I’m always taken aback when a distinguished, long-time art professional crosses over from the sanctum of the nonprofit museum world to the commercial side of the artworld—auction houses and galleries. It’s about to happen again, with Phillips auction house’s announcement that Arnold Lehman, director of the Brooklyn Museum, will soon become senior advisor to Edward Dolman, the auction firm’s chairman and CEO since last July.
According to the above-linked press release, Lehman will “advise on the global expansion of the Phillips brand [emphasis added], oversee a program that supports exhibitions and art projects in North American museums [presumably including Brooklyn] and serve as a member of the Phillips Advisory Board.”
It seems fair to assume that Mr. Populism will become the auction firm’s Rainmaker-in-Chief, adding museum luster to “the Phillips brand” and helping to attract consignments and buyers, thanks to his network of contacts from many years of wooing collectors, dealers and donors on behalf of the Brooklyn Museum and, before that, the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Museums and the art market have always had a symbiotic, if wary, relationship. But helping to promote commercial art transactions seems to me the antithesis of the disinterested scholarly, educational and populist values that museum professionals profess to hold.
When I chatted recently with the Lehman at his museum’s Sneaker Culture press preview, he surprised me by revealing that he already had a for-profit gig at the same time that he was director of the Brooklyn Museum. Maybe he was just preparing me for what was soon to come. He leaves the museum at the end of next month and begins at Phillips in mid-September.
Lehman joins the list of highly distinguished museum professionals who found the freewheeling commercial artworld a refreshing (and presumably lucrative) change of pace from the bureaucratic impositions and fundraising imperatives of museum life: Richard Oldenburg (director of the Museum of Modern Art to Sotheby’s), Lisa Dennison (director of the Guggenheim Museum to Sotheby’s), Everett Fahy (director of Frick Collection to Christie’s), Charles Moffett (director of the Phillips Collection to Sotheby’s), Paul Schimmel (chief curator of LA MOCA to Hauser & Wirth), John Elderfield (chief curator of painting and sculpture at Museum of Modern Art to Gagosian).
Have I left out someone?
UPDATE: The answer is yes! A CultureGrrl reader reminded me of Derek Gillman‘s move from the Barnes Foundation to Christie’s.
UPDATE 2: Another CultureGrrl reader informed me that Michael Botwinick, now director of the Hudson River Museum, had served as senior vice president of Knoedler-Modarco, the parent company of Knoedler and Hammer galleries, after directing the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
UPDATE 3: Two more examples from a reader: Perry Rathbone, director of Boston Museum of Fine Arts to Christie’s; John Tancock, curator at Rodin Museum to Sotheby’s
Even Ed Dolman has held jobs in both camps: Before coming to Phillips, he had been chairperson and acting CEO of the Qatar Museums Authority, where he served a brief stint after having worked at Christie’s (lastly as its CEO) for 27 years.
Dolman, who had spoken at the Brooklyn Museum’s press preview (which I attended) for its controversial “Sensation” exhibition, for which Christie’s was a sponsor, has been trying to invigorate the Number Three auction house with fresh blood. Someone with knowledge of Phillips’ hiring plans told me last month that “some really interesting people are going to be going there soon.” Lehman was likely one of those “interesting people” whom my source had in mind.
I shudder to think who’s next.