Biography
When Sotheby’s invited João to join the Furniture team in 2013, he was working in New York for Mallett Antiques, and had been there for 6 years. Moving back to London and to be part of the best Furniture team in the field was incredibly exciting and the challenge proved very rewarding.
Fast forward 9 years and he has been fortunate enough to handle some of the best pieces of French and Italian furniture that have come to market and he has since been responsible for and/or involved in some thrilling sales, such as Piano Nobile: a collection from a Milanese palazzo, The Bernheimer Collection, A Venetian Legacy, the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya collection, the collection from Palazzo Sacchetti and a number of Royal & Noble sales.
João has a great interest in objects and furniture made of, or incorporating marble, pietre dure and micromosaics, and for that reason he established the STONE sale, which is now an annual event that many collectors look forward to. The first edition included property from the renowned Gilbert Collection, one of the world’s greatest collections in this area, and it was therefore a true privilege to be responsible for this particular sale.
Born and raised in Portugal, João is passionate about all Portuguese art and has written about the history of Portuguese collecting, and more recently published an article on the Germain royal Portuguese silver and its influence on national silversmithing. Being Sotheby’s representative for Portugal, he has negotiated several long-term loans to the National Museum in Lisbon and promoted a landmark selling exhibition of historical jewellery – The S.J. Phillips Collection of Jewels of Portugal in 2017. He has also brought to market the white-glove Sáragga Collection sale with RM Sotheby’s, a sale that took place in Comporta and totaled €10million.
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