Feature

January 2014

I made one New Year’s resolution this year and it was to start blogging about the things I am most passionate about; interiors and the Fine and Decorative arts, particularly antique furniture. I am currently searching for a career opportunity in the art world, preferably in Ireland but I do plan to have an international career in the future.

I graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts (Moderatorship) in French and Italian (major). I wanted to combine my love of history of art and Italian so I decided to write my 15,000-word Bachelor degree dissertation on ‘The Italian Influences on William Turner’s Art, with Particular Reference to Venice’. I was inspired to write about this topic on the basis of a painting that was bequeathed to our family by my Italian paternal grandmother. It is a massive venetian-scape depicting Santa Maria Della Salute and several black Gondolas, the typical black, flat-bottomed rowing boats of Venice. At one stage, it was thought by a well-known Dublin based art dealer that our picture was a genuine Turner on the basis of his discovery of JMTW inscribed in one of the Gondolas. It was a very exciting and nerve-wracking time for us as if the painting was an actual Turner, we would have in our possession, and art work worth potentially £30 million. Several months passed before we had our hopes and dreams shattered with the news that we had a very good convincing copy. I was told recently by a well-known art museum director that there are very few good Turner copies out there in the market and they can be very valuable. For those who have not heard of Turner, he was a British landscape artist inspired by the Mediterranean light and particularly by the reflection of both the sunlight and the water against the buildings along the canals of Venice. He was inspired by the Venetian artist Canaletto; a painter of landscapes or ‘vedute’ of Venice. Below is an image depicting the Turner copy of a Venetian scape that I have at home.

Apart from my interest in Fine art, I also have a huge interest in antique English and Continental furniture, an area in which I learned a great deal about the year I undertook a Diploma in the Fine and Decorative Arts in the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers (I.P.A.V) on Lower Baggot street in Dublin; a course I successfully completed in 2012. The course covered a wide selection of subject matter including: history of furniture, history of architecture and interior design, history of art, history of silver, Oriental rugs, Irish glass, ceramics and sculptor. I thoroughly enjoyed the course and was inspired to continue my academic studies further afield.

 In September 2013, I completed a Masters in Art Market Appraisal (Professional Practice) from Kingston University in greater London; a course accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). I learned about many issues relating to the art market such as the history of the art market, collecting, dealing, auctions, art fairs, museums and I also learned a great deal about certain legislation and treaties that are applicable to buying, selling and dealing in the Fine and Decorative Arts. I wrote my MA dissertation on the European Oriental Rug Market, with particular reference to the London market. I wanted to research into the current Oriental rug market in London and compare it with other European markets, and the current market in New York.  I have an interest in Oriental rugs and carpets and Islamic interior design in general and explored in my dissertation whether Oriental rugs are being bought today for domestic consumption; as floor coverings to furnish interior spaces or for investment purposes; purchased by collectors who seek to buy rare antique rugs to add to their collection.

Before moving to London in September 2012, I gained some valuable experience in Bonhams Auctioneers in Dublin where I acted as PA and Administrator to the director.  I also undertook a short-term work placement in the Oriental carpet and Islamic department at Christie’s in London before moving back to Dublin in October 2013. My experience in top international auction houses has given me the exposure and insight into the daily operations of a busy, professional commercial art organisation and I am determined that a career in the Fine and Decorative Arts is the one I endeavour to pursue.

What I learned from my MA degree was that the art market is an opaque, unstable and unpredictable market; and in some areas (such as Cultural Property for example), extremely unregulated. It is like any other market; there are trends, price fluctuations and there are people who invest in art like they would in the stock market or the property market. Today, the art market is a global market with many different layers and made up of many different players; the artist, the collector, the dealer, the auctioneer and the buyer. The importance of the dealer cannot be underestimated as it is thanks to Larry Gagosian, a London based art dealer and one of the world’s most powerful dealers that Damian Hirst became one of the most successful living artists. Hirst’s recent split from Gagosian after 17 years has surely caused a huge stir in the art world. The dealer is one of the most important factors in determining an artist success in the market, as many artists are unable to market themselves in such a way to build up their reputation and drive up prices of their art works. It is the dealer and the reputation that dealer has in the art world that can bring an emerging artist to the forefront. I believe if Rembrandt and Caravaggio had had dealers to promote and sell their works, they wouldn’t have died penniless. Thanks to existing copyrights legislation, the artist’s rights are protected against forgeries and unlawful reproductions.  There also exists the artist’s resale right or Droit de Suite which is essentially a royalty payable to a qualifying artist or the artist's heirs each time a work is re-sold during the artist's lifetime and for a period up to 70 years following the artist's death. For these reasons, I believe the art market has changed for the better and is becoming more regulated even if it is still difficult to curb and deter art related crimes such as theft and forgeries. Art forgery is an extremely lucrative business and modern technology is making it increasingly easier to identify forgeries.  Art related crime rank as the third most lucrative criminal activity in the world, next to drug and arms trafficking and there is usually a close connection between art crime and drugs trafficking. This is just a brief introduction to some of the issues that surround the art market which I feel are important to highlight before I embark on a project of blogging about certain issues related to it.

It is said that the art market is made up of stories about art and I am always on the lookout for interesting stories. Take Banksy for example; there has been a lot in the news about this mysterious graffiti artist who refuses to reveal his identity and goes out in the dead of the night to create the most interesting street art. Anyone could wake up one morning with a Banksy work on the side of their wall. This also raises the question of ownership. If it’s your wall, surely you own the art work, right?  There have been many thefts of his work as he created many of them on public property. The question of ownership is a huge issue relating to art and cultural heritage as many archaeological sites in the Middle East, especially where war is rife, are being looted and cultural objects are being illegally exported out of the country. Paintings in Europe were looted by the Nazis and are being discovered over time, and in recent times with the discovery of over 1400 works of art, in a Munich apartment, among them many lost masterpieces stolen by the Nazis. Is has not been easy for the Art Loss Register to find the original owners, especially if there is limited or no existing documentation to go with the painting.  I decided that blogging would be a good way of writing about what is going on in the global art world today whilst developing my knowledge from the Art Market Appraisal Masters I completed in September 2013 from Kingston University.

I want to bring my love of creative writing with my passion for art and antiques and photography to create something unique and exciting to read. There are plenty of blogs out there on the art market and even more on interiors. At this early stage, my blog is a creative experiment and want my blog to develop. I already have many ideas on what I would like to write about. The topics will vary from time to time and will work on having a clearer focus in the future. My vision is that I want people all over the world to read my blog and help them learn more about the art world. For me, writing the blog will give me a reason to keep up to date with what is happening and what people are buying, what prices they are paying and where are they buying. 

Apart from writing from time to time about art market related issues, I aim to write mostly about the various interior design trends around the world and how Fine Art and antiques can be incorporated into the contemporary interior decorative scheme to create something that is unique and exceptional. For the time being, I will focus on the latter but I do not want to confine myself to writing exclusively about interiors design and furniture as there will be other interesting art market related topics that I would like to write about in the future. My blog may also contain some shorter passages on particular pieces of furniture, objets d’art or art works of significant value.