A Responsible Art Market in Practice

Georgina Adam has spent more than 30 years writing about the art market and the arts in general. She was editor of the Art Market section of The Art Newspaper 2000-2008, then editor at large. She wrote a weekly column for the Financial Times for eight years, until 2016. In 2014 she published “Big Bucks: The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21^stCentury” (Lund Humphries) and in 2018, “Dark Side of the Boom: the excesses of the art market in the 21^st century” (Lund Humphries). In addition to her specialisation in the art market, Adam is particularly interested in emerging cultural centres. She lectures at Sotheby’s and Christie’s institutes in London and participates in panels about the market: she is a board member of Talking Galleries, patron of the Association of Women Art Dealers and member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and The International Art Market Studies Association (TIAMSA).

Philippe Davet a travaillé entre 1982 à 1998 auprès de la Société Fiduciaire Suisse (ex PwC) à Genève en tant que gestionnaire de sociétés et spécialiste de PME.

Après avoir voyagé pendant 2 ans en Australie, il a rejoint Marc Blondeau afin de développer les activités de Blondeau & Cie à Genève. Blondeau & Cie est une société de conseil et de courtage portant sur les œuvres d’art datant de 1820 à aujourd’hui. Marc Blondeau a été le premier expert à ouvrir un cabinet de conseil dans le domaine de l’art ; ceci afin de mettre sa connaissance de l’histoire de l’art et son expérience du marché international de l’art au service des collectionneurs.

La première tâche de Philippe Davet a été d’organiser une bibliothèque d’environ 15’000 titres dans les locaux situés au 5, rue de la Muse. Parallèlement à son activité de conseil, Philippe Davet a présenté 48 expositions au public, entre 2003 et 2017 d’artistes tels qu’Adel Abdessemed, Fabrice Gygi, Louise Lawler, Sol LeWitt, Mai-Thu Perret et Raymond Pettibon. Blondeau & Cie a participé à la Foire de Bâle entre 2011 et 2017.

Philippe Davet a été actif à la création et la reconnaissance de l’Association d’Art Contemporain du Quartier des Bains jusqu’en 2012. Il a également participé à la conception du salon ArtGenève et à son développement.

Après des études d’économie, de gestion, d’histoire de l’art et de gemmologie, Carine Decroi intègre en 2004 la maison de vente aux enchères Christie’s. Après une année passée à Londres au département communication, elle rejoint le département parisien et travaille avec les équipes internationales. Elle sera également en charge des relations presse du bureau Christie’s à Genève pendant plusieurs années. Après avoir orchestré et mené la communication autour de la vente de la collection Yves Saint Laurent et Pierre Bergé au retentissement mondial, elle prendra en 2010 la tête du département. En 2012, Carine Decroi saisit l’opportunité de rejoindre les équipes du musée Picasso à Paris pour gérer la communication et les relations VIP en vue de l’ouverture future du musée.

Renouant avec ses premières amours, elle rejoint en 2013 la maison de ventes Artcurial pour prendre la direction du département marketing, communication et affaires culturelles au moment où la maison met en place sa stratégie de développement internationale. Spécialiste aguerrie, elle a mise en place la stratégie communication, marketing et presse de la maison de ventes.

Carine est membre de la Taskforce RAM depuis 2018.

Justine works as a teaching and research assistant at the University of Geneva’s Art-Law Centre, where she is involved in various national and international research projects. Concurrently to her work at the Art-Law Centre, she first completed a Master’s Degree at the University of Geneva, following which she received the Law Faculty’s “Best Master’s Thesis Award” for her thesis titled Canada Against the Illicit International Trade of Cultural Property. She has spoken at multiple art and cultural property law conferences and will start a Ph.D. on art due diligence in fall 2019.

Prior to joining the University of Geneva’s Art-Law Centre, Justine worked for five years as a lawyer in the Montreal branch of an international law firm, where she practiced civil and commercial litigation.

Justine has been an active Taskforce member of the Responsible Art Market Initiative (RAM) since 2018.

Roland is senior partner at Stephenson Harwood (London) and a full time commercial disputes expert. He has deep experience in the fine art and cultural property sector where he has practised throughout his career. He leads the firm’s team in this sector and is highly ranked by the directories.

Roland’s work covers a broad range of commercial disputes taking place in the High Court and in arbitration. Most of his work has an international dimension and he is also experienced in managing multi-jurisdictional disputes. Much of his work involves management of risk and the avoidance of claims, nipping problems in the bud and working with clients to resolve issues early and cost-effectively to keep them out of court.

Roland advises a broad range of clients in the fine art sector ranging from auction houses and dealers to museums and private collectors. His work in this area goes well beyond disputes, for example about title and attribution. He regularly advises on non-contentious matters ranging from the sale and purchase of fine art to the standard terms of business of major market players to export, looted art and related issues. Roland is a member of the Art, Cultural and Institutions Committee of the IBA and recognised by Chambers for his “very detailed knowledge of the art industry”.

Sandrine Giroud is a partner with LALIVE (Geneva) specializing in domestic and international litigation. She primarily advises and represents clients in complex multi-jurisdictional proceedings, with a focus on fraud litigation and asset recovery, commercial and private client disputes.

Sandrine Giroud has wide experience in the enforcement of foreign judgments, cross-border insolvency proceedings, international legal assistance (civil and criminal matters, including extradition), as well as in public international law including immunity issues and business & human rights.

As part of her private client practice, she represents and defends HNWI in contentious trust & estates or inheritance matters, as well as on art-related legal issues. She often represents collectors, art market professionals and museums on dispute resolution and transactional matters.

Sandrine Giroud is an officer of the International Bar Association’s (IBA) Litigation Committee and is a member of the Swiss Bar Association (SAV/FSA), and the Professional Advisors to the International Art Market (PAIAM). She acts as President of the Human Rights committee of the Geneva Bar Association (ODA), she is also a member of the Board of the Art Law Foundation and of the Foundation council of the Swiss National Museum. She is a regular speaker at international conferences and frequently publishes on matters related to her fields of expertise.

Suzanne Gyorgy is a Managing Director and Global Head of Citi Private Bank Art Advisory & Finance (New York). This group, established in 1979, features a team of art specialists who consult with private collectors on building art collections, art management, estate planning for art and offering loans secured by fine art.

Suzanne brings over 25 years of professional experience to her position. Before joining Citi in 1999, she was the Director of Exhibitions and Collections for the Morris Museum in Morristown, New Jersey, where she organized many exhibitions ranging from 19th Century European & American paintings to a series of Contemporary art projects and exhibitions. Prior to that, Suzanne served as the Director of the PaineWebber (UBS) Art Gallery in New York, organizing exhibitions in partnership with non-profit arts and cultural institutions. She also worked as an independent art advisor managing several, important private art collections, and as a consultant to art museums on exhibition coordination. Suzanne began her career as a Registrar for the Department of Paintings and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Suzanne has lectured widely on the topics of Art as an Asset Class and Art Finance and participated on numerous art market panel programs. She has commented on the art market for CNN, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, Barrons and Art and Auction magazine among others. She graduated from Pratt Institute with a degree in Fine Arts.

Mathilde has been an active Taskforce member of the Responsible Art Market Initiative (RAM) since 2016, helping to launch the Initiative in 2017.

Now General Counsel, EMEA, for PHILLIPS Auctioneers (London), Mathilde combines her passion for art and law by overseeing all legal aspects of PHILLIPS’ expanding international activities.

During her 7 years at Christie’s, Mathilde gained a unique, international art law expertise, having worked as Legal Counsel in Hong Kong, Paris, Geneva and London.

Prior to joining PHILLIPS, Mathilde established her own art law consultancy (Art Law Advisory) and worked part time at the University of Geneva’s Art-Law Centre.

Mathilde was a Legal Director at the law firm DLA Piper specializing in intellectual property and commercial law.

In 2009 Aude co-founded LINK Management, an art advisory specialist firm, with head offices in Luxembourg and a presence in Germany and France.

LINK Management offers a full spectrum of collecting services and manages acquisitions and sales of multimillion works of art ranging from impressionism to contemporary art.

Over the years Aude has assembled post-war and contemporary art collections for both corporate and private clients as well as built a team of art and finance experts to perform thorough due diligence and valuations of works of art.

In 2017, LINK Management launched together with REYL group GRIFFIN ART PARTNERS, a securitization vehicle that structures non-recourse loans using art as collateral.

Previously Aude was a proprietary trader and portfolio manager in New York and London, as well as Senior Risk Arbitrage specialist for ICAP. Aude graduated from HEC Paris and studied art history at Lille-III University.

Aude is a member of the Board of Directors of AXA Wealth Europe.

Nicholas M. O’Donnell is a Partner in the Litigation Department of Sullivan & Worcester (Boston) and the leader of the firm’s Art & Museum Law practice group. His practice focuses primarily on complex civil litigation, where he has served as lead counsel on a variety of lawsuits concerning restitution and fine art sales and has advised museums, dealers, auction houses, and collectors worldwide about restitution, copyright, and de-accessioning issues. He is Senior Vice-Chair of the Arts, Cultural Institutions and Heritage Law Committee of the International Bar Association.  Mr. O’Donnell is the author of numerous articles and papers on the subject of Nazi-looted art disputes, and the author of A Tragic Fate­—Law and Ethics in the Battle Over Nazi Looted Art(Ankerwycke 2017), the first comprehensive overview of disputes in the U.S. over allegedly Nazi-looted art.

Jean-Bernard had gained a strong professional expertise as a trial lawyer before being elected to the judiciary of Geneva, where he was active during some twenty years, from 1998 to 2017, as investigating magistrate and public prosecutor specialized in financial crime, asset recovery and mutual legal assistance. With his Swiss and foreign colleagues, he worked on important corruption cases, largely publicised, implying heads of states and high profile kleptocrats.

He spoke regularly at conferences and workshops on AML/CFT, mutual legal assistance and asset recovery, notably for the OECD, the UNODC, the World Bank / StAR Initiative and similar bodies.

In 2018, he went back to private practice, as counsel with Ochsner and partners, keeping an elected function as substitute judge at the Penal Court of Geneva.

Founder and Partner, Ritter & Partner Lawyers, Zürich

After studying law at the University of Zurich, Dr. Ritter worked as an assistant to the Chair of Intellectual Property and Media Law at his alma mater. After working several years in a larger commercial law firm, he founded his own firm in 2001. He specialized early on in the field of art law. Dr. Ritter works as a lawyer for the art trade, galleries and auction houses. He also advises private collections, estates, foundations as well as museums and public institutions. Financial service providers, insurance companies and companies in the logistics sector consult him on questions of art law. Finally, Dr. Ritter has long been a specialist in representing artists with regard to their specific needs, in particular with regard to copyright law. In addition to his work as an attorney, he holds positions in several cultural institutions and was the initiator and co-founder of the Kunstforum Zürich in 2017. He is the author of various publications in the field of intellectual property law, in particular art law. Since the beginning of 2019, Dr. Ritter has headed the office of the Swiss Art Market Association, the umbrella organisation of art dealers, gallery owners and auctioneers in Switzerland.

Irina Tarsis, Esq., is an art historian and an attorney who specializes in art law. Graduate of University of Virginia (BS., 1997), Harvard University (ALM., 2009) and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (JD., 2011), Irina is the Founder and Managing Director of the Center for Art Law, a nonprofit organization based in New York City. She conducts provenance research and consults on various art law matters such as Nazi-era looted art restitution, estate planning for artists, title disputes, copyright infringement and fair use, artists’ rights, restitution, and authenticity. Irina lectures on the subject of due diligence, provenance research, fair use issues affecting visual arts, resale royalty rights and many others. In her legal practice, she focuses on Nazi-era looted art disputes and fiduciary duties owed to artists and their heirs.

An active member of the Entertainment, Art and Sports Law Section of the New York State Bar Association and the Art Law Committee of New York City Bar, Irina is the current co-chair of the Art Law Committee of the New York County Lawyers Association and the past chair of the Cultural Heritage and the Arts Interest Group of the American Society of International Law.

In 2013 and 2014, Irina served on the faculty of the European Shoah Legacy Institute/Provenance Research Training Workshops in Lithuania, Greece and Italy. In 2017-2018, she served on the faculty of Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and had advised students from dozens of law schools worldwide. Her publications include article in the IFAR Journal, the New York State Bar publications as well as the Institute of Art & Law’s journal, Art Antiquity and Law, and many others. Irina is currently working on a manuscript on art and legal history.