TEFAF Maastricht, the mother of all art fairs encompassing 7,000 years of art history, normally runs for multiple weeks in March. This week it re-opens for a shortened run. Noted as the centerpiece of the Old Masters calendar, and with Christie’s having held Old Masters sales in New York just a week or two before, I thought it would helpful to speak to William O’Reilly, who runs the New York office of Dickinson. 

Founded in 1993 by Simon Dickinson, the firm boasts that it privately and discreetly handles a uniquely broad range of quality artworks, from early Renaissance masters through to blue-chip Contemporary artists. It is one of the very few firms that can truly say that. 
 
O’Reilly began his career studying Arabic in school. He worked for Christie’s for 10 years rising to be International Head of Old Masters drawings. Since 2018, he has worked at Dickinson which is known for its gallery exhibitions and their curated art fair presentations at places like TEFAF. I hope you enjoy the conversation.

William O'Reilly: The Thrill of Collecting Old Masters

The Artelligence Podcast presented by LiveArt unpacks the mysteries of the global art market through interviews with collectors, dealers, auction house specialists, lawyers, art advisors, and the myriad individuals who make the art market a beguiling mixture of sublime beauty and commercial acumen.

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Dane Jensen just opened his own art advisory firm in Los Angeles. He has worked in the art and auction industry as a curator, auction house specialist and art advisor. He became much more visible after engaging in an epic bidding war over Ernie Barnes’s The Sugar Shack II that sold to energy trader Bill Perkins for more than $15 million at Christie’s in May of 2022. In this podcast, Jensen talks about the role of an art advisor as well as what makes Los Angeles distinctive in terms of its collectors, their goals and what they value. We also talk about Ernie Barnes, how his market has rapidly globalized and, of course, what it was like to bid in that wild auction for The Sugar Shack.

Dane Jensen on Art Advising in Los Angeles and the Ernie Barnes Market

In this podcast, David Galperin, Sotheby’s Head of Contemporary Art for the Americas talks about the success of Justin Caguiat’s work in last month’s The Now sale, the continuing success of Jadé Fadojutimi’s work and how the cycle of discovery has accelerated. Why do young artists or historically overlooked artists launch so quickly into auction sales cycles? How does the discovery market function and what’s the interplay between galleries and auction houses.

Sotheby's David Galperin on Finding the Next Big Name

Natasha Degen is the chair of the graduate program in art market studies at FIT in New York. She has just published a book called Merchants of Style, Art and Fashion after Warhol. 

That subtitle doesn’t really capture the depth and nuance of her book. SHe has written an anatomy of the ways art and fashion have become intertwined in the present-day global economy. 

It’s not just that major fashion brands have latched onto artists as way to market their wares and their brands. Degen unpacks the cultural codes and institutional structures that have promoted this convergence. In this podcast, she also speculates on what has been gained and lost by both art and fashion—and what’s at risk going forward.

Art and Fashion Converge with FIT's Natasha Degen

The New York auctions begin this week with just over 2000 lots on offer. The combined low estimate is nearly $1.37 billion dollars. If we remove the Allen collection from last November’s sales, we’re still at about the same level in terms of the value of the low estimate.  

If that doesn’t surprise you, you’re lucky.

That means you didn’t spend three months after November’s auctions waiting for a global recession to begin. During that period, little art traded hands. Now that the economic slowdown hasn’t happened—yet—it would seem as though the art market is trying to make up for lost time and take advantage of this goldilocks moment. 

Pre-sale guarantees seem to be down but the freight train of collections and estates hasn’t stopped either. 

In this podcast, we’re going to hear from the specialists at Christie’s, Phillips and Sotheby’s about some of the lots selling this month. There’s so much high quality art on offer, we’re not going to get to it all. But here are some of the interesting stories.

Mo Ostin Collection; Press family collection, Basquiat, Rousseau & NY HIghlights, May 2023

When the $270 million dollar Gerald Fineberg collection was announced, Christie’s Sara Friedlander remarked that the Boston real estate developer, “bought art like a curator.” 

Citing his ability to go deep into key movements like the artists of Black Mountain College, the Ninth Street Women, Gutai, Pop, Minimalism, Arte Povera and the Pictures Generation, Friedlander also points out that Fineberg had important works by Gerhard Richter, Christopher Wool, Alice Neel, Man Ray, Beauford Delaney and Barkley Hendricks. 

We sat down this week to talk through as much of the art on offer as we could possibly discuss in 30 minutes. Highlights from the Fineberg collection are on view at Christie’s until May 13th when the entire collection will be on display at the auction house’s Rockefeller Center headquarters. The highlights are hung in an engaging “salon” style—that means the works are sitting edge-to-edge—but the final exhibition will offer a different perspective. 

Auction season in New York is a rare opportunity to see art. The auction houses are open to the public. So avail yourself of this privilege starting May 6th.

William O'Reilly: The Thrill of Collecting Old Masters

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