User:Artsceneedit/sandbox/Melanie Clore

Melanie Clore
Melanie Clore is Chairman of Sotheby’s, Europe, a position she has held since 2011 (1). She is also Co-Chairman Worldwide of Impressionist and Modern Art at Sotheby’s, having been appointed to the post in 2000 (8).

"Melanie Clore, is one of the most experienced businesswomen and art experts working in the market today. With over 25 years’ experience at Sotheby’s she is a leading specialist in the field of Impressionist and Modern Art worldwide"

She began her career at Sotheby’s in 1981, a few months after graduating from Manchester University where she had read History of Art (16). In 1985 she took her first auction and in the process became Sotheby’s youngest-ever female auctioneer (4). ‘”When Melanie started, women didn’t get much of a look-in at auctioneering”, says Desmond Corcoran, owner of the Lefevre Gallery. "Melanie made it through personality, determination and being very good at what she did. She has an infectious enthusiasm for what she is doing.”’ (4).

In 1990 she became head of the Impressionist and Modern Art department in London; in the same year she became the first female auctioneer to take a major evening sale of Impressionist & Modern Art (10).

In 2000 she became Co-Chairman Worldwide of the Impressionist & Modern Art Department (14). In January 2011 she became Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe alongside Henry Wyndham (1).

Under Melanie Clore’s leadership, Sotheby's held the most successful auction ever to have taken place in London at any auction house – the Impressionist, Modern & Surrealist Art sale in February 2015, which achieved a total of £186.4 million (10). Melanie Clore has been integral in bringing to auction some of the most outstanding Impressionist and Modern art works in recent years, including Alberto Giacometti’s ‘Walking Man’, which sold for $104m (£65m) in 2010, a world record for a sculpture at the time (3).

Melanie Clore also played a crucial role in helping to drive Sotheby’s successes across a number of different collecting categories. In 2005, she conceived Sotheby’s ‘Beyond Limits’ annual outdoor sculpture selling exhibition at Chatsworth, ‘which has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious platforms for the display and sale of modern and contemporary outdoor sculpture, and a key event in the art world calendar(12). In 2014 she was responsible for bringing to auction the collection of the late Stanley J Seeger, ‘1000 Ways of Seeing’, which encompassed 1000 objects spanning every department at Sotheby’s (11). In December 2014, she took the winning bid for J.M.W. Turner’s Rome from Mount Aventine, which sold for £30.3 million and represents the auction record for any early British Painting (9).

Other

In 2004, the Prime Minister appointed her to the Board of Trustees of the Tate, which she held until 2009 (15). Since 2009 she has been an honorary member of the Tate Foundation. In 2010 she became a Trustee of The Clore Duffield Foundation, which supports cultural learning, arts and heritage organisations and social care. She was a Trustee of the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (1988-98).

Education

Channing School, Highgate

University of Manchester (BA, Hons)