The artwork market isn’t damaged, precisely, however within the eyes of artwork market veterans Ed Dolman, Alex Dolman, Brett Gorvy, Philip Hoffman, and Patti Wong, it doesn’t perform the way in which it used to. The group goals to alter that with a brand new collaborative consultancy, New Views Artwork Companions (NPAP), introduced Thursday.
The consultancy received’t function like a standard agency: The companions are maintaining their day jobs, and so they’ll assemble solely when there’s a high-level, specialised downside that wants fixing. Consider it just like the Avengers, however for the artwork world.
“We’re not simply one other advisory,” Gorvy informed ARTnews over the cellphone earlier this week. “That is extra like a McKinsey mannequin—a crew that comes collectively to dissect an issue and resolve it.”
NPAP isn’t trying to merely dealer gross sales. As an alternative, it’ll advise collectors, fiduciaries, and household places of work on the best way to handle, develop, or disperse vital collections with world context and institutional muscle. A significant promoting level is the group’s deep expertise throughout completely different segments of the market—from public sale homes and high galleries to establishments and high-end advisory—and a geographical footprint that spans Hong Kong to Doha.
Gorvy and Dolman each acknowledged that the present artwork market is at an inflection level. “We’re not beginning this in a growth,” Gorvy mentioned. “We’re beginning this in a market that’s turning into complicated.”
Dolman pointed to the proliferation of third-party ensures, declining resale premiums, and regional fragmentation as proof of a “paradigm shift” within the public sale market, with the most important homes turning into “victims of their very own success.”
“What was once a simple enterprise has gotten massively sophisticated,” Dolman mentioned. “That public sale mannequin, as soon as filled with shock and upside, now feels inflexible—designed extra to handle danger than to serve consumers.”
Gorvy advised that the market’s fragmentation and growing complexity have created a gap.
“The tried-and-tested platforms are all displaying indicators of failure—or not less than exhaustion,” Gorvy mentioned. “However that chaos creates alternative. In the event you can assist purchasers navigate it, you may add actual worth.”
NPAP, the companions say, attracts energy not simply from its versatile construction however from the chemistry behind it. Dolman and Hoffman have recognized one another for the reason that early Nineteen Nineties. Gorvy labored carefully with Dolman within the early 2000s. And though Patti Wong was a longtime competitor—she led Sotheby’s Asia whereas Gorvy served as Christie’s chairman and worldwide head of postwar and up to date artwork—Gorvy at all times admired her from afar.
“I used to be jealous of her energy within the market,” he mentioned.
Each Gorvy and Dolman confused that discretion is baked into the consultancy’s mannequin. There’s no brand-building train, no junior workers scrambling for consignment quotas.
“Relevancy is what we preserve coming again to,” Gorvy mentioned. “What’s related to collectors proper now? What’s related to establishments? To fiduciaries?”
