Georgina Adam 

Georgina Adam has spent many decades writing about the art market and the arts in general. She is editor-at-large for The Art Newspaper and a contributor to the Financial Times. She initially studied Islamic Art at the Ecole du Louvre and also lived for five years in Japan. She has written two books about the art market – Big Bucks (Lund Humphries, 2014) and Dark Side (Lund Humphries, 2018) and a third book, The Rise and Rise of Private Museums, came out in September 2021. She is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and The International Art Market Studies Association (TIAMSA).

Thangam Debbonaire    

Thangam Debbonaire MP has just been appointed as Labour’s Culture, Media and Sport Secretary. Previous to this she held the role of Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. She has championed a wide range of issues during her time as the MP for Bristol West including support for the creative industries, refugee rights, and cancer treatment for young people. She started out as a professional cellist and still plays in her parliamentary string quartet, the Statutory Instruments.

Alison Cole    

Alison Cole is the Editor of The Art Newspaper, the journal of record of the international art world. She has worked as a senior executive for some of the UK’s leading cultural organisations, including Art Fund - where she edited Art Quarterly magazine and led the campaign to make all national UK museums free - London's Southbank Centre and Arts Council England. She has served as a Trustee of the Foundling Museum and is on the Advisory Board of Art UK.

Alison is also the originator of The Superpower of Looking - a national visual literacy programme for school children in the UK, and an author and art historian. She gained her M.Phil. in Renaissance studies at the Warburg Institute, London University. Her recent books include Michelangelo: The Taddei Tondo (Royal Academy Publications, 2017) and Italian Renaissance Courts: Art, Pleasure and Power (Laurence King, 2016). 

Melanie Gerlis  

Melanie Gerlis became the weekly art market columnist for the Financial Times in 2016. She was previously Art Market Editor for The Art Newspaper (2007-2016), before which she was a financial communications adviser at Finsbury in the City of London (1996-2005). She has a BA in English Literature from Cambridge University and an MA in Art Business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art. 

A freelancer, Gerlis also writes about the art business for The Times, Vanity Fair and Spear’s Magazine. In addition to her work as a journalist, Gerlis has authored books on the art market including Art as an Investment? (2014) and The Art Fair Story: A Rollercoaster Ride (2021), both published by Lund Humphries. She is a regular commentator on art market trends and developments, frequently appearing on television and radio programmes to discuss the latest news in the art world.

Nicholas Cullinan  

Nicholas Cullinan took up his position as the Director of the National Portrait Gallery in spring 2015 following his role as Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Prior to this, from 2007 to 2013, Nicholas was Curator of International Modern Art at Tate Modern where he co-curated an exhibition of Henri Matisse's cut-outs with Sir Nicholas Serota in 2014. Nicholasreceived his BA, MA and PhD in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London and in 2006–7 he held the Hilla Rebay International Fellowship at the Guggenheim museums in Bilbao, New York and Venice.

Photo Credit: Zoë Law r to help teams better understand a project's climate impact and is the Director of Strategy at Art into Acres.  

Lady Alison Deighton  

Lady Alison Deighton is a finance and investment expert, philanthropist and art collector. After an international career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and N.M. Rothschilds, Alison has been an investor for over 25 years in early to mid-stage companies focused on new technologies, medical devices, and property. She is currently a non-executive director of Go Games Ltd, founder and CEO of several property partnerships and Chair of the Deighton Family Foundation (DFF). 

A lifelong supporter of the visual and performing arts and the rights and welfare of women, Alison has served as a Trustee of the Royal Academy of Arts, the Central School of Ballet and Women for Women International. She has also participated in Tate Modern’s acquisition committees. Currently, Alison is a Governor of the Royal Ballet (ROH) and sits on the Hayward Gallery’s Commissioning Committee for the Southbank’s public art projects. Under the auspices of DFF, she oversees the Vannucci Artist Residency (Umbria, Italy), which provides emerging to mid-career artists with  accommodation and studio space, and the opportunity to experience and travel Italy. 

Reema Selhi 

Reema Selhi is the Head of Policy and International at DACS, a non-profit that manages artists’ rights.She advocates on behalf of visual artists to champion their vital contribution to the UK’s creative industries, and on the importance of their intellectual property rights. Reema is a lawyer and sits on the Board of a-n, the Artist’s Information Company, and holds the role of Vice Chair at the Alliance for Intellectual Property. Reema regularly speaks on sustainable policies for artists in the UK and internationally. 

Photo credit: Joel Chester Fildes; Courtesy a-n The Artists Information Company

François Chantala 

François Chantala earned a degree in Law in 1994, studied Art History at the École du Louvre and received a BA in 1997. In 1998, he graduated from Christie’s Education Masters Program in New York. In 2000, after having worked at Christie’s Contemporary Art Department in London for two years, he joined Thomas Dane, then a private dealer, to work specifically on building collections in Europe and the US. In 2004, Thomas Dane Gallery was established in St. James’s in London, of which Chantala has since been a director and partner.

Rebecca Fine 

Rebecca Fine manages specialty art lender, Athena Art Finance. Prior to founding Athena in 2015, Rebecca provided legal advice to world-renowned art galleries, museums, foundations, and private collectors at an art law boutique. There, Rebecca litigated cases involving title, authenticity, attribution claims and art restitution cases. Rebecca was previously a commercial litigator and trial lawyer at the law firms of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and Wilmer Hale, LLP. Fluent in French and Italian, she often acted as liaison counsel to corporations and ultra-high net worth individuals in multijurisdictional matters. Rebecca graduated from Columbia College and received her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, where she was an editor of the VLA Journal of Law and the Arts. 

Melanie Clore 

Melanie Clore founded Clore Wyndham Fine Art with Henry Wyndham in 2016, specialising in working with a select number of international collectors and institutions to source at the top end of the art market and focussing on Impressionist, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary art.

Previously Melanie worked at Sotheby’s where over a 30 year career there she rose to be Worldwide Head of Impressionist and Modern Art from 2000-2016 and Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe from 2011-2016.  She was the first female auctioneer to take a major Evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art and was at the forefront of the development of the Impressionist and Modern Art market. Under her leadership, Sotheby’s held the most successful auction ever to have taken place in London at any auction house. She facilitated the sale of some of the most important artworks of recent years including Alberto Giacometti’s Walking Man and Pablo Picasso’s Boy with a Pipe, at the time the highest prices ever paid at auction for a sculpture and a painting respectively. 

She is a Trustee of the Royal Academy of Art Trust. She is also a Trustee of the Clore Duffield Foundation, which supports arts and heritage organisations, cultural learning, education and social care throughout the UK. Melanie was a Trustee of Tate from 2004-2008 and she has been an honorary member of the Tate Foundation since 2009. She was also a Trustee of the Whitechapel Art Gallery from 1988-1999. 

Eva Jäger

Eva Jäger is Curator of Arts Technologies at Serpentine in London. She commissions artists working with advanced technologies and is a collaborator in teams designing novel approaches, workflows and philosophies of emerging tech. During her time at Serpentine she has worked with artists Jenna Sutela, Hito Steyerl, Suzanne Treister, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Trust, 0rphan Drift, Kite, Keiken, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Libby Heaney, Gabriel Massan and dmstfctn. Eva is also part of the team working on Serpentine’s R&D Platform, specifically as co-Investigator of the Creative AI Lab (Serpentine R&D Platform and King’s College London).

Photo credit: Paul Gordon 

Crispian Riley-Smith

Crispian Riley-Smith has over three decades of experience in the global art market, and a wealth of extensive contacts with collections and collectors in the public and private sectors. He provides clients with a thorough and independent view of the market. After successfully setting up and running Master Drawings London (2002) now London Art Week, and Master Drawings New York (2006), and Crispian Riley-Smith Fine Arts Ltd (1998) Crispian set up Art Advisory Group Ltd (AAG).

AAG is new concept and business provides a “one-stop-shop” for all art market requirements. AAG adds value by offering clients the best advice for buying and selling art assets, and the long-term management of collections. Crispian works closely with the top specialists, art market professionals and businesses throughout the global art market. Art Advisory Group provides independent advice on buying, selling and valuing all art assets. Equally careful handling of the small as well the big. Specialists across the UK, and internationally, to deal with your enquiries with the ability to work remotely or in person. Crispian is a recognised specialist in the field of Old Master Drawings and brings this knowledge and expertise with him to the new business and managing complex and multi discipline tasks.

Jennifer Schipf

Jennifer Schipf is AXA XL’s Global Chief Underwriter for Fine Art & Specie. In this role she is responsible for setting worldwide strategy, Underwriting guidelines and ultimate profitability. She’s been dedicated to the highly specialized market of fine art underwriting for nearly twenty years and helped establish the AXA Art Prize. She previously led the organization’s North American Fine Art & Specie team while also serving as leader of Broker and Client Management for North American Specialty.  Prior to joining AXA XL in 2008, she led the US Fine Art underwriting practice at another carrier and held various roles in claims, settling losses and performing loss control assessments for private collector clients. 

She started her career with a research position in the Old Master Drawings department at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. followed by development roles at both the Chazen Museum and Tandem Press, in Madison, WI.

Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History and Economics from Georgetown University with a concentration in the Italian Renaissance and Patronage of the Papacy. She also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Interior Architecture from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is actively engaged in various arts organizations, teaches fine art underwriting courses and regularly participates in industry educational conferences. 

Tu Le

Tu Le is a sustainability consulting manager from Accenture, specialised in lifecycle impact assessment and sustainable value chain strategy. She helps corporate clients set ambitious and credible sustainability strategies and targets, measure, manage, and report environmental impacts, and engage with stakeholders across the value chain to achieve collective and sustainable results.

Julien Pradels

Julien Pradels was appointed Global Head of Operations in 2022. 

Prior to this he was Managing Director for Paris from 2019, having joined Christie’s in 2011 as Operations Director, assuming additional responsibility for Operations across Continental Europe shortly afterwards.  He relocated to Hong Kong in 2013 where he was first Operations Director and was subsequently promoted to General Manager Asia Pacific. Before his time with Christie’s, he spent 12 years working for the Four Seasons Hotel group.

Julien’s remit includes leading Christie’s sustainability programme to ensure the company can meet its ambitious targets and help to drive positive change across the wider industry. Julien is well placed to oversee these efforts given his extensive knowledge of operations across the business. In April he oversaw the publication of the most recent annual Environmental Impact Report. 

Racheal Muldoon

Racheal Muldoon is a barrister at Maitland, a leading barristers' Chambers located in London's Lincoln's Inn. Racheal has a thriving art and cultural property law practice which began with her advising the British Museum on all aspects of the Museum's work as Senior Legal Counsel in 2018. From these traditional auspicious beginnings, Racheal is now recognised internationally for her work advising clients at the intersection of art and new and emerging technologies, including the Metaverse and artificial intelligence. Last year, Racheal secured the first court order of its kind in the World freezing stolen non-fungible tokens or 'NFTs' representing digital works of art in Osbourne v Persons Unknown. In recognition of her expertise, Racheal has been admitted to the Professional Advisors to the International Art Market (PAIAM) Directory, ranked as a leading Cryptoasset barrister by Chambers and Partners and shortlisted for the Technology, Data and Cryptoasset Junior Barrister of the Year 2023 by Legal 500.   

Louisa Buck

Louisa Buck is a writer and broadcaster on contemporary art. She is a Contributing Editor and London Contemporary Art Correspondent for The Art Newspaper and a regular reviewer and commentator on BBC radio and TV.  

Her articles have appeared in publications ranging from the Guardian and Vogue to Frieze and Artforum.

She is the author of a number of catalogue essays for institutions including Tate, Whitechapel Gallery, ICA London, MCA Australia and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

Her books include Moving Targets 2: A User’s Guide to British Art Now (Tate 2000); Market Matters: The Dynamics of the Contemporary Art Market (Arts Council England 2004) and Owning Art: The Contemporary Art Collector’s Handbook (co-authored with Judith Greer) (Cultureshock Media 2006). Commissioning Contemporary Art : A Handbook for Curators, Collectors and Artists was published by Thames & Hudson in October 2012 and in 2016 she authored ‘The Going Public Report’ commissioned by Museums Sheffield.

Louisa was a judge for the 2005 Turner Prize and is a founding member of The Gallery Climate Coalition.

dmstfctn

dmstfctn is a London-based artist duo working with audiovisual performance, games and video installation. Their work investigates complex systems, most recently focusing on the relationship between simulation and machine learning. dmstfctn has performed and exhibited work in venues such as Berghain, Serpentine, Design Museum, Onassis, Fotomuseum Winterthur, HKW, LUMA Arles and Aksioma, and at festivals such as transmediale, CTM, Unsound and Impakt.

Oliver Smith is one half of dmstfctn and course leader for MA Interaction Design at UAL's London College of Communication

Jane Morris

Jane Morris is a journalist, writer, broadcaster and editorial strategist who specialises in the visual arts. She is an editor-at-large at The Art Newspaper and Cultureshock and contributes to the Economist, Monocle, Apollo, the Art Newspaper and Tortoise. She was the editor of The Art Newspaper for almost a decade. She was previously head of editorial at the Museums Association, and a judge of the European Museum of the Year Award. She has contributed to BBC Radio 3, Radio 4 and Monocle 24 radio, and has written for national newspapers including The Guardian and The Independent. She studied fine art at University of the Arts London (Central St Martin’s), and journalism at City University, London.

Harry Syms

Harry Syms is an Associate Director of WTW’s UK Fine Art Insurance Broking team.

Harry has amassed 18 years’ experience as a Fine Art Insurance Broker in the London market, following his arrival in 2005 at Lloyd’s Broker R K Harrison (acquired by Howden in 2015). He joined WTW in 2022 and maintains a strong track record of developing new retail and wholesale business, and of managing private, commercial and institutional Fine Art Insurance portfolios.

Throughout his career, Harry has enjoyed building rounded working relationships with clients, colleagues and his underwriting network, and he places particular value upon communication, efficiency and professional service.

Maria de Peverelli

Maria de Peverelli is a partner and Executive Chairman of Stonehage Fleming Art Management. Maria joined the group in 2017 when OmniArte, a Zurich based art management and advisory business which she founded in 2005, merged with Stonehage Fleming. She is also Trustee of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and is curatorial advisor at Holkham Hall, Norfolk. Prior to establishing OmniArte, Maria was gallery Director of the Villa Favorita in Lugano (Thyssen-Bornemisza collection), has organized exhibitions for the Museum of Applied Arts in Frankfurt and taught museum management at the University of Genova.

Brenden Beu

Beginning with his BA in Electro-Acoustic Music Composition from San Diego State University where he was one of the founding members of the major, Brenden Beu has been working for nearly two decades at the place where humans and machines interact. Early involvement in organizations like the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) and the New West Electro-Acoustic Music Organization (NWEAMO) providing him with insight into cutting edge human/machine interface. 

Having worked with musicians and artists to define advanced technological solutions to creative challenges, he has taken a similar approach to the use of technology for business challenges. Brenden was an early member of Control Group, the company behind LinkNYC which was acquired to form Intersection under Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs. With Control Group he worked with a wide range of organizations including The ACLU, The Edward M Kennedy Institute for the US Senate, Neue Gallerie, Callen Lorde Community Health Center, David Zwirner and Gagosian Gallery, consulting on technology and business practices. Brenden co-founded Intersection’s air travel innovation practice before moving on to international business leadership for a number of digital product startups and most recently joining Synergy Associates. Over his decade in the field, Brenden has been involved with innovation initiatives to support and transform business operations, activate physical spaces and engage the public in new and novel ways, leveraging technologies such as conversational interfaces and natural language processing; advanced indoor positioning, mapping and routing; reactive video installations; and journey curation.

Valérie Whitacre

Valérie Whitacre has spent over a decade leading sales and business development at private galleries in the UK. Specialising in photography, she has worked with the leading collections, artists and estates working with the medium. She joined Trilitech - the London hub of the Tezos blockchain ecosystem - in spring of 2022 to bring her knowledge of traditional art and strategy to a thriving web3 ecosystem of creators and collectors. Tezos is the blockchain for arts and culture, and home to a truly global community of stakeholders and partners.

Graham Bence

Graham Bence is Director of Client Accounts at Crozier Fine Arts, a global arts storage and logistics company, advising galleries, auction houses and artists on how to safely store, move and install their collections. Prior to joining Crozier in 2018 Graham worked for many years at White Cube gallery alongside the Operational and Sales teams with Collections Management, Client Engagement and International Art Fairs. After studying at Chelsea School of Art Graham had his own professional art practice before moving into the gallery world in 2010. His experience as an art practitioner, gallery stalwart and now client focused logistics professional gives him a 360 perspective on the art business, and their increasing appetite for more sustainable solutions.

Alexia Hicks

Alexia Hicks has over 15 years’ experience in Fine Art Insurance and heads up the team in London. Alexia is responsible for the design and placement of the insurance programmes for some major Art Galleries, Auction Houses and Specialist Fine Art Logistic companies as well as a number of significant Museums, Exhibitions and Private, Corporate & State Art and Jewellery Collections worldwide. 

Alexia is recognized as a leading Broker in the International Fine Art insurance and risk management arena for providing clients with innovative and cost-effective alternative risk transfer solutions for their Art activities. 

alexia.hicks@wtwco.com  

Jasmine Ramsay Gray

Jasmine Ramsay Gray is Head of Client Experience at Convelio, the fine art shipping company combining innovative technology and logistics expertise to securely transport art around the world. In this role, she leads the Business Development and Customer Care teams in London. Jasmine is responsible for ensuring that all clients have a superior and personalised experience when shipping with Convelio. 

She previously held the role of Head of Operations UK at Convelio, and prior to that worked as a strategy consultant at Bain & Company in London and South Africa. Jasmine holds a degree in Classics from Oxford University. 

Paul Hewitt

Paul Hewitt took up his position as Director General of The Society of London art Dealers Ltd (SLAD) in September 2021. Prior to this he was part of the senior leadership teams at Christie’s for 18 years where he was responsible for driving new buyer engagement globally. Paul started his career marketing luxury brands in Asia for Moet Hennessy, part of the LVMH Group.

Caroline Taylor

Caroline Taylor is the Founder & CEO of Appraisal Bureau, a data and analytics firm specialized in the valuation of Fine Art and Digital Assets. Serving leading global companies and institutions, Appraisal Bureau’s valuation solutions combine the highest industry standards of appraisals and proprietary technology utilizing both blockchain and machine learning. Caroline is a Certified Member of the Appraisers Association of America in Post-War, Contemporary and Emerging Art, and serves as Co-Chair of the association’s NFT Committee. She has extensively written valuations for purposes of insurance, equitable distribution, tax and estate planning, asset management, and charitable donation. Previously, Caroline was a Curatorial Associate for the Deutsche Bank Collection, and has additional experience at Phillips, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation. Caroline regularly speaks on panels and lectures on the topics of Web3, Technology, and Contemporary Art. She holds a BFA in Painting from Pratt Institute and additional Financial Math and Statistics coursework from New York University.

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Stephen Brodie

Stephen Brodie is a partner of Blank Rome LLP's New York office, and has more than 40 years of experience as both a corporate and a real estate attorney. Steve primarily represents financial institutions in commercial and private bank lending transactions, and in workout and restructuring matters. In recent years, Steve's practice has expanded to include private banks and niche lenders in lending against different kinds of collateral, such as fine art owned by both collectors and dealers, hedge fund limited partnership interests, equity interests in closely held companies, and interests in professional sports teams. Many of these transactions involve cross-border lien perfection and similar issues. He also advises banks that are creating and revising written credit policies for both art and real estate lending.

Julian Radcliffe 

Julian Radcliffe graduated from Oxford in Politics and Economics and joined Lloyd’s in 1970, becoming a Director of Hogg Robinson Group Plc, a leading Lloyd’s broker. As a serial entrepreneur, he has founded:

1973 - The first specialist broker in political risks. 

1976 - Control Risks to specialise in international risk management including kidnap negotiations. 

1990 - Art Loss Register (ALR) as an initiative of the Insurance industry and Art trade to reduce the theft of and trade in stolen art and became the majority shareholder in 2004. 

2014 – The Watch Register (TWR) – database of stolen and fake watches.

1995 – The Equipment Register (TER) – database of stolen equipment to include the Classic Car Register from 2024.

He has acted as an expert witness in major international fraud, negligence, art theft court cases and has contributed to the improvement of standards in the art market. He farms in Shropshire and collects English watercolours 1760-1820 and Dutch master drawings. He served as a Colonel in the Ministry of Defence and was awarded the OBE in 1999 and QVRM in 2004. 

Martin Wilson

Martin Wilson is Chief Legal Counsel and Head of Fiduciary Services at Phillips Auctioneers. He has worked as an auction house lawyer for over 25 years and has extensive practical experience of all aspects of the legal and ethical aspects of buying and selling art.  He is an Arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Art, co-chair of the Art Lawyers Association and the author of the leading art law textbook ‘Art Law and the Business of Art’.