Expertise

Directors and Consultants within the Art Management Group include the following:

Conservation and Management

Valentine Walsh

Valentine Walsh is an accredited fine art conservator in private practice with over 30 years experience. Her clients include the Imperial War Museum, the Museum of London and the Royal Naval Museum as well as leading London dealers and major collections in the UK and abroad. She sits on a number of committees and leading professional bodies within the UK and EU organisations. She is a Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation, a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation and a director of Art Concern.

She has a keen interest in the application of scientific, investigative and analytical methods to conservation. This includes an interest in the provision of technologically advanced, conservation acceptable means of marking objects. She has recently researched and co-authored a major reference work for the identification of pigments in works of art and is co-founder of The Pigmentum Project.

Robert Child

Robert Child is Head of Conservation at the National Museums and Galleries of Wales and advisor to The National Trust. He has a BSc in Chemistry and is a trained conservator specialising in all aspects of collection care, including environmental and biological control and is a consultant on such matters to heritage institutions worldwide. He has worked on the development of sophisticated security marking systems for some years that are conservation tested. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Conservation and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Research

Dr. Nicholas Eastaugh

Dr. Nicholas Eastaugh specialises in the analysis of fine art and other historical objects with an international client base incorporating private collectors, national museums, auction houses and dealers. He holds a BSc. in physics and is also a graduate of the Courtauld Institute of Art. He is an honorary fellow of the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford University and has held posts at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London and the Textile Conservation Centre, Hampton Court Palace.

He is a director of Valid Art and a co-founder of The Pigmentum Project, an inter-disciplinary programme aimed at developing comprehensive high-quality analytical data on historic pigments. He is also co-author of a major reference work for the identification of pigments in works of art and a lecturer in microscopy, conservation science, technical art history and forensic science.

Security and Risk Management

Richard Ellis

‘Dick’ Ellis has been a specialist art crime investigator for over 20 years. A career detective with the Metropolitan Police, he served in Special Operations at New Scotland Yard where in 1989 he set up the Art & Antiques Squad, which he ran until his retirement from the police in 1999 becoming the general manager of Christie’s Fine Art Security Services Ltd. In 2000 he was made managing director of Trace recovery services running the stolen property database and Trace Magazine. In 2005 he joined with security and conservation specialists to form the Art Management Group. He is also a director of Art Resolve and Art Retrieval International Ltd.

As a specialist art crime investigator both in the police and in the private sector he has been involved in many notable recoveries such as ‘The Scream’ stolen from the National Gallery of Norway in 1994, Audubon’s ‘Birds of America’ stolen from the State Library in St. Petersburg, antiquities looted from China and Egypt as well as the recovery of numerous items of art and antiques stolen from private residences throughout the United Kingdom and abroad including in 2005 silver stolen from Stanton Harcourt and in 2006 paintings by Bonnard, Vuillard and Duffy stolen in London.

He has served as a member of UNESCO’s international panel of experts on the protection of cultural property and was instrumental in the creation of the Council for the Prevention of Art Theft’s Code of Due Diligence. He has lectured extensively on the protection of cultural property and in 2008 was appointed Expert Advisor to Government on International Loans to Museums in England and Wales.

Peter Osborne

Following a career in Military and Diplomatic security operations around the world, Peter Osborne entered into the world of art and became the National Security Adviser to the Museums and Galleries Commission. He advised governments and cultural institutions alike on practical issues and represented British interests at the Council of Europe and other national and international cultural bodies.

He has helped to set national and international standards of protection in close association with such bodies as the Heritage Lottery Fund, International Committee of Museum Security, Scotland Yard’s Art and Antiques Squad, Council for the Prevention of Art Theft and the American Smithsonian Institution, including government authorities, insurance providers and HM Customs and Excise.

On a practical level he has advised and overseen security requirements for new and refurbished building operations, exhibition programmes, transportation of art, lottery and indemnity applications. As head of the Bureau of Cultural Protection he has introduced new initiatives and completed a number of art protection programmes at home and abroad whilst continuing to lecture to universities.

He is a member of the International Council of Museums, International Committee of Museum Security, Museums association and the United Kingdom Registrar’s Group.

Barry Hudson

Barry Hudson has extensive experience in the design and project management of “presence sensing” systems used to resolve problems associated with the open displays of works of art in public areas, the use of electromagnetic field, grade one laser and Piezo technology to generate invisible zones around, or within selected objects. He has designed systems for the protection of textiles, furniture, ceramics, paintings, life size statues, sculpture and scientific instruments, as well as larger items such as cars and light aircraft. He has an in-depth knowledge of all aspects of security system requirements for art galleries, museums and historical sites, the assessment and specification of wired and wire-free fire detection systems and extensive experience in the protection of works within temporary exhibitions.

He has designed and commissioned security installations at numerous venues such as: Apsley House: Wallace Collection: National Gallery: Tower of London: Hampton Court Palace: Verulamium Museum at St. Albans: Gilbert Collection: Geffrye Museum, and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. An innovation was the design and installation of the radio-based system used by HRH the Prince of Wales to activate the fountains and lights around Trafalgar Square following the refurbishment.

He was involved with the development of electronic technology for the protection of the ‘Three Graces’ sculpture at The Victoria and Albert Museum and was recalled to the museum to audit the existing installation within The New British Galleries 1500–1900 and was commissioned to bring the systems back to original specifications.

Between 1988 and 1996 he headed the “Special Services” division within the EMS group, which designed, manufactured and installed bespoke electronic personnel protection systems for H.M Probation Service and both the Inner and Outer London Magistrates courts, as well as projects for the Metropolitan and Kent Police Services including the design of Home Office approved rapid deployment wireless signalling equipment and an effective “trap car” for use in the detection and arrest of car thieves.

He was a founder member of the government sponsored ICONS team along with Queen Mary College, British Telecom, Safehouse Technology and the British Airports Authority. Following a three-year study programme in Zero Motion and Behavioural Recognition, he was instrumental in developing new initiatives, which resulted in mechanisms and methodologies being introduced to establish leading edge surveillance technology.

He served on the NACOSS Committee dealing with wire free developments in conjunction with the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), lectured (part time) in CCTV and IDS systems at the Mid-Career College.

Barry is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM, CPD): Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (FCMI): Director of Heritage Protection Ltd. He is a member of the Art Management Group’s Security Division and engaged on a number of high profile protection programmes.

Dispute Resolution and Legal Issues

Kevin Chamberlain

Kevin Chamberlain is a practising barrister at Bloomsbury Chambers and York Chambers. From 1965 to 1999 he was a legal adviser in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Deputy Legal Adviser from 1990 to 1999. He specialises in international law, human rights and public cultural property law. He is a CEDR Accredited and CEDR Registered Mediator and regularly conducts commercial mediations at the Central London County Court on behalf of CEDR Solve.

He is a Visiting Senior Lecturer in Cultural property Law at University College London and a Fellow of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies. He is a member of the editorial board of “Art Antiquity and the Law”, published by the Institute of Art and Law. He is a consultant to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and from 2000 to 2004 he was legal adviser to the Ministerial Advisory Panel on Illicit Trade. In 2004 he was appointed a member of the NATO Appeals Board. He is author of “War and Cultural Heritage” published by the Institute of Art and Law in 2004, as well as the author of several articles in “Art, Antiquity and Law”.

Advisory and Valuation

Tim Corfield

Tim Corfield is an established antiques expert with specialist knowledge of fine furniture. With over 15 years experience as an independent consultant, he has developed an unerring eye for a genuine piece and is an expert in assessing restoration requirements, having managed a large restoration business. He has helped create and maintain a number of important private collections in Britain and the United States and is a founder member and director of Corfield Morris.

Daniel Morris

Daniel Morris is a former director of Sotheby’s and an expert in English furniture of the 18^th and 19^th centuries. During his tenure at Sotheby’s he oversaw high profile auctions and was involved in the cataloguing and researching of a number of England’s greatest country house collections. He lectures on a number of topics within his field, and has worked on a range of publications.

Martyn Downer

Having grown up surrounded by antiques at his father’s country saleroom, Martyn went on to become director and head of the jewellery department at Sotheby’s. Here he was closely involved in high-profile sales and exhibitions in London, New York and Geneva. Martyn is a fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain and a freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. As a leading authority on antique and modern jewellery and silver Martyn can offer invaluable advice to clients on buying, selling or seeking to review their existing collections.

Martyn is author of Nelson’s Purse, which has been described as a “truly riveting story, a culminating triumph of assiduous detection and fine scholarship”, and is currently writing an account of life inside the court of Queen Victoria, which will be published in 2006.