Synopsis
As art consultants became ubiquitous on the fair circuit, Berlin gallerist Guido Baudach made it clear they weren’t welcome at his booth. “They come with their Gucci clothes and that perfect hair, but there’s no passion for art,” he said, proudly noting that he’d helped get two of them dropped by their own clients. While consultants thrived in the high-velocity, high-stakes environment of art fairs—where clients parachuted in for 72-hour buying sprees—dealers saw their checklist culture as antithetical to connoisseurship. Epilogue: Galleries realized that advisors come in many forms - but they still prefer to deal directly with patrons.
