I'm thrilled to have sat down with mega dealer and collector Ivor Braka.
Having studied at Oxford then at Sotheby’s, at aged 24 , Ivor got his first taste of the art world when he worked for Andras Kalman at Crane Kalman gallery in Knightsbridge.
With funding from his father and installed in a flat in Pont St, he then plunged into Wyndham Lewis drawings, Rossetti, JW Waterhouse, Mondrian and Ben Nicholson.
Having got into Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Frank Auerbach way before others did, it was in 1989 when he was introduced to a Swedish collector Bo Alveryd that Ivor’s big break came. A Francis Bacon self portrait he had bought for $2m was subsequently sold for $4.2m. Ivor was set.
Dealing also in Paula Rego, Pablo Picasso, and Tracey Emin, by 2001, when Francis Bacon prices began their mountainous climb, from $5 million to $86 million, Ivor had been in the Bacon market for decades. Often called a visionary, Ivor attributes some of his success to going against convention and not necessarily following the market, discovering great pictures and subsequently achieving multiple record prices along the way.
Splitting his time between London and Norfolk, Ivor operates independently, without an army of directors, assistants and white walls, offering a highly-private dealership serving the world’s biggest collectors.
Recorded from Ivor’s home in Chelsea, my name is Nolan Browne, I’m an art advisor with a podcast this is A Life Curated
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