Intelligence Squared: Arts & Culture

This is an episode of The Specialist, your weekly dose of wonder. In The Specialist, explore the significance and journey of an extraordinary work through the eyes of those that know it best. On today's episode, Diana, Princess of Wales, and her iconic 'One Black Sheep' jumper. First worn to a Windsor polo match in 1981, the jumper was rediscovered in an attic after forty years and meticulously au...

This is an episode of The Specialist, your weekly dose of wonder. In The Specialist, explore the significance and journey of an extraordinary work through the eyes of those that know it best. On today’s episode, the story of Four Eggs on a Plate, a small but powerful painting by Lucian Freud. Hidden away for years at Chatsworth House, the painting was unearthed by Tom Eddison, Head of Contemporary...

This is an episode of The Specialist, your weekly dose of wonder. In The Specialist, explore the significance and journey of an extraordinary work through the eyes of those that know it best. On this episode, the extraordinary story of the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé — a car so rare and revered that few believed it would ever leave the Mercedes museum. Yet it went on to become the m...

This is an episode of The Specialist, producing by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. On today's episode, George Wachter, Sotheby's Americas Chairman, and Co-Chairman of Old Master Paintings Worldwide, takes us back over 50 years to the start of his career to tell the tale of the discovery of two remarkable Brueghel paintings, hidden in plain sight — one at the back of a wardrobe....

This is an episode of The Specialist, producing by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. On today’s episode, how a paper brochure began a treasure hunt to authenticate a masterpiece of modern Indian art – Jagdish Swaminathan’s “Homage to Solzhenitsyn”. Manjari Sihare-Sutin, Head of Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art Worldwide, shares the story and how it culminated in a record-b...

This is an episode of The Specialist, producing by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. On today’s episode, Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian - an artwork that provoked scandal, sparked imagination, and upended the very definition of contemporary art. David Galperin, Sotheby’s Vice Chairman, Head of Contemporary Art for The Americas, examines the complexities and challenges that come wit...

This is an episode of The Specialist, producing by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. On today’s episode, the emergence of a monumental painting by S. Sudjojono, long hidden in a private collection. Jasmine Prasetio, Managing Director of Sotheby's Southeast Asia, first encountered the composition as a blurry photo on a mobile phone, but went on to orchestrate its record breaking s...

This is an episode of The Specialist, producing by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. On today’s episode, the beauty of nature suspended for eternity. Helen Culver-Smith, Head of Decorative Arts Worldwide and Head of Fabergé and Russian works of Art, reveals how the digital discovery of an apple blossom study, rendered in gold, enamel and rock crystal by master maker Fabergé, led...

This is an episode of The Specialist, producing by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. On today’s episode, how Benjamin Doller, Chairman of The Americas, reattributed ‘Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis’ to Jacques-Louis David. Long believed to have been painted by a student of David, he was able to authenticate it before many modern analysis techniques were available.  Further de...

This is an episode of The Specialist, producing by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. On today’s episode, Ashkan Baghestani, Head of Contemporary Art Day Sale in New York recounts his quest to trace and recontextualise the scattered corpus of artist Bahman Mohassess, and, in so doing, to restore him to his rightful place in the history of Middle Eastern art. Further details about...

This is an episode of The Specialist, producing by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. On today's episode, the legendary Shahnameh—the Persian Book of Kings—an epic poem composed of around 50,000 rhyming couplets that recounts the mythical and historical past of the Persian Empire. Head of Islamic and Indian Art. Benedict Carter tells the tale of how one remarkable version of the S...

This is an episode of The Specialist, producing by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. In The Specialist, explore the significance and journey of an extraordinary work through the eyes of those that know it best. On today’s episode, the tangled history of a Paul Gauguin still life – once a fixture at the Musée d’Orsay and originally misappropriated from the estate of renowned art d...

This is an episode of The Specialist, producing by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. In The Specialist, explore the significance and journey of an extraordinary work through the eyes of those that know it best. More than a masterpiece, The Scream has become a cultural icon. Simon Shaw, Senior Advisor, Impressionist & Modern Art, oversaw the landmark auction of the work, a sale th...

This is an episode of The Specialist, producing by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. In The Specialist, explore the significance and journey of an extraordinary work through the eyes of those that know it best. When Les Distractions de Dagobert shattered records, it marked not only a market milestone but also a shift in interest toward the female Surrealist market. Julian Dawes,...

This is an episode of The Specialist, produced by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. In The Specialist, explore the significance and journey of an extraordinary work through the eyes of those that know it best. On today’s episode, Head of Old Master and Early British Drawings Worldwide Greg Rubinstein’s journey leading the decade-long effort to reestablish a once-doubted Vermeer a...

This is an episode of The Specialist, produced by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. In The Specialist, explore the significance and journey of an extraordinary work through the eyes of those that know it best. The shredding of Banksy’s Girl with Balloon live at auction in 2018 has gone down in art history. Alex Branczik, Chairman and Head of Modern & Contemporary Art Europe and A...

This is an episode of The Specialist, produced by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. In The Specialist, explore the significance and journey of an extraordinary work through the eyes of those that know it best. On today’s episode, the story of the Ming dynasty Chicken Cup, one of the most iconic objects in Chinese ceramics, which has followed Nicolas Chow, Chairman, Sotheby’s Asia...

This is an episode of The Specialist, produced by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. In The Specialist, explore the significance and journey of an extraordinary work through the eyes of those that know it best. Grégoire Billault’s personal relationship with Pierre Soulages reflects a longstanding commitment to championing the artist on a global stage. The connection culminated in...

This is an episode of The Specialist, produced by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. In The Specialist, explore the significance and journey of an extraordinary work through the eyes of those that know it best. Commissioned by the Della Rovere family and separated across the centuries, a pair of Renaissance cabinets was finally brought back together. This is a story of friendship...

This is an episode of The Specialist, produced by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. In The Specialist, explore the significance and journey of an extraordinary work through the eyes of those that know it best. On today’s episode, the alchemy of industry experience, market intelligence and a true passion for art, and how these factors converged in the landmark sale of Jenny Savill...

This is an episode of The Specialist, produced by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. In The Specialist, explore the significance and journey of an extraordinary work through the eyes of those that know it best. Rubens’ early masterpiece The Massacre of the Innocents was hidden away for nearly 250 years. George Gordon, Deputy Chairman, Sotheby’s Europe and Co-Chairman of Old Master...

This is an episode of The Specialist, produced by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. In The Specialist, explore the significance and journey of an extraordinary work through the eyes of those that know it best. On today’s episode, a remarkable restitution story involving the loss of a family’s Kandinsky painting in Nazi-era Germany. Helena Newman, Chairman, Sotheby’s Europe and Im...

This is an episode of The Specialist, produced by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Sotheby's. In The Specialist, explore the significance and journey of an extraordinary work through the eyes of those that know it best. In a rare move, four paintings by Abstract Expressionist Clyfford Still were released from the artist’s estate to support the founding of a museum in his honor. Lisa Dennis...

On today’s episode, an episode from our friends at Sotheby's, exploring the world of Shakespeare. Sam Leith, author, journalist and literary editor of The Spectator, will be joined by Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Oxford, Tracy-Ann Oberman, who most recently starred as Shylock in her adaptation of The Merchant of Venice, and acclaimed actor Joseph Kloska. They will be revealing h...

In this episode, writer, academic and critic Frances Wilson is joined by Artistic Director of Dior Homme and Vice President of Charleston, Kim Jones, Dr Darren Clarke, Head of Collections, Research and Exhibitions at Charleston and Sotheby’s, and Jen Hardie, Director and Senior Specialist in Modern British & Irish Art at Sotheby’s in London, for a conversation about the indefatigable spirit of the...