‘I was born in 1949 in Aix-en-Provence, where my parents had met in the closing phase of the Second World War. My Sussex-born father served in the RAF. Stationed in North Africa, he was among the forces landed in Operation Dragoon, launched in August 1944. on the French Mediterranean coast – including on Saint-Tropez’s Pampelonne beach. He met my Corsican mother in Aix-en-Provence, where he was billeted and where she had graduated from university.’

‘I was brought up in Brighton, and as a child and teenager I spent my Easter and summer holidays in Aix-en-Provence. I treasure my memories of Marseille and the Riviera in the Fifties and Sixties. Paris inevitably left its indelible influence. My Anglo-French roots have shaped my life. My upbringing between two cultures sharpened my fascination with both and fuelled my wider curiosity.’

‘I went to Varndean Grammar School in Brighton, then to Bedford College, London, graduating in French and Latin.’

‘Winning a place on the Sotheby’s Training Scheme, starting in November 1970, was my first step into a career that has been a wonderful adventure, filled with remarkable characters and extraordinary opportunities to handle such a wide range of  works of art.’

‘I met my wife Lucilla in Brighton in 1975. We married in 1979.’

‘I have worked for over half a century as an auction specialist in the history of photography and in the full range of late 19th and 20th century decorative arts and design. At the heart of my profession is the constant process of looking, assessing, and learning. I have been able to live my passion for the visual arts.’

‘I worked for Sotheby’s from 1970 to 2002, responsible as a specialist for auctions in London, Monte Carlo, and eventually Paris. I spent two years, from 2002 to 2004, working for Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg on auctions in New York, which gave me the opportunity to travel very regularly to the US, a pattern that continued when I joined Christie’s in 2004 as international head in my specialist fields. I retired in 2016 from my full-time role as a deputy chairman to become a consultant to the firm.’

‘Memorable auctions in which I have played a part include the estates of Eileen Gray and Ava Gardner, Modernist furniture from the palace of the Maharaja of Indore, the jewels of the Duchess of Windsor, the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé. I have led auctions dedicated to subjects as diverse as Vienna 1900, the Bauhaus, Sèvres porcelain, Art Nouveau jewellery. In the sphere of photographs, key moments include three auctions of work from the legendary collection of Marie-Thérèse and André Jammes, and, more recently, a series of monographic auctions devoted to such notable figures as Richard Avedon, Peter Beard, William Eggleston, Horst, and Irving Penn.’

‘I’ve always been captivated by the world of fashion. Since my childhood, I’ve been fascinated by the fleeting, elusive seductions expressed through the pursuit of style and elegance. Looking back now, I see fashion as a metaphor for the cycle of life itself. The reality of life’s impermanence in no way diminishes our investment of passion or of care. I realise, extending this metaphor, that I have found great satisfaction through my career in the auction world, precisely because of the cyclical, ever-evolving nature of what we do. Nothing is fixed; times change; tastes change; creative talent and artistic integrity nonetheless hold their own and survive as a measure of the potential of civilised societies.’