{"id":802835,"date":"2026-10-14T23:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T23:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/802835\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T23:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T23:56:13","slug":"new-kids-on-the-block-the-young-dealers-who-are-shaking-up-the-old-masters-market-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/802835\/","title":{"rendered":"New kids on the block: the young dealers who are shaking up the Old Masters market – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new generation of Old Master dealers have it much tougher now than when Johnny Van Haeften started in the 1970s, observes the septuagenarian. \u201cNow, you really need to have a very rich backer or have personal money,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause in my day pictures were very cheap, and they were plentiful. Now, they are not so plentiful, and not so cheap.\u201d Van Haeften estimates that to set up an Old Master gallery today, \u201cyou\u2019d have to have at least \u00a35m to \u00a310m in the bank\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Emanuela Tarizzo Photo: Hugo Glendinning; courtesy of Frieze<\/p>\n

However, that is not deterring the growing ranks of younger dealers, in their 30s and early 40s, taking part in Frieze Masters. \u201cThere\u2019s a generation of dealers I\u2019ve grown up alongside, in career terms, who are now opening their own galleries or taking on family businesses and making them their own,\u201d says Emanuela Tarizzo, the director of Frieze Masters, who is 38. \u201cIt makes for a very dynamic trend.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old Ambrose Naumann, the son of the Old Master dealer Otto Naumann, was working as a bartender in 2012 when his father asked if he would help him on his stand at Tefaf Maastricht. After that he became \u201ca glorified intern\u201d at the gallery. \u201cI never had a \u2018eureka\u2019 moment; it wasn\u2019t really the plan, it just kind of happened,\u201d he says. So, too, did the decision to start his own business. \u201cMy father\u2019s lease was ending,\u201d Naumann says, \u201che wanted to \u2018retire\u2019\u2014which the world now knows he did not and has not done\u2014and I had already spent years in the gallery with inventory on the walls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naumann recognises his fortunate position: \u201cIn some cases, my father and I bought works together; in others, he allowed me to put on exhibitions of my own. Without that, I\u2019d never have been able to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Victor Custot Courtesy of Waddington Custot<\/p>\n

It was also Victor Custot\u2019s father, St\u00e9phane Custot, the owner of Waddington Custot, who persuaded him to join the family business in 2022. Victor was 29, and running his own tech company. \u201cI was about to move to Paris when my father came up with a sneaky but clever proposal to\u00a0keep me in London, which was to join him\u00a0at the gallery.\u201d A six-month probation was agreed, but after six days both decided it was the right decision.<\/p>\n

Open communication has been key, Custot says, \u201cbecause emotions can run high in a family business\u201d. But most important was that the gallery\u2019s longstanding team would accept the boss\u2019s son. \u201cMy father really emphasised the importance of humility; his trauma from the last crisis in the art world in 1993 is still very present, and he reminds me quite often that we can lose everything very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The name De Jonckheere has been synonymous with Dutch and Flemish Old Masters since the gallery was founded in Brussels 50 years ago by brothers Georges and Fran\u00e7ois De Jonckheere. In 2014, Georges\u2019s daughter Laura joined the firm. Like Custot, De Jonckheere is well aware of her fortunate position: \u201cWorking with my dad has been great and, of course, it\u2019s a privilege: I\u2019ve been able to be at the best art fairs straight away, have access to amazing pieces that maybe a new dealer normally does not. But it took me years to be able to close my first big sale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Build confidence and clients<\/p>\n

Being a younger woman in a field dominated by older men was challenging at first, De Jonckheere says, but the process of being on the stand at art fairs helped her build confidence and a client base of her own. However, those clients do not split down the lines you might expect. \u201cI don\u2019t feel like women have a particular inclination to work with me, and actually the younger clients maybe are a bit more comfortable working with the older generation,\u201d De Jonckheere says. \u201cI have very traditional clients with whom I just created relationships, and what is traditional for us is 50-plus European and, yes, male.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the Holy Grail for many exhibitors at Frieze Masters is to convert a contemporary collector to the old side and De Jonckheere managed it a few years ago. \u201cWe did a group of seven paintings around Hieronymus Bosch\u2014super Surrealist, monsters, very eye catching\u2014and there was a very young American couple who had never bought an Old Master painting before,\u201d she says. \u201cThey ended up buying two paintings, and I think they started collecting Old Masters. So, it doesn\u2019t happen often, but it can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mattias Vendelmans Andrew Quinn<\/p>\n

Very dark velvet walls with a lot of gold frames can be quite off-putting for a young person <\/p>\n

Mattias Vendelmans<\/p>\n

Mattias Vendelmans, a first-time Frieze Masters exhibitor and one of the youngest at 33, is a specialist in European fin-de-si\u00e8cle artists and finds many clients are a similar age to him. \u201cOther dealers who specialise in the same period often have very dark velvet walls with a lot of gold frames,\u201d Vendelmans says of his approach. \u201cI think that can be quite off-putting for a young person who\u2019s just starting out, so, in my gallery, the floors are glossy and white, the walls are white.\u201d Some of this fresh approach, Vendelmans thinks, stems back to his experience of working in the studio of the artist Carsten Holler. Perhaps that contemporary sensibility contributes to his ability to attract a younger clientele. Instagram has brought a lot of business, too. \u201cSometimes people see something on Instagram and acquire it without even coming to the gallery or seeing the works in person,\u201d he says. Vendelmans started dealing in 2022, opening a first-floor gallery in London last year. He is exhibiting works by the Swedish painter Pelle Swedlund. \u201cFrieze Masters is a next step,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s punching above my weight a little bit, but we\u2019ll just see how it goes\u201d.<\/p>\n

Willoughby Gerrish exhibited at Frieze Masters for the first time last year, dealing in 19th- to 21st-century artists and predominantly sculpture. After ten years at the Fine Art Society and five as a director at Bowman Sculpture, opening his own business in 2020 felt \u201ca natural progression\u201d. Like Vendelmans, Gerrish says exhibiting at a fair like Frieze Masters is a calculated risk, one that costs him at least \u00a3100,000. \u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity to meet top-level collectors and be under the same roof as the other great dealers,\u201d he says. For instance, last year at Frieze Masters Gerrish met \u201ctwo exceptional clients who have become very important to our business\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fast learner<\/p>\n

Gerrish, who is 41, is expanding his London footprint, too, moving to 67 Jermyn Street, a 2,000 sq. ft gallery formerly home to the Tomasso Brothers. Such aspiration mirrors his overall approach, \u201cdealing in top-quality things, the best you can\u201d. However, Gerrish does most of this without the crutch of a rich patron. \u201cWe have financial backing when we want it,\u201d he says. \u201cI try not to, but we do have a couple of people we work with if we\u2019re trying to acquire\u00a0something.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Charis Tyndall Courtesy of Charis Tyndall<\/p>\n

A young woman in her 20s is going to be looked at in a very different way to an older man <\/p>\n

Charys Tyndall, director, Charles Ede<\/p>\n

Charis Tyndall started working for the established family-run antiquities specialists Charles Ede during university holidays. In 2014, Tyndall, still then in her early 20s, took on the London-based business, bringing on Martin Clist as managing director. In 2017 she became a director. \u201cI had a lot to learn and very quickly,\u201d Tyndall says. Clist, now a director alongside her, is a generation older. \u201cIt was very reassuring,\u201d she says. \u201cA young woman in her 20s is going to be looked at in a very different way to an older man, and sometimes you need that to be taken seriously as a gallery.\u201d In 2024, as Clist stepped back to a part-time role, James Richards, also in his 30s, joined as Tyndall\u2019s business partner, expanding the gallery\u2019s scope to include 19th- and 20th-century art.<\/p>\n

Tyndall has learned to hold her nerve when selling expensive antiquities\u2014the average piece will take two or three years to research and sell. \u201cI am taking more risks because life is teaching me what works and what doesn\u2019t,\u201d she says. \u201cBut you don\u2019t want to be a foolhardy 26-year-old who whacks half the bank account on one object and then can\u2019t sell it.\u201d Tyndall and Richards do not have an external backer, she says. \u201cThe difference that makes to the psyche of how you\u2019re going to behave within that business is vast,\u201d Tyndall says. \u201cI really like being king of my own castle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new generation of Old Master dealers have it much tougher now than when Johnny Van Haeften started…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[263673,212756,10346,6225,6485,6486,20514,210376,1120,96,263393,9448,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-802835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-antique-dealers","tag-art-dealers","tag-art-market","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-commercial-galleries","tag-dealers","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-frieze-london-2026","tag-old-masters","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}