Gurr Johns, an art advisory and appraisal firm with offices in London, New York, Los Angeles, and Paris, has appointed Maarten ten Holder to the newly-created role of Chief Executive Officer of its North American division as it places a bigger focus on clients in the US.
Based in New York, ten Holder will oversee the company’s US advisory services, reporting to Gurr Johns’s co-founder and executive chairman, Harry Smith, who is based in London. He joins a full-time staff of around 25 people, excluding outside consultants.
In a recent interview with ARTnews, Smith said that the US holds the most financial opportunity compared to other parts of the world. “We never want to underestimate the wealth of America. It is so much bigger than everywhere else, where they’re barely on the same planet, and they’re solid.”
Gurr Johns values around $12 billion worth of art and collectibles each year, according to Smith.
Ten Holder’s appointment comes as the advisory group has been expanding its reach towards finance. The company oversees nine subsidiary companies, including an art financing branch it launched in 2022 and the recently acquired UK auction houses Dreweatts and Forum. In April 2024, the art lending arm, Gurr Johns Capital, reported raising $9.5 million in capital for art financing, according to publicly available financial documents.
According to its most recent financial audits filed in the UK, the company generated £24 million in fees in 2023 with a profit of £2.76 million, more than double the amount of £1.3 million it reported as profit in 2022.
Ten Holder, a career auction executive, spent more than two decades at Sotheby’s, last holding the role of global managing director of the houses’s luxury branch, where he oversaw the sales of major estates like the collections of U.S. patrons Bunny Mellon and Lily Safra. He also oversaw luxury car sales at Bonhams as the managing director of its international offices.
“Gurr Johns has a strong legacy in the art market, and I look forward to working with its teams across the US and Europe to provide customized solutions for our clients,” Ten Holder said.
