Few are more qualified to navigate the art market than Joseph Friedman, a former Sotheby’s senior director who has also worked as an art adviser to the Foreign Office, the National Trust, and the J Rothschild Group. From his premises on Old Bond Street he sources works of art for private collectors, generally off-market, in addition to brokering sales, both by private treaty and at auction.
Friedman’s principal focus is Old Master paintings and sculpture, Impressionist and Modern art, and 18th-century furniture and objects, and he has attracted a distinguished clientele which includes the Al-Fayed family, Kay Saatchi, film-makers Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, and Burberry’s Christopher Bailey.
‘The key is access to top collectors, whether as buyers or sellers, and striking the right balance in terms of price,’ says Friedman. He has particular expertise in the area of historical research, especially provenance.
Friedman is concluding a major project, sourcing antique furniture, tapestries and sculpture for the Ritz Hotel in Paris. ‘For the first time in its history,’ he says, ‘the hotel contains what is genuinely a major collection of 18th-century French furniture and objects, which perfectly suits the architecture of the building.’
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