Faculty Profile

David Bellingham

Program Director, MA Art Business, London

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Dr. David Bellingham is an art historian, author and Program Director for the Master’s Degree in Art Business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art-London where he leads a core unit on Art Business, Finance & Management, as well the elective The Market for Antiquities & Old Masters.

David also sits on the education committee of the Guild of Arts Scholars which supports and promotes the study of art history in schools across London and the South-East, and mentors University of York art history holders of postgraduate Guild scholarships. He also lectures on Classical Art and Architecture, and their reception in the modern era. David holds a special honours degree in Latin and Classical Archaeology (University of Birmingham), and a doctorate from the University of Manchester for his thesis on the cultural and socio-economic aspects of sympotic scenes in ancient Roman and Pompeian wall-painting.

David has published numerous books and articles on a variety of subjects, including: art fairs; art business ethics; Greek & Celtic mythology; the art market for classical sculpture and frescoes; the paintings of Sandro Botticelli; and authenticity issues in the paintings of Frans Hals. David has most recently delivered a paper on Collecting and Display in Ancient Rome at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, and contributed essays to exhibition catalogues on contemporary artists at JD Malat Gallery, London and the Street Art Museum Amsterdam. He is currently editor of the Antiquities volume for A Cultural History of Collecting (Bloomsbury Publishing) and writing a chapter on ‘Taste’ for the Eighteenth-Century volume. David has recently launched a podcast on ‘The Art of Business’ in which he hosts alumnae/-i and others working in the art world.

David holds a PhD in ‘Sympotic Scenes in Pompeian Wall-Painting’ from the University of Manchester, and a BA Special Honours in Latin with Classical Archaeology from the University of Birmingham.

Details

Selected Publications

Bellingham, D. (2024), ‘“The Best of the Best”: MASTERPIECE London and the Art Fair as a Lifestyle Event’, paper presented to the TIAMSA Conference, London, 14–15 July 2017.

Bellingham, D. (June 2021), Kojo Marfo: Dreaming of Identity (Exhibition at JD Malat Gallery, London, 10 June to 17 July 2021).

Bellingham, D. & Christopherson, T. (2016), ‘Ethics’, in Hackforth-Jones, J. & Robertson, I. (eds), Art Business Today: 20 Key Topics (London: Lund Humphries), Ch. 2, pp. 39–51.

Bellingham, D. (2016), ‘Art Market Sectors’, in Hackforth-Jones, J. & Robertson, I. (eds), Art Business Today: 20 Key Topics (London: Lund Humphries), Ch. 4, pp. 60–68.

Bellingham, D. (2016), ‘The Auction Process’, in Hackforth-Jones, J. & Robertson, I. (eds), Art Business Today: 20 Key Topics (London: Lund Humphries), Ch. 4, pp. 148–156.

Bellingham, D. (2014), ‘The Underwater Heritage of the Riace Bronzes: Ethics and the Art Market in Ancient Rome’, in Proceedings of the Seminar “Art, Cultural Heritage and the Market: Ethical and Legal Issues”, University of Maastricht, 15–16 March 2012.

Bellingham, D. (2012), ‘Frans Hals, Attribution and the Market’, in Aldrich, M. & Hackforth-Jones, J. (eds), Art and Authenticity (London: Lund Humphries), Ch. 13, pp. 22–36.

Bellingham, D.C. (2011), ‘In London’s Fair City: A Brief History of London’s Art and Antiques Fairs’, in The Art Newspaper Magazine, June 2011, pp. 58–60.

Bellingham, D.C. (2010), ‘Deconstructing Aphrodite: Botticelli’s Venus and Mars in the National Gallery, London’, in Smith, A.C. & Pickup, S. (eds), Brill’s Companion to Aphrodite (Leiden: Brill), Ch. 18, pp. 347–374.

Bellingham, D.C. (2009), ‘The “Jenkins Venus”: Reception in the Art World and the Market’, in Godfrey, T. (ed.), Understanding Art Objects: Thinking Through the Eye.

Bellingham, D.C. (2008), ‘Ethics and the Art Market’, in Robertson, I. & Chong, D. (eds), The Art Business (London & NY: Routledge), Ch. 10, pp. 176–196.

Conferences And Lectures

‘The Times–Sotheby Index, 1967–1971: A Window into the Art Market 50 Years Ago’, paper presented to the Sotheby’s Institute of Art 50th Anniversary Conference, London, 7–8 June 2019.

‘“The Best of the Best”: MASTERPIECE London and the Art Fair as a Lifestyle Event’, paper presented to the TIAMSA Conference, London, 14–15 July 2017.

‘Legal and Ethical Title: The Selling Off of Art from Historical English Country House Collections’, paper presented to The Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society, Manchester, 4 October 2017.

Study session (April 2017) and lunchtime lecture (June 2017) on Botticelli’s Venus and Mars at the National Gallery, London.

Bellingham, D. (2021), ‘Collecting and Display in Ancient Rome’, seminar paper presented to the Seminar on Collecting and Display, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, 15 February 2021.

Professional Affiliation

Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
The Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars

Exhibitions

Bellingham, D. (June 2021), Kojo Marfo: Dreaming of Identity (Exhibition at JD Malat Gallery, London, 10 June to 17 July 2021): introductory essay.

Bellingham, D. (2021), Introductory essay, in Stolyarova, A. (ed.), Magic Dozen: The Street Art Museum Amsterdam, 2021.

Bellingham, D. (2018), Erdoğan Zümrütoğlu: Mirror of Darkness (Exhibition at JD Malat Gallery, London, 1 to 10 November 2018): introductory essay.