Schwartzman and Cappellazzo to Take New Roles at Sotheby’s

The acquisition of Art Agency, Partners also fills a hole at Sotheby’s providing the company with new leadership. Sotheby’s has been without a prominent head of Contemporary art since Tobias Meyer left the firm and Cheyenne Westphal and Alex Rotter carried the ball running the department.

Now Allan Schwartzman and Amy Cappellazzo will take on multiple roles as the head of a new Fine Art division at Sotheby’s.

The Fine Art division will begin with Contemporary, Impressionist and Modern art departments all reporting to Schwartzman and Cappellazzo. Eventually other categories will get pulled into their gravitational orbit.

Schwartzman is expected to continue to focus on private sales. He will work closely with Marc Porter when Porter joins the company. Both will report to Tad Smith.

Cappellazzo, who was ran Christie’s Postwar and Contemporary art division for a decade along with Brett Gorvy will be seen as the obvious person to fill Meyer’s place. But Sotheby’s seems to have greater ambitions for the Art Agency, Partners acquisition than simply to plug holes.

Smith plans to announce a reorganization of the specialists and business getters based upon Schwartzman and Cappellazzo’s leadership and consultation by the end of January.