Sotheby’s announced, through Robin Pogrebin’s column, the hiring of the head of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Eric Shiner.

The appointment comes during a deep lull in the Warhol market but suggests that Cappellazzo and Sotheby’s are making a commitment to its revival in coming months and years. The Warhol market has, after all, been the underpinnings of Contemporary art boom of the last 15 years:

“There is probably not a greater Warhol expert on the planet,” Ms. Cappellazzo said, adding that, “Eric has always had entrepreneurial thinking.”

Although Shiner’s experience is in the museum world, he recently played a significant role in getting a rare Warhol paint-by-numbers work into the museum. Whether that deal, and its lack of controversy, is what caught Sotheby’s eye or not, is something only Cappellazzo would know. But in the Times, Shiner recognizes acknowledges the many hats museum people wear these days:

“There’s much more porosity in the art world now between the market, the collector base, galleries and the nonprofit world of museums,” Mr. Shiner said. “So it seemed like a natural transition.”

Warhol Museum Director to Join Sotheby’s New Fine Art Division (The New York Times)