Samantha Anderson has joined Heritage Auctions as Chief Legal Officer and EVP of Business Development and Special Projects. She comes from Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP, where she was an attorney in the Art and Museum Law group for three years. It’s the latest in a series of strategic moves by the Dallas-based auction house as it positions itself for further expansion.
As Chief Legal Officer, Anderson will be handling both internal legal matters in the day-to-day operations of the business, as well as overseeing transactional matters with clients.
“It’s unusual to have an in-house counsel who has worked in the market,” she told ARTnews. It also might be the first time that an auction house has formalized the overlap between business development acumen and legal expertise in a job title. “It’s a role that acknowledges that those buckets get mixed,” said Anderson.
Anderson joins at a time of massive growth for the auction house. Five years ago, Heritage achieved $1.4 billion in sales and captured 7.9 percent share of the market among the five biggest global auction houses (Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Bonhams, and Phillips). Last year their sales totalled $2.2 billion, and their share of the market grew to 12.6 percent. This was driven in large part by their coin and collectibles divisions, both of which have benefited from a huge run-up in prices in recent years.
As an alum of both Sotheby’s Fiduciary Client Group and the advisory firm Art Intelligence Global, Anderson will bring a trusts-and-estates perspective to these growing markets, recognizing that today’s collectors acquire objects across categories, from fine art to luxury to collectibles. “There is significant overlap and it’s becoming even more pronounced,” Heritage CEO Steve Ivy told ARTnews.
Heritage’s other recent moves include promoting Aviva Lehmann and Nick Nicholson to deputy chairmen of fine and decorative arts, respectively, as they eye expansion in those markets. They also just celebrated the opening of new headquarters in Beverly Hills. Upcoming estate sales originating from that region include those of Matthew Perry and Carl Reiner.
“I’m excited to go back to the auction world,” said Anderson. “There’s going to be a lot of opportunities to think about new strategies and ways of doing things.”
