The Art World Demystified by Author and Aquavella Gallery Director Michael Findlay

This week Co-Hosts Brad Forsythe and Ray Schilens interview Michael Findlay, author of “The Value of Art” and director of Acquavella Galleries.
Born in Scotland in 1945, Michael Findlay is a highly experienced and internationally renowned gallery director, art dealer and writer. He is currently a Director of Acquavella Galleries, which specializes in Impressionist and Modern European works of art and post-war American painting and sculpture.

Mr. Findlay directed one of the first galleries in the SoHo neighborhood of New York in the 1960s. He established his own gallery in SoHo from 1969-1977. During that time, he was the first dealer in the United States to show the work of Joseph Beuys, Sean Scully and several other important European artists, and also gave American artists such as John Baldessari, Hannah Wilke, Stephen Mueller and Billy Sullivan their first solo exhibitions in New York.

From 1964 until 1984, Mr. Findlay bought and sold Impressionist and twentieth century works of art on behalf of American and European private collectors. In 1984, he joined the staff of Christie’s Auction House and was head of the Impressionist and Modern Paintings Department until 1992, when he became International Director of Fine Arts and a member of Christie’s Board of Directors. At Christie’s, he supervised the sale of many important collections, including the collections of William and Edith Mayer Goetz, John and Frances L. Loeb, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Hal B. Wallis, and Victor and Sally Ganz. He was also responsible for the sale of Portrait of Dr. Gachet, a painting by Vincent van Gogh which sold for $82,500,000.

Mr. Findlay retired from Christie’s in 2000 and began to serve on the Art Advisory Panel for the Internal Revenue Service of the Treasury Department of the U.S. Government in 2001. In 2009, he was elected Vice President of the Art Dealers Association of America and is currently Chairman of the ADAA Appraisal Committee. He remains a visiting lecturer at Christie’s Education and serves on the Academic Advisory Board. His first book, The Value of Art, will be published in English and German by Prestel Publishing in April 2012. Mr. Findlay is married with two children.

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