Biography
Margaret H. Schwartz joined Sotheby’s New York in 1986. She became director of the European Sculpture & Works of Art department in New York in 1992, an auctioneer in 2005, was appointed Worldwide Head of the European Sculpture & Works of Art in 2017 and Vice Chairman in 2025.
She has played a key role in the most important auctions of European Sculpture and objects for over 35 years, including the collection of the British Rail Pension Fund, The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, including important Medieval works of Art; The Dormeuil Collection of Medieval Art; Medieval works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Keir Collection of Medieval Enamels; The Hester Diamond Collection and the Collection of Aso O. Tavitian. She personally contributed to the establishment of several world record prices for a variety of major sculptors including: Sainte Catherine by Tilman Riemenschneider ($6.3 million); Ill Humored Man by Messerschmidt ($4.8 million); The Madonna and Child by Donatello ($5.6 million); and Autumn by Pietro Bernini and Gian Lorenzo Bernini ($8.9 million) and more recently the Southern Netherlandish Mille-fleurs tapestry with Unicorn, circa 1500 from the Cindy and JB Pritzker Collection ($1,941,000). Margaret has also orchestrated a number of landmark private sales to private collectors and museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Getty Museum and the Liechtenstein Collection.
In addition, Margaret lectures on Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque art as well as on the art of tapestry production and collecting. Margaret edited several collection books including early sculpture alongside academics from the Straus Center for Conservation at Harvard and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
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