The Board
Chair: Teresa Krasny
As former Head of Sale at Christie’s Impressionist & Modern department in London, Ms Krasny was responsible for ensuring the authenticity of the artworks offered in the context of the auctions she ran. Knowing the relevant experts and understanding the authentication process for each artist in this category was essential. She is a member of the vetting committee for the Modern and Contemporary section at TEFAF Maastricht where along with her team, she determines whether the artworks offered by galleries meet the required standards of authenticity and quality.
As art advisor/curator to a private collector, the expertise process is a fundamental part of the due diligence Ms Krasny undertakes prior to any acquisition. She has considerable first-hand experience of the issues relating to the authentication and archiving of an artist’s work and the damage that the lack of a credible catalogue raisonné and authentication process can cause to an artist’s legacy and commercial viability.
Deputy Chair: Dr Sharon Hecker
(BA Yale University, cum laude, and M.A., Ph.D. University of California at Berkeley).
Sharon is an art historian and
curator. A leading international expert on modern and contemporary art and the
Italian sculptor Medardo Rosso, she has authored over 30 publications,
including
A Moment’s Monument: Medardo Rosso and the International Origins
of Modern Sculpture,
awarded the Millard Meiss Prize by the College Art
Association. Sharon has curated numerous exhibitions, including
Medardo
Rosso: Second Impressions
(Harvard University Art Museums), Medardo
Rosso: Experiments in Light and Form
(Pulitzer Arts Foundation) and, with
Julia Peyton-Jones,
Medardo Rosso: Sight Unseen and His Encounters with
London
(Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac). Dr Hecker researches interactions between
art-historical scholarship, the market and the law as related to authenticity,
attribution, expertise and due diligence. She is a member of the Catalogue
Raisonné Scholars Association (CRSA), International Foundation for Art Research
(IFAR) and International Council of Museums (ICOM). Sharon is currently
curating an exhibition of Lucio Fontana’s ceramics to take place at the Peggy
Guggenheim Collection in Venice in 2025.
Secretary: Harriet Bridgeman CBE
In 1972, Viscountess Bridgeman founded Bridgeman Images, today one of the world’s most prominent image libraries. In 2006, she was lobbied by art market professionals to set up the Artists’ Collecting Society, which handles the copyright and resale rights of over 1000 artists including such high-profile names as Lucian Freud and Stanley Spencer.
In addition, she has worked closely with many authors and publishers in the production of their catalogues raisonnés. Lady Bridgeman supports pre-eminent artists in commercialising their work through the handling of their copyright. In 2013, she was awarded a CBE for her contribution to the arts.
Treasurer: Toby Treves
Toby Treves is the CEO of Modern Art Press, a charitable organisation that specialises in the publication of catalogues raisonnés. Thus far, the Press has published “William Nicholson: catalogue raisonné of the Oil Paintings” by Patricia Reed, and “Peter Lanyon: catalogue raisonné of the Oil Paintings and Three-dimensional Works” by Toby Treves. Next year, they will publish “Leon Kossoff: catalogue raisonné of the Oil Paintings” by Andrea Rose, and “Lucian Freud: catalogue raisonné Vol.1” by Frances Carey.
Beyond his knowledge of publishing such books, Mr Treves’s own authorship of a catalogue raisonné has provided him with first-hand experience of compiling them.
Edith Devaney
Edith Devaney is a Director of the David Hockney Foundation. She is also Contemporary Curator and Head of Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. She originated and co-curated the Jasper Johns; ‘Something Resembling Truth’ exhibition in 2017 and Abstract Expressionism in 2016. She also curated the David Hockney exhibition, 82 Portraits and one still-life, and originated and co-curated the Hockney landscape exhibition,A Bigger Picture, in 2012, and Richard Diebenkorn in 2015. In her capacity as Head of Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, she has worked with many international contemporary artists on both the curation of this annual exhibition and special projects and displays relating to it.
Saskia Spender
Saskia Spender is the President of the Arshile Gorky Foundation since 2016, and is the artist’s granddaughter, as well as a fifth generation artist herself. The Arshile Gorky Foundation is a US based 501(c)3, dedicated to safeguarding the artist’s legacy. Its primary purpose is to complete the Catalogue Raisonné.
Saskia grew up in Italy, emigrating to England to study social anthropology at Girton College, Cambridge. She has two children and works in London.
Matthew Stephenson
Matthew Stephenson is a specialist in 20th-century and
contemporary art with a particular interest in the art of Central and Eastern
Europe. Previously he worked as Managing Director of Christie’s Russia and
International Senior Director at PACE Gallery in London. Matthew is Chairman of
The Photographers’ Gallery, London, an expert advisor to the Arts Council,
England, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Czech Centre, London. In
2016, Matthew set up Stephenson art, specialising in representing artists’ estates and private collections. Stephenson art represents the estates of Alexander
Archipenko, Anna Mahler and Daniela Vinopalová.
Pierre Valentin
Pierre Valentin is a leading art lawyer and founding partner of Constantine Cannon LLP in London. He was formerly Associate General Counsel and Senior Director of Sotheby’s. He has been advising artists and their estates for over twenty years, and he is a trustee of the Artists’ Collecting Society.