|Reſlections| “The
|Reſlections| “The perception most people have of an art adviser is of someone walking you around art fairs or exhibitions, helping you buy art in a singularly transactional way,” says Laura Paulson, chief operating officer of Gagosian Art Advisory, an entirely separate entity from the Gagosian galleries with “a client base that has almost zero overlap with the gallery”. Although she and her colleagues are delighted to help their clients build collections, their remit is equally to provide “services the gallery does not provide: all the practical issues like framing, conservation and insurance. We’re also certified appraisers, which is something collectors need, whether it’s for estate planning or gifting,” or simply “editing” a collection. In short: “We also offer complete collection management,” from buying to selling. Over the past decade or two, “art advisers have become an integral part of the art market, playing a central role in the interactions between many galleries, collectors and artists,” writes Clare McAndrew of Arts Economics, who found that almost a third of the cohort she surveyed for the Independent New York art fair said they used one. And why wouldn’t they, given the sums of money at stake? “You would logically get external expertise on tax planning or investments,” says Glenn Scott Wright, codirector of the London-based gallery Victoria Miro. “And a good art consultant is a way to get access to highly sought-after work.” Especially when, as was noted at last summer’s Art Basel, there aren’t that many top-quality works coming to market. “For many years, money has been flowing into speculative artist markets,” Nilani Trent of Trent Fine Art Advisory in New York said at the fair. But at times like these, when sales are slowing significantly, “collectors see more long-term value in established markets like Warhol”. And as masterpieces become harder to find, so advice is ever more necessary to track them down. But art advisory is as much about disposal as acquisition, and helping her clients “deaccession” – the art-world euphemism for selling – is a major part of Paulson’s work. “There’s been such turnover at the auction houses that people don’t know where to go,” she says. It’s not enough just to consign a work and hope for bidders who really want it. Rather, getting a good price is about “making connections with specialists, getting the right estimates, making sure the catalogues are presented well and that the terms of sale are favourable and competitive. It’s complicated and quite labourintensive, so advocating for clients is something we do in great depth and across many categories.” Paulson was, for example, retained to advise on the recent sale of the Macklowe Collection, occasioned by the divorce of the real-estate developer Harry Macklowe and his ex-wife Linda. Sotheby’s expected it to realise US9.3 million. Paulson saw to it that it made US2.2 million with fees, making it the most valuable private collection sale ever to come to auction. She also represented the Pilara Family Foundation when it offered 55 photographs from its collection, also at Sotheby’s New York, in aid of the Pier 24 exhibition 44 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
PHOTOS FROM TOP: CHARLES SHEARN, © ESTATE OF ROY LICHTENSTEIN / VG BILD-KUNST, BONN 2023; COURTESY GAGOSIAN; OPPOSITE PAGE: TRISTAN FEWINGS / GETTY IMAGES FOR SOTHEBY’S, © SUCCESSION ALBERTO GIACOMETTI / VG BILD- KUNST, BONN 2023, © THE WILLEM DE KOONING FOUNDATION, NEW YORK / VG BILD-KUNST, BONN 2023 space in San Francisco. Selling a photography collection from out of town seemed “a bit risky”, she says. “But we made sure there was a great video and packed seminars, and the works were toured, which would normally never happen with a photography sale, because photographs aren’t usually seen as high value enough.” The day and evening auctions realised a combined US.619 million, almost double their low estimate of US.822 million. “It was interesting to see what a difference [our] advocacy made,” she deadpans. Paulson has observed significant growth in the demand for art advisers since she began her career at Christie’s, where she rose to be a global chairman of 20th-century art in the late 1980s. “There used not to be many art advisers back then,” she says. Though neither were “people collecting in such quantities”. These days, “plenty of people go out on their own when they start, but it’s becoming less common. There’s so much more art out there now. And the market changes so quickly. I know very few younger people who don’t look to an adviser for some kind of direction when they begin to collect. It’s a generational thing.” Boomers, as McAndrew’s research has found, seem more confident in making decisions unaided. From top: The Fine Art Group founder Philip Hoffman poses with Roy Lichtenstein’s Water Lilies With Cloud (1992); Gagosian Art Advisory COO Laura Paulson Opposite: Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti’s Stèle II (1961), part of Sotheby’s record-breaking Macklowe Collection auction CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 45
