around the world. And his tastes, in turn, asked the Brazilian fashion among collectors.

Other professionals believe that once a customer pays for everything, then he himself ultimately decide what to invest even if the consultant work is not very congenial. "You honestly express your opinion as to why [the work or the artist], you do not like, but in the end, it's not your money" - says a former London art dealer and art consultant now, Thomas Gibson (Thomas Gibson ).

«In fact, there are clients who say they definitely want to have a collection of" such-and-so ", but this approach is meaningless for a really intelligent person - says Tea Uestreych. - But even this could be the beginning of the dialogue. We can offer an alternative to this approach, and if you're really interested in creating a large collection, the consultant is ready to help you with this ».

There is, however, believed that the growing popularity in recent years, consultants and services leads ultimately to the fact that the collecting process becomes more uniform, and the largest private collections comes less unexpected work. Often, a collector with a consultant simply traverses the list of major artists and tick the popular names that should be in the collection of any self-respecting art lover. But there is another trend: the presence of a large number of loyal customers counselor can afford to inspire collectors to create unusual collections, largely corresponding to the personal preferences of the expert.

Prepared by Mary Estrova, AI

Source: artinvestment.ru