The public sale home exodus continues, this time at Phillips, the place Ed Dolman has resigned as govt chairman. He has held that place since 2021, having joined the agency as chief govt in 2014. Dolman will stay in put up till Might 2025, when he’ll transfer right into a consultancy function. Dolman says it has been a “privilege” to work with a “world-class workforce at Phillips”, however it’s now time for him “to show to new pursuits and to discover new methods of partaking on the earth of artwork”.
Following eight years with Phillips, the public sale home’s deputy chief govt Amanda Lo Iacono may also step down this month with a purpose to pursue different alternatives. It’s not clear whether or not her place will likely be crammed.
For the previous yr, along with his function as govt chairman, Dolman has been managing international operations on the public sale home—taking over this duty after Stephen Brooks stepped down as chief govt in January. At the moment, Phillips stated Brooks’ resignation, which got here after he had been within the function for lower than three years, was for private causes and was unrelated to the public sale home’s falling gross sales in 2023, when Phillips reported a 15% drop in gross sales from the earlier yr.
Martin Wilson, who took over as chairman of the British Artwork Market Federation (Bamf) slightly below six months in the past after an extended profession as a number one artwork lawyer, has been appointed chief govt of Phillips. The Artwork Newspaper understands there aren’t any speedy plans to fill Dolman’s soon-to-be-vacant function of govt chairman.
Wilson has been on the public sale home’s govt board since 2019, serving because the agency’s chief authorized officer. No resolution is believed to have been taken as as to whether he’ll stay in place at Bamf; Wilson couldn’t be instantly reached for remark.
In an announcement, Wilson says: “Edward Dolman’s extraordinary profession has left an everlasting legacy within the public sale world. Having labored collectively throughout completely different organisations over the previous 16 years, I’ve seen first-hand how universally revered and admired Mr. Dolman is, each for his skill to construct enterprise and for the inspiration he gives to colleagues at each stage of the organisation. It has been a privilege to collaborate with him all through my profession, and I stay up for shaping the following chapter of Phillips collectively.”
Dolman says in a separate assertion that Wilson’s “strategic method and deep understanding of the artwork market will likely be invaluable as Phillips continues to innovate and develop”.
Dolman’s resignation caps one other tough yr within the artwork market, significantly for the struggling public sale sector. Sotheby’s is reducing not less than 100 folks from its international workers following an earlier spherical of roughly 50 redundancies in London this summer season. There have been “just a few redundancies” at Bonhams, in keeping with its chairman Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard, whereas Christie’s has to this point averted redundancy consultations.
Throughout his tenure, Dolman tripled Phillips’ annual gross sales whole, led the formation of the Fashionable and modern artwork division and pushed forward with the public sale home’s enlargement in Asia. He opened new headquarters in Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York and Paris, amongst others, and led the public sale home’s digital enlargement. Dolman additionally helped the public sale home climate a number of storms, together with pandemic lockdowns, the softening of the market and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which put strain on Phillips and its Russian house owners, the Mercury Group.
Earlier than becoming a member of Phillips, Dolman served because the director of the workplace of Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the chairperson of the Qatar Museums Authority. Previous to that, Dolman spent 27 years at Christie’ the place he began out as a porter earlier than turning into a specialist after which advancing to chief govt, a job he served for 11 years.
