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In 1980, four art consulting firms merged to form VIART Corporation in order to provide clients with a broad range of curatorial expertise and administrative experience intrinsic to the development and maintenance of art collections. In addition to the two principals, Beatrix Medinger and Barbara Missett, the staff today consists of fifteen experienced curatorial and administrative associates, as well as a full-time controller and clerical assistants. Many of VIART's staff have advanced degrees in the history of art and several staff members are multilingual. Daily contact with international museums, auction houses, galleries and private dealers keeps VIART aware of the latest art market trends to expeditiously serve a client's needs.
In addition to the New York office at 120 East 56th Street, a branch office was opened in 1989 at 4 Buckingham Place in London SW1 to provide a European base from which VIART could better serve its multinational clients. Both offices are in close proximity to galleries, major auction houses and museums and are conveniently situated for clients.
During the last twenty-two years, VIART has provided art advisory services to over 75 firms, including a large number of Fortune 500 companies such as GTE, Texaco Ltd., BP America and Kraft Foods, and financial institutions including Merrill Lynch, as well as to numerous private clients in the Americas and Europe and to institutions in the non-profit sector such as the J. Paul Getty Trust. VIART has experience working with collections as varied as Native American art and artifacts, British art since the 17th century, and contemporary American, European, and Asian art.
VIART is an art management firm that offers a full range of services, including the review of a client's existing art collection, long-range budget planning, art acquisition programs which include the commissioning of large-scale exterior and interior artworks, coordination of framing and installation and computerized inventory systems. It also provides supplemental services such as the revaluation and resale of an art collection, on-going curatorial services which provide for maintenance of the collection, exhibition planning, catalogue preparation, cultural and educational programs and philanthropic advisory services for both its corporate and private clientele.
The firm is responsible for approximately fifteen projects each year. This past year these diverse projects included the acquisition of art and collections management services for Merrill Lynch's New York, Princeton and London sites, and Shearman and Sterling's New York and West Coast offices.
VIART does not maintain an inventory of artworks or have gallery affiliations; therefore, no financial gain is realized from the purchase or sale of any given work of art. Unlike galleries, auctions houses and some art consultants, compensation is derived exclusively from a fee paid by the client to VIART. VIART adheres to the standards established by the Association of Professional Art Advisors, a non-profit organization founded in 1978 to establish and maintain an ethical code of conduct for its international membership.
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