David Schrader used his interest in art as an ice-breaking sales tool with his hedge fund clients. Now he’s going to sell art to those same clients for Sotheby’s. It was announced this morning that Schrader would be joining the firm in private sales.

The move is a present-day version of Sotheby’s hiring of Jamie Niven who provided the firm with strong contacts in finance and the social world. But as the hedge fund universe contracts, the move may be an example of chasing a trend that is past its peak.

Sotheby’s recently hired the director of the Andy Warhol museum as the Warhol market entered a prolonged pullback.

Schrader is well-known among his clients for his passion for trading art for himself and his savvy eye. Katya Kazakina got the exclusive and she gives us some of Schrader’s background and best trades:

Schrader started buying art soon after getting a job at Bear Stearns in 1998 and built a collection that includes works by Josef Albers, Mark Grotjahn, Yayoi Kusama, Sol Lewitt, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, Rudolf Stingel, Andy Warhol and Christopher Wool.

One of Schrader’s big wins was the Richard Prince painting “Settlement Nurse.” He bought it for $60,000 from a 2003 exhibition at a New York gallery. In the next three years, prices for this series of works surged into the millions of dollars. In February 2008, Schrader consigned his nurse to Christie’s auction, where it fetched $4.2 million.  He used the proceeds to buy works by several artists, including Richter and Kusama.

JPMorgan’s Schrader Joins Sotheby’s to Help Lead Private Sales  (Bloomberg)