Research

Performance in the Museum, October 8, 2025

Senior Lecturer Pierre Saurisse marked the launch of his new book Performance in the Museum, published by Lund Humphries, with a conversation alongside Catherine Wood, Director of Curatorial and Chief Curator at Tate Modern.

Pierre discussed his research into curating performance, and described his initial surprise at finding so little written on this subject.

As his research progressed, Pierre realised that the common assumption that performance and the museum are incompatible overlooked the broader context, especially works that critique institutional structures from within.

Drawing on his own memories, Pierre recalled visiting exhibitions on performance in Paris and Barcelona in 1994. He now sees how focused these exhibitions were on objects.

He concluded with an exploration of the afterlife of Xiao Lu’s Dialogue, tracing its evolution from the original 1989 performance to its various materialisations and reinterpretations over the years.

Reacting to the case of Dialogue, Catherine Wood reflected on the tensions that arise in museums when performance is represented through objects and information instead of live enactment.

She also explained how performance pushes the limits of the institution and grows its capacity to do things and to be more elastic.

Catherine and Pierre responded to a member of the audience who pointed out the hierarchy of materials in terms of cultural value and economy, concluding that performance represents challenges to the very idea of ownership.

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Art, Luxury, and Sustainability: Markets in Transition Conference

Sotheby’s Institute of Art organized a conference exploring the challenges, contradictions, and opportunities that sustainability presents to the creative and luxury industries.

The conference took place at our London campus in Bedford Square, marking the publication of ‘Climate Action in the Art World‘ by Annabel Keenan. The book is part of the Hot Topics in the Art World series, edited by Institute faculty and published in association with Lund Humphries.

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Dr Katie Hill, Academic Lead – Asia, curated the exhibition ‘Strange Wonders. Jizi and other Pioneers of Contemporary Ink’ at the SOAS Gallery

Dr Katie Hill, Academic Lead – Asia, curated the exhibition ‘Strange Wonders. Jizi and other Pioneers of Contemporary Ink’ at the SOAS Gallery, University of London. 12 October – 14 December 2024.

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Dan Vo, Global Academic Director Pre-College, in conversation with Rupert Everett

Watch Dan Vo, Global Academic Director Pre-College, in conversation with Rupert Everett about his book To the End of the World: Travels with Oscar Wilde at The British Library, 29 April 2023.

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Hot Topics in the Art World

The Hot Topics series is a partnership between Sotheby’s Institute of Art and art-book publishers Lund Humphries, jointly edited by two of Sotheby’s Institutes’ London faculty: Jeffrey Boloten and Juliet Hacking.

The series has now grown to a total of 15 books, with further titles to be published in 2026. Recent publications include: Climate Action in the Art World and Towards the Ethical Art Museum.

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Pierre Saurisse - Performance in the Museum

Pierre Saurisse. Performance in the Museum. Lund Humphries, 2025

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Morgan Falconer - How to Be Avant-Garde: Modern Artists and the Quest to End Art

Morgan Falconer, How to Be Avant-Garde: Modern Artists and the Quest to End Art (W.W. Norton, 2025)

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Federica Carlotto - The Integration of NFTs in luxury brand and art collaborations

Federica Carlotto. “The Integration of NFTs in luxury brand and art collaborations.” In Handbook of Fashion Marketing and Digital Advances, edited by Olga Mittelfellner. De Gruyter Handbook Series, 2025.

Federica Carlotto - Luxury Brand and Art Collaborations. Postmodern Consumer Culture

Federica Carlotto, Luxury Brand and Art Collaborations. Postmodern Consumer Culture. Routledge, 2024.

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Melanie Fasche - Digital Art and Value Creation: Exploring Art Market Dynamics

Melanie Fasche. “Digital Art and Value Creation: Exploring Art Market Dynamics.” In Global Art Markets: History and Current Trends, edited by Iain Robertson, Luis, Afonso, Luis, and Derrick Chong. Routledge, 2024.

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Bernard Vere - Paris: City of Art

Bernard Vere. “Paris: City of Art.” In Paris 1924: Sport, Art and the Body, edited by Caroline Vout and Chris Young. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge/ Paul Holberton, 2024.

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Federica Carlotto - In Search of Lost Time

Federica Carlotto. “‘In Search of Lost Time’: Luxury Fashion’s emerging Circular Initiatives and the Shifting Temporal Features of Fashion Consumption”. In New Directions in Art, Fashion, and Wine: Sustainability, Digitalization, and Artification edited by A. Joy, 119- 137. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2023.

Marcus Verhagen - Viewing Velocities; Time in Contemporary Art

Marcus Verhagen. Viewing Velocities; Time in Contemporary Art. London: Verso Books, 2023.

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Barbara Lasic - A Treasure of Riches and Curiosities

Barbara Lasic. ‘’A Treasure of Riches and Curiosities’: Politics of Display at the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, 1680– 1789’ in P. Bianchi, Displaying Art in the Early Modern Period (1450–1750): Exhibiting Practices and Exhibition Spaces. Routledge, 2022.

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Juliet Hacking - Photography: The Whole Story

Juliet Hacking, Photography: The Whole Story. Thames and Hudson, 2021.

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Judith Prowda - Guiding a Collection Through the Thicket of Copyright Law

Judith Prowda, ‘Guiding a Collection Through the Thicket of Copyright Law’, in Michelle Bogre and Nancy Wolff (eds.) Companion to Copyright and Creativity in the 21st Century, Routledge, 2020.

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Judith Prowda - To Build a Foundation You Do Not Start with the Roof: The Battle Over the Estate of Franz West and Afterthoughts on Planning Ahead

Judith Prowda, ‘To Build a Foundation You Do Not Start with the Roof: The Battle Over the Estate of Franz West and Afterthoughts on Planning Ahead’ in Kathy Battista and Bryan Faller (eds.) Creative Legacies: Artists’ Estates and Foundations. Lund Humphries, 2020.

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Bernard Vere, Sport and modernism in the visual arts in Europe, c. 1909-39

Bernard Vere, Sport and modernism in the visual arts in Europe, c. 1909-39. Manchester University Press, 2018.

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Juliet Hacking - Photography and the Art Market

Juliet Hacking, Photography and the Art Market. Lund Humphries, 2018.

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Judith Prowda - Visual Arts and the Law: A Handbook for Professionals

Judith Prowda, Visual Arts and the Law: A Handbook for Professionals. Lund Humphries, 2013.

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Revolutions, Art, and the Market Conference Program

The program for our forthcoming international conference on the topic of Revolutions, Art, and the Market taking place at Sotheby’s Institute of Art-London on June 4-5, 2026 has been announced and booking is now open.

Book Tickets

Embracing wide chronological and geographical spans, this conference considers how revolutions have inflected the circulation and consumption of art and facilitated the emergence of new art market practices and collecting paradigms. 

Downloadable Program

THURSDAY JUNE 4

9.15-9.45 Coffee and Registration

9.45-10.00: Welcome

10.00-12.00: SESSION 1: Revolutions in the Age of Enlightenment (Chair: Dr Barbara Lasic)

Dr Catherine Dossin, Associate Professor, Purdue University: Franklinmania: The French Art Market and the Making of the American Revolution
Dr Gabriel Wick, Assistant Professor, New York University in Paris: Marketing Gardens: the Duc d’Orléans,
Palais Royal, Le Raincy, and the Parisian public, 1785–1793

11.00-11.30: COFFEE BREAK

Dr Jan Dirk Baetens, Assistant Professor, Radboud University & Evelien De Visser, Curator, RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History: Art for All: The Emergence of a Mass Market for Cheap Paintings in the Age of Revolutions

12.00-12.30: Q&A FOR SESSION 1

12.30-13.30: LUNCH (not provided)

13.30 – 14.30: SESSION 2: The 1917 Russian Revolutions and their Aftermath (Chair: Lis Bogdan)

Dr Natalia Murray, Lecturer, Courtauld Institute: All the Empty Palaces. The Fate of Private Collections in
Russia after the 1917 Revolutions
Daniel Bulatov, PhD Candidate, University of Münster: Beyond the Market: Soviet Patronage and the
Economics of Western Revolutionary Art, 1920s-30s

14.30-14.45: Q&A FOR SESSION 2

14.45-15.15: TEA BREAK

15.15 – 16.45: SESSION 3: Modernist Revolutions and Cross-border Networks (Chair: Dr Bernard Vere)

Lara Virginie Pitteloud, PhD Candidate, University of Neuchâtel: Exhibiting Modernism in Revolutionary
Odesa: Izdebsky’s Salons and the Formation of Transnational Art Market Networks (1909-1911)
Dr Lucia Colombari, Assistant Professor, University of Oklahoma: The Afterlife of Italian Futurism: Postwar
Art Markets and Transatlantic Networks
Annie Wong, Independent Art Historian: After the Cultural Revolution: Wu Guanzhong and the Making of a
Transregional Chinese Modernist Market

16.45-17.15: Q&A FOR SESSION 3

17.15-18.15: KEYNOTE – Dr Adrian Locke, Curator Emeritus, The Royal Academy of Arts: Frida Kahlo and the Mexican Revolution (provisional title)

18.15-19.30: DRINKS RECEPTION

FRIDAY 5 JUNE

10.00-12.30: SESSION 4 Revolutions, Representations, and Structural Transformations (Chair: Dr David
Bellingham)

Maxence Garde, Curator, Gulbenkian Museum: Building on a Revolution – a Transformative Economical
Approach of Egyptian Antiquities after 1952
Dr Iris Gilad, University of Tel-Aviv: Revolution and Recognition: War, Canon Formation, and the Israeli-Palestinian Art Market

11.00-11.30: COFFEE BREAK

Aurella Yussuf, PhD Candidate, University of Birmingham: Revolutionary Rhetoric and Market Continuity:
Black Political Rupture and the Art Market after 2020

12.00-12.30: Q&A FOR SESSION 4

12.30-13.30: LUNCH (not provided)

13.30-14.30: SESSION 5 Cultural Revolutions and New Market Practices in Asia (Chair: Dr Ivy Chan)

Dr Vivian Tong, Lecturer, Hong Kong Baptist University: Shaping Taste in an Evolving Market – Historical
Chinese Works of Art and their Auction Market in Hong Kong from the 1970s-2020s

Dr Katie Hill, Senior Lecturer, SIA London: The cultural bond of Maoism: political memory and (cultural) value
in contemporary art from China

14.30-14.45: Q&A FOR SESSION 5

14.45-15.15: TEA BREAK

15.15-16.45: SESSION 6 Digital Revolutions (Chair: Dr Melanie Fasche)

Georgia Gerson, PhD Candidate, University of York: NFTs and the Art Market: Revolution or Continuity?
Dr Giulia Taurino, Getty Research Institute: Beyond Network Centrality: Machine Intelligence and the
Recovery of Invisible Markets
Dr Jonathan Adeyemi, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Loughborough University: Political Revolution and
Digital Mediation: A Sustainable Increasing Stake of African Art in the Global Market?

16.45-17.15: Q&A FOR SESSION 6

17.15: Concluding Remark

Call for Papers: Revolutions, Art, and the Market

“Revolutions, Art, and the Market Conference”
June 4-5, 2026
Sotheby’s Institute of Art-London

Art market trends and practices, whether historical or contemporary, are affected by networks of complex and often competing forces. As moments of political, economic, intellectual or technological rupture, revolutions have significantly shaped art market systems and fortunes, refracting and redirecting collecting ambitions, displacing existing markets and creating new ones, and promoting novel modes of commercialisation of art.

Embracing wide chronological and geographical spans, this conference will consider how revolutions have inflected the circulation and consumption of art and facilitated the emergence of new art market practices and collecting paradigms. The conference is deliberately adopting a broad definition of the term Revolution, intending to encompass its political, cultural, intellectual, economic and technological incarnations.

Interdisciplinary proposals and methodological approaches including empirical evaluations, economic analyses, and studies from the digital humanities are welcome. The conference is intended to foster rich discussions at the intersection of academic scholarship and professional practices, and contributions from both academics and art market professionals are actively sought.

Papers addressing contemporary perspectives and practices, as well as under-represented regions of the art market and the Global South are particularly encouraged.

Proposals offering critical perspectives may consider (but are not limited to) the following themes:

• Political revolutions and shifting art market geographies
• The dispersal and looting of collections
• Revolutions and markets for luxury goods
• Political revolutions and artistic migrations
• The markets for revolutionary art
• The American Revolutionary War and transatlantic artistic exchanges
• The Russian Revolutions
• The aftermath of PCR’s Cultural Revolution
• Iran’s White and Islamic Revolutions and the national and international markets for Iranian art.
• The artistic expressions of the Arab Springs
• The Scientific Revolution and its new collecting paradigms
• The Printing Revolution and the markets for prints
• The digital revolution and the emergence of new art market commercial platforms
• Technological revolutions and innovations: NFTs, Blockchain, AR, VR, AI-generated art

Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words for a 25-minute paper, along with a brief biography to Barbara Lasic b.lasic@sia.edu by March 1, 2026. Successful papers will be notified by March 15.

Scientific Committee:
Elisabeth Bogdan, Subject Leader, History of Design, Sotheby’s Institute of Art
Dr Melanie Fasche, Deputy Programme Director and Senior Lecturer, MA in Art Business, Sotheby’s Institute of Art
Dr Barbara Lasic, Research and Knowledge Lead and Senior Lecturer, Art and Design History, Sotheby’s Institute of Art

Image: Fantasy (1925) by Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, oil on canvas. Photograph by Sailko, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Call for Papers: Art as Luxury, Luxury as Art: Markets and the Making of Value

“Art as Luxury, Luxury as Art: Markets and the Making of Value” Conference
October 22-24, 2026
Sotheby’s Institute of Art-New York

Luxury has long been an important context for art. In sixteenth-century Antwerp, art was a key part of the city’s thriving luxury trade; Our Lady’s Pand—the first permanent art market in Europe—was one of several panden that served these new industries. In eighteenth-century Paris, marchands-merciers such as Edme-François Gersaint sold paintings, drawings, and engravings alongside porcelain, lacquer, jewelry, and shells.

At the turn of the twentieth century, the dealer Joseph Duveen not only cultivated in his American industrialist clients a taste for Old Master painting but also promoted European furniture, tapestries, and objets d’art, staging these works in lavish period rooms in his New York gallery to underscore their sumptuousness.

Art has likewise provided a crucial context for luxury. In Belle Époque Paris, Paul Poiret—the designer who arguably created fashion’s first modern lifestyle brand—used art to elevate his enterprise, enlisting artists to create textile designs and sponsoring an avant-garde art gallery. “The designer is, by definition, an artist in luxury,” he wrote.

Today’s luxury fashion houses follow Poiret’s model, integrating artworks into their retail spaces, establishing their own art foundations, and developing products in collaboration with artists. Eschewing the labels “luxury” and “fashion,” they recast themselves as “cultural brands.” At the same time, art businesses situate themselves ever-more explicitly within the luxury sphere. In 2019, Sotheby’s auction house reorganized into two divisions—fine art and luxury—and in 2021, Christie’s revised its website to identify itself as “a world-leading art and luxury business.”

The tenth annual TIAMSA conference focuses on the relationship between the art and luxury markets, both historically and in the contemporary moment, examining their points of intersection, their reciprocal influences, and the ways in which each has shaped—and defined itself in relation to—the other.

Proposals may consider (but are not limited to) the following themes:

• The evolving definitions of “art” and “luxury” over time, and the shifting status of the applied and decorative arts.
• The relative value of art vis-à-vis luxury and the influence of industrialization.
• Historical figures and businesses associated with the art market who also dealt in luxury objects.
• Historical figures and businesses in luxury fields—such as fashion and jewelry—who aligned themselves with fine art.
• Modes of display and sale across art and luxury, historically and today.
• Contemporary art businesses that increasingly rely on the sale of luxury objects, or that adopt sales and marketing tactics from the luxury sector.
• The conditions that historically led auction houses such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s to specialize in fine art—and that more recently have driven their expansion into luxury categories.
• The “artification” of luxury as a business strategy, from artist-brand collaborations to art-filled retail spaces.
• The phenomenon of luxury brands establishing their own art museums, staging pop-up art exhibitions, and transforming their flagship stores into museum-like spaces.
• Art museum exhibitions focused on luxury brands, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 1983 Yves Saint Laurent exhibition, the Guggenheim’s 2000 Armani show, and the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Alexander McQueen, Dior, and Cartier exhibitions.
• Luxury’s role in expanding the definition of art, including collaborations with artists on NFTs.
• How the values of luxury are shaping art and vice-versa.

Please submit an abstract (no more than 300 words) and a short bio by Friday, May 1, 2026, using this form: https://forms.office.com/r/Husr007JDz

Successful papers will be notified by May 29, 2026.

For inquiries, please contact: tiamsaconference@sia.edu

We welcome proposals from scholars at all career stages and from a variety of disciplines, including art market studies, luxury studies, art history, economic history, fashion studies, museum studies, cultural sociology, business history, and other related fields.

Curating and the Art Market Conference

“Curating and the Art Market Conference”
February 14-15, 2025
Sotheby’s Institute of Art-London

Jointly organized by Sotheby’s Institute of Art and the Colnaghi Foundation, this international conference explored the aesthetic, intellectual, and financial links between commercial and institutional curatorial practices, their synergies, the ways in which they have influenced each other, and their impact on value systems and market fortunes. ⁠
⁠
The conference adopted a broad historical and geographical perspective. Positioned at the intersection of academic scholarship and professional practice, its interdisciplinary approach aimed to provide fertile ground for discussion among academics, art market professionals, curators, and collectors, encouraging reflection on curatorial networks of exchange and interlocking dialogues, both past and present, between public institutions and the art trade. ⁠

Intertropical Convergence: Gallerists Bridging the America

“Intertropical Convergence: Gallerists Bridging the Americas”
Sotheby’s Institute of Art-New York
April 29, 2025

Sotheby’s Institute of Art and Stropheus Art Law held a panel discussion exploring the evolving landscape of art galleries operating across New York and Latin America.

Gallery directors examined the cultural, economic, and logistical factors shaping their curatorial practices and market strategies. From cross-regional collaborations to the impact of global art fairs and digital platforms, this conversation highlighted the opportunities and challenges of bridging two vibrant art worlds.

Panelists

Elisabeth Johs JO-HS Gallery, New York and Mexico City

Malik Al-Mahrouky Kurimanzutto, New York and Mexico City

Giancarlo Scaglia Revolver Galeria, New York and Buenos Aires

Moderators

Judith B. Prowda, Esq., Faculty, MA Art Business, Sotheby’s Institute of Art-New York

Dr. Richard M. Lehun, Esq., attorney focused on artist-gallerist relations, agency obligations, and art transactions

Developing New Markets: Africa, China, India, and Latin America

“Developing New Markets: Africa, China, India, and Latin America”
Sotheby’s Institute of Art-New York
May 9, 2024

Sotheby’s Institute of Art in collaboration with Stropheus Art Law held a panel discussion on the challenges for gallerists developing new markets with focuses on Africa, China, India, and Latin America.

Globalization and market diversification have become key elements of a gallerist’s economic and curatorial success. The speed and international scope of business opportunities create an almost unlimited potential for business development, while at the same time significantly increasing risks. This panel focussed on understanding business development and sustainability in these key markets.

Panelists

Ethan Cohen founded Ethan Cohen Gallery in 1987 as Art Waves/Ethan Cohen in SoHo, New York City. It was the first gallery to present the Chinese Avant Garde of the ’80s to the United States. He has represented artists including Ai Weiwei, Xu Bing, Gu Wenda, Zhao Bandi, Wang Keping and Qiu Zhijie. Ethan Cohen Fine Arts today represents a diverse global mix of art, including contemporary American, African, Iranian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Pakistani and Thai, from emerging and established artists.

Projjal Dutta has shown the work of established artists such as M. F. Husain, F. N. Souza, and S. H. Raza. The gallery has also presented ambitious solo shows of younger artists, such as Abdullah Syed, Abir Karmakar, Salman Toor, Adeela Suleman, and G. R. Iranna. The gallery has collaborated with museums such as the Kiran Nadar Museum, New Delhi and the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco. Exhibitions have been reviewed and the gallery has been profiled by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Times of London, Art Asia Pacific, ArtForum and the Financial Times.

Alberto Magnan is a Cuban born art dealer based in NY. He founded MagnanProjects and Magnan Metz in Chelsea. Has worked closely with Cuban artist Alexandre Arrechea and Roberto Diago and others in representing and developing their international careers. Travels extensively in Cuba and South America, developing projects such as Chelsea Visits Havana, Projecto Paladar, Trading With The Enemy. He has currently produced a Cuban Art exhibition in Morocco at Mohamed VI Museum showcasing the works of Wifredo Lam.

Moderators

Judith B. Prowda, Esq., Faculty, MA Art Business, Sotheby’s Institute of Art-New York

Dr. Richard M. Lehun, Esq., attorney focused on artist-gallerist relations, agency obligations, and art transactions