Sarah Douglas spoke with Mitchell-Innes about integrity, ethics, and why artists should get the same tax breaks as collectors.
Conversation With Lucy Mitchell-Innes
By Sarah Douglas
Published: January 1, 2010Photo by Oberto GiliDealer Lucy Mitchell-Innes, president of the Art Dealers Association of America
The 48-year-old Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) can no longer be accused of being an old boys’ club: In September, when New York dealer Roland Augustine’s three-year term was up, the ADAA appointed Lucy Mitchell-Innes as its first woman president. Since 1996 she has been co-owner, with husband David Nash, of Mitchell-Innes & Nash gallery, in New York. Another item on her résumé — the 13 years she spent at Sotheby’s in leading positions in the contemporary-art, Latin American art and print departments — could prove valuable to dealer members at a time when the auction houses are increasingly competing for private sales. Sarah Douglas spoke with Mitchell-Innes about integrity, ethics and why artists should get the same tax breaks as collectors.
What are the most pressing issues right now for the ADAA?
Roland did a lot during his tenure. Our visions are pretty parallel, and I’m able to pick up where he left off. One of the things we will continue to do is his 50 Artists for 50 States initiative.
For that, 50 living American artists will donate works to one museum in each state upon passage of legislation giving the creators of art the same tax benefits as collectors.
Yes. We want to raise national awareness. It’s critically important that artists be able to give works to museums and receive the same benefits as you or I. At the moment, museums all across this country are losing out. I’m working with people in Washington, in the arts and in the National Endowment for the Arts.
But what are the issues of concern to the ADAA’s members?
Support at a time when the market is hard to fathom and understand.
How can the association help?I am very keen on improving communications and creating a general level of collegial trust. When I was thinking about becoming head of the ADAA, I asked myself what I stand for as an art dealer in the secondary market. I had a year to reflect on that question, and the things I think are critical for dealers are expertise, integrity and the highest possible standards of excellence — knowing more than anyone else about the artists you are involved with. That kind of knowledge runs deep in this organization, and bringing that information to the attention of the public is what I see as one of the pressing tasks of the ADAA right now — raising the profile of all the members.
The auction houses are increasingly engaging in private sales, previously the sole purview of dealers. Might your experience at Sotheby’s enable you to help the association’s members grapple with this?Yes, because I know the differences between what auctioneers do and what dealers do. Again, it’s about expertise and knowledge in the dealer community. And again, my challenge is to make collectors aware of this, to connect them with our membership so they can form relationships and educate themselves and know what these sources are. Integrity is really important, because all a dealer really has, in addition to how much he knows, is how much he or she can be trusted. Bonds of trust between dealers and collectors are what bring collectors back to us.
During his tenure as president, Roland Augustine started an ethics committee. Are you continuing it?Yes, it’s something I feel extremely strongly about, because a dealer’s ethical practice is pretty critical. We have a standards-and-practices code of ethics that was initiated during Roland’s tenure. Now when you become a member, you have to sign it, and it will be printed this year in our membership book, which comes out at the time of the Art Show [the ADAA’s annual fair], in March.
What are some of the things outlined in this document?Warranties: When we sell a work, under New York State law our invoice is also a warranty of its authenticity. Clear title — that’s a very important issue; the auction houses have teams of people dealing with that. Condition of works of art. Our commitments to artists, in the form of exhibitions, publications, fostering scholarship on their work. Keeping records of the artists’ work. Payments to artists. Protecting artists’ estates. Not consigning an artist’s work to auction with the intention of acquiring it, meaning you can’t bid on your own work. And if you guarantee a work that’s consigned to auction, you have to disclose this to bidders.
Speaking of the Art Show, has there been any further talk about doing a second annual show in the Park Avenue Armory?Yes. It got tabled in October of 2008. I would love to do it, and at the right moment we will. It will be done in the fall, and it will be an invitational, but it has to wait, with the economy.
The ADAA has seemed oriented much more toward contemporary art in recent years. Why is that?It’s more or less a function of the evolution of the market. Art of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century is rarer and rarer. It’s more and more difficult to find great examples. There’s more and more capital involved in having that kind of work in your inventory, if you’re a secondary-market dealer. You move in a contemporary direction just because of the dearth of material in other fields.
Don’t you find it strange that the ADAA has never before had a woman at the helm, since some of its most esteemed members are women?Think of Paula Cooper, Barbara Gladstone, Marian Goodman. Amazing — an entire generation, real role models. I think it’s happenstance. I don’t think there was any deliberate effort not to have a woman lead. For an art dealer, this is another entire job. Someone has to really want to do this. But it’s not uninteresting. What strikes me is just how gifted this group of people is. If all I did was make the public aware of that talent and enable people to tap into it, I’d be happy.
“Conversation With Lucy Mitchell-Innes“originally appeared in the January 2010 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction‘s January 2010 Table of Contents.