I remember a client back in 2014—a lovely, wealthy woman who had spent three decades acquiring exquisite oils and bronzes—who sat me down in her library, looking utterly defeated. She had a million pounds’ worth of history hanging on her walls, but she couldn’t tell me if a piece was an original or a high-end […]
I once watched a well-meaning collector in my gallery attempt to “freshen up” a mid-century landscape with a damp microfiber cloth and a bit of enthusiasm. It was agonizing. They weren’t being malicious; they were simply falling for the myth that art is like a piece of fine mahogany furniture that needs a regular polish. […]
I once watched a very wealthy, very influential collector spend forty-five minutes trying to decide where to place a small, exquisite oil on copper—12cm by 8cm, 2018—only to end up hanging it nearly two feet above his mantelpiece. It was a tragedy. Most people treat their walls like a game of Tetris, just trying to […]
I remember a young watercolorist—lovely girl, incredibly sensitive work—who came to my gallery in 2004 with a series of breathtaking landscapes, only to watch them turn a sickly, bruised yellow within three years because she’d insisted on using cheap, acidic matting to save a few pounds. It was heartbreaking, not just because the art was […]
I remember standing in my old gallery in the Cotswolds, staring at a beautiful, delicate charcoal sketch by a young man I’d championed for years. It looked like it was breathing—not in a poetic way, but in a literal, terrifying sense. The paper was undulating, developing these sickening, wavy cockles that made the entire composition […]
I remember standing in a client’s sun-drenched drawing room in 2004, watching a beautifully saturated landscape by a local watercolorist turn a sickly, washed-out grey right before my eyes. The owner was convinced she needed a bespoke, museum-grade lighting installation that cost more than the painting itself, believing some high-tech gadget would solve everything. It’s […]
I once spent a frantic Tuesday afternoon in a client’s basement, staring at a stack of oil on canvas that looked less like a curated investment and more like a slow-motion disaster. They had spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on works by artists they loved, only to tuck them away in a space that […]
I remember sitting in the back office of my gallery in 2008, watching a collector stare at a spreadsheet provided by a “specialist” that looked more like a work of fiction than a financial document. He was convinced his dusty assemblage of mid-century abstracts was a gold mine, but the numbers were inflated by nothing […]
I remember a Tuesday in 2014, standing in a client’s hallway, watching a professional mover tilt a heavy, framed landscape just a fraction too far. There was no crash, just a sickening, dull thud against the doorframe that made my stomach drop. That client had spent years meticulously curating their home, yet they had absolutely […]
I remember a Tuesday afternoon in my old gallery, sitting across from a woman who had just inherited a collection of mid-century abstracts. She was terrified, clutching her handbag, convinced that if she didn’t find a “specialist” with a velvet-lined office, she was being swindled. She’d been told that understanding how dealers buy from private […]