Mintus is delighted to announce that Ben Clark has joined Mintus as President, Mintus Art.
Ben brings over two decades experience at the forefront of the art market. He has held multiple executive positions at Christie’s, including Deputy Chairman, Asia, where he led the expansion of the auction house across the region. More recently, Ben was Group CEO at Gurr Johns, a market-leading global art advisory and valuations business.
The appointment of Ben further demonstrates Mintus’ commitment to building an industry leading art investment platform.
Here is the Q&A we had with Ben recently:
Q: What attracted you to Mintus?
“Over recent years there has been an evolution in the art market. As the market has grown in size and reach, there has been a marked change in global clients’ appetite, attitude and participation with art. This has been spurred by a greater comfort with digitalization. The new generation has different investment criteria than hitherto and is now willing to balance efficiencies and access to artworks in such a way as to embrace and benefit from long-term positive growth at the top end of the market.
Excitingly for me, Mintus is at the forefront of opening the world of art investment to a new audience through fractional ownership. The company has attracted a highly experienced leadership team offering a differing, but complementary set of skills and expertise and bringing together leading scholarship and experts from the worlds of art, technology and finance. This approach bridges the traditional gap between the art market and financial investment. It ensures that Mintus can offer industry-leading insight and expertise across every area of its business.”
Q: Where do you see the art market going in the next year?
“Historically the art market isn’t directly correlated to financial markets and works of art have often tended to be seen as a diversification play. Set against high inflation, higher interest rates and stagnant economic growth, there is no doubt that recent auction results have signalled a shift in the market. The day sales (mid-market) offer the most insightful reflection of the broader market for Modern and Contemporary art. Indeed, these sales have displayed a huge imbalance between supply and demand for artworks under $1mn and results are indicating that we are moving into a buyers’ market. However, the recent high-end evening auctions have shown that rare, high-quality artworks still outperform. As is true across all ‘Alternative’ investments, in tougher economic climates, quality is integral to value and that will continue to be the case in the near future.”
Q: What’s your biggest achievement to date?
"I have been lucky to be part of some incredible teams and my two most memorable career highlights were the result of incredible teamwork. The first is having been part of the team that launched Christie’s first auction in mainland China in Shanghai in 2013 - a production which we had to turn around in just 4 months. The second is having produced the first public exhibition of paintings by Vincent van Gogh in Hong Kong in 2019."
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