The art world is back in business

Art galleries and auction houses are tentatively looking to reopen their doors as the pandemic starts to subside.

The first stirrings are afoot in the art world as galleries and auction houses tentatively look to reopen their doors as the pandemic subsides, says Melanie Gerlis in the Financial Times.

Gagosian, the world’s biggest commercial art gallery, will start the process with a show of German artist Georg Baselitz’s work in Hong Kong on 21 May. Sotheby’s chief executive, Charles Stewart, said the auction house’s staff in Europe and Asia would begin to return to work, noting also that it had made a total of $70m from holding 37 online sales since March. However, Perth-based WhiskyAuctioneer.com experienced the perils of doing so last month. Its online sale of 1,958 bottles of rare whisky had to be delayed due to a malicious cyberattack. The first phase of the auction, held earlier this year, had raised £3.2m.

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Chris Carter
Wealth Editor, MoneyWeek

Chris Carter spent three glorious years reading English literature on the beautiful Welsh coast at Aberystwyth University. Graduating in 2005, he left for the University of York to specialise in Renaissance literature for his MA, before returning to his native Twickenham, in southwest London. He joined a Richmond-based recruitment company, where he worked with several clients, including the Queen’s bank, Coutts, as well as the super luxury, Dorchester-owned Coworth Park country house hotel, near Ascot in Berkshire.

Then, in 2011, Chris joined MoneyWeek. Initially working as part of the website production team, Chris soon rose to the lofty heights of wealth editor, overseeing MoneyWeek’s Spending It lifestyle section. Chris travels the globe in pursuit of his work, soaking up the local culture and sampling the very finest in cuisine, hotels and resorts for the magazine’s discerning readership. He also enjoys writing his fortnightly page on collectables, delving into the fascinating world of auctions and art, classic cars, coins, watches, wine and whisky investing.

You can follow Chris on Instagram.