Back in Canada, Mohammad Miraly has spent years cataloguing his uncle’s prestigious collection of Bangladeshi art. When Miraly, who lives in Montreal, where he runs a family film business, decided to start championing young and emerging artists for his own private collection, he didn’t know where to begin.
Miraly turned to London-based art consultant Nicholas Campbell, whose company, Narcissus Arts, focuses specifically on finding contemporary pieces below £10,000 ($15,065), as well as advising on framing, hanging and transporting art. “I had certain criteria: a price point, I wanted beautiful pieces, and to enjoy artists with great careers ahead of them,” explained Miraly. For Campbell, this meant scouring galleries worldwide to find the perfect paintings. He bought pieces for Miraly by artists including Jonas Lund, Ryan Conrad Sawyer and Gabriele de Santis.
“It would have been very different if I were looking on my own,” said Miraly. “Nicholas has the expertise, as he is involved in art on a day-to-day basis and he talks to all in the industry… Nicholas is holistic. He wants to understand the person so he can help to build a big collection for them.”
Similarly, art consultant Brandon Coburn of Coburn Projects helps clients manage their art collection.
For one client who owns properties in Cape Town, South Africa, Paris and New York and works by Andy Warhol and Banksy, Coburn created a centralised system whereby the client could identify on his iPhone in which property each of his pieces was, down to the room in which they were hanging, while also tracking which art work was in storage.
“Brandon has taken the collection and sanitised it,” the client, who wished to remain private said. “Every piece now has a barcode so I know where they all are at any given time. Also when you have a collection scattered across the globe it is an amazing feat of logistics to get it moving in the way he does.”
Lifestyle facilitators can also multitask. The client said Coburn has also helped him buy Patek Philippe watches at auction in Hong Kong and source an apartment in London.