Curating and the Art Market, 14-15 February 2025

Jointly organized by Sotheby’s Institute of Art and the Colnaghi Foundation, this international conference seeks to explore the aesthetic, intellectual, and financial links between commercial and institutional curatorial practices, their synergies, the ways in which they have influenced each other, and their impact on value systems and market fortunes.

The conference will adopt a broad historical and geographical perspective. Positioned at the intersection of academic scholarship and professional practice, its interdisciplinary approach aims to provide fertile ground for discussion among academics, art market professionals, curators, and collectors, encouraging reflection on curatorial networks of exchange and interlocking dialogues, both past and present, between public institutions and the art trade.

Tickets will include refreshments and an evening reception at Colnaghi, 26 Bury Street, SW1Y 6AL on 14 February.

FRIDAY 14 FEBRUARY

Sotheby’s Institute of Art, 30 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3EE

9.15-9.45: Coffee and Registration

9.45-10.00: Welcome

10.00-11.00: SESSION 1: PRIVATE COLLECTORS AND MUSEUMS

Dr Dorothee Wimmer (Technische Universität Berlin), Curating Loan Exhibitions: Bode’s Art Market Strategies as an Institutional Collector

Aisha Tahir & Isabella Warnham (V&A), From Private to Public: Curating the Gilbert Collection at the V&A

11.00-11.15: Q&A FOR SESSION 1

11.15-11.45: Coffee Break

11.45-12.45: SESSION 2: CURATING LUXURY

Dr Vera Mariz (Gulbenkian Museum), Consulting Lalique: Curatorial Perspectives on the Gulbenkian Collection

Amalia Nangeroni (IULM University, Milan), Curatorial Strategies in Cartier’s Exhibition History: Shaping Cultural Narratives in Luxury

12.45-13.00: Q&A FOR SESSION 2

13.00-14.00: LUNCH

14.00 – 16.30: SESSION 3: MODERNISMS

Dr Morna O’Neill (Wake Forest University), Hugh Lane and his Galleries

Dr Natalia Murray (Courtauld Institute of Art), Malevich’s Black Square and the First Woman-Gallerist in Russia

15.00-15.30: Tea Break

Dr Charlie Miller (University of Manchester), title tbc

Dr Clarissa Ricci (University of Bologna), Questioning the Impact of curatorial choices on the art market, examples from 20th century exhibitions in Venice

16.30-17.00: Q&A FOR SESSION 3

17.00-18.00: Panel discussion with Martin Levy, Jorge Coll, Henry Little.

18.30-20.00: Drinks reception hosted by Colnaghi, 26 Bury Street, London SW1 Y6AL

SATURDAY 15 FEBRUARY

Sotheby’s Institute of Art, 30 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3EE

10.00-12.30: SESSION 4 - GLOBAL NETWORKS

Dr Ester Prieto Ustio (Seville University), The Art Market Between Spain and New Spain: Transatlantic Trade and Cultural Exchange in the Early 17th Century

Shatavisha Mustafi (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi) "One Exhibition and Two Auctions Later... An Investigation of Events that Led to the Creation of Modern Indian Art as a Market Category"

11.00-11.30: Coffee Break

Dr Katie Hill (SIA London), Strange Wonders. Curating contemporary Chinese ink in the 21st Century

Cindy Tibazarwa (Independent Scholar), Curatorial Influence and Market Fortunes: African Contemporary Art in Diasporic Collections

12.30-13.00: Q&A FOR SESSION 4

13.00-14.00: Lunch

14.00-15.00: SESSION 5 - CONTEMPORARY CURATING AND ART MARKETS

Stephanie Dieckvoss (Courtauld Institute of Art), Artist curating in commercial galleries and art fairs: A focus on the 1990s

Dr Adelaide Duarte (Universidade NOVA de Lisboa), The atelier as a concept, the artist as a curator

15.00-15.15: Q&A FOR SESSION 5

15.15-15.45: Tea Break

15.45-16.45: SESSION 6 - CURATING ART MARKET HISTORIES

Dr Kathryn Brown (Loughborough University), Auction Houses and the Curation of Art Market Knowledge

Dr Mark Westgarth (University of Leeds), Curating SOLD at the Bowes Museum

16.45-17.00: Q&A FOR SESSION 6

17.00-17.15: Concluding Remarks

Host or Publisher Sotheby's Institute of Art