Biography
As Global Head of Sotheby’s Prints & Photographs departments, Emily Bierman leads two of the auction house’s most dynamic and globally connected collecting categories. She oversees a multinational team of specialists and drives the strategic vision that shapes Sotheby’s leadership across both markets, where prints and photographs function as complementary, synergistic categories. Ms. Bierman is deeply engaged with collectors at every stage, from first-time buyers to major institutions, guiding the development of significant private collections and stewarding some of the field’s most important works to sale. Her role encompasses the full spectrum of art-market activity: securing major collections, formulating international business strategy, negotiating complex transactions, and supervising all aspects of private sales, charitable donations, fair market value and insurance appraisals.
Guided by a deep passion for the medium and supported by two decades of expertise honed at Sotheby's, Ms. Bierman has brought to market some of the most important masterworks in the history of photography. These include William Henry Fox Talbot’s Gifts to his Sister: Horatia Gaisford’s Collection of Photographs and Ephemera, which achieved nearly $2 million—setting the record for 19th‑century photography—and is now on long‑term loan to the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford. She was also responsible for the sales of the earliest known photographs of an American President and First Lady: daguerreotypes of John Quincy Adams (1843) and Dolley Madison (1846), both of which now reside in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Additional notable sales include the recently discovered 1845 Franklin Expedition daguerreotypes, the largest known print of El Lissitzky’s The Constructor, which achieved over $1 million, and an early example of Man Ray’s iconic Noire et Blanche, which sold for $2.9 million—the highest price achieved for any photograph in 2025.
Ms. Bierman holds a dual Bachelor of Arts degree from Middlebury College, graduating with honors in the History of Art and Architecture and additionally concentrating in Film and Media Cultures.
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