Collecting

When in Boston, make sure you include a visit to ‘The Gardner’ as it is known locally. Conveniently situated on ‘The Fenway’, close to the MFA and the Back Bay area. It is a remarkable building and an extraordinary collection formed at the dawn of the era when Americans collected European art, and in the process created something entirely personal, new and exciting. I met with Nathaniel Silver, As...

On a recent trip to lecture in Boston, I had the great privilege to visit the home of Dr Horace Wood ‘Woody’ Brock. Woody was probably the first collector I ever met. Before I joined Christie’s as a graduate trainee in September 1997, I visited the Grosvenor House Art and Antiques Fair, at the time the most important art fair in the Western hemisphere, a place where the international great and the...

This month, I had the pleasure of meeting with Martin Levy, of the furniture dealers H. Blairman & Sons . Martin shared his experience of working in the family business, and helping to build art collections for private clients and institutions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rufusbird.substack.com

In this podcast episode, I sit down with my former colleague at the Royal Collection Trust Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures from 2005-2021. In this episode, we discuss the particular role of royal collectors, and if there is really a motivation for art collecting as a Prince and how that sometimes becomes a form of ‘national’ collecting (if there is such a thing). During my t...

In this, the second podcast episode of my occasional series of discussions with art world insiders, I visit the gallerist, Louis Meisel in New York, to discuss collecting American photo realism, works by the British ceramicist Clarice Cliff, vintage ice cream scoops and Playboy pin-up prints The Louis K Meisel gallery, Prince Street, Soho, New York. This is a public episode. If you would like to d...

1. James Stourton. A new occasional podcast, with interviews about why we collect art. In this, the first interview, Rufus speaks with James Stourton, formerly of Sotheby's and a writer on collecting. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rufusbird.substack.com