NEW YORK, NY:  Deborah Schmidt Robinson, Warren P. Weitman, Jr., and Mitchell Zuckerman, veteran auction executives who helped to shape today’s global art and auction market, have announced the merger of Art Market Advisors with Lioness Art Partners, the boutique art and estate consulting firm, founded by Ms. Robinson.

In 2016, after nearly 40 years at Sotheby's, former colleagues Mitchell Zuckerman and Warren P. Weitman, Jr., launched the independent advisory company, Art Market Advisors, dedicated to guiding clients and their professional advisors in the complexities of the international art world and maximizing the value of their collections. Deborah Schmidt Robinson’s addition to the Art Market Advisors partnership rounds out the formidable combined 100+ years of knowledge and specialized experience the trio holds in the art and auction industry. Art Market Advisors offers business advisory services to sellers, buyers, and their professional advisors in selling, financing and planning for their collections in the global art market.

Art Market Advisors are objective transactional and financial experts who help clients in the sales process of consigning property to auction or through private sale. No other advisors in the industry have more direct, relevant hands-on experience in advising on the art transaction process than the new firm. Their background in the inner workings of the global art market and expertise in negotiating financial arrangements and hands-on guidance of the selling process, are unparalleled in the art world.

Through deep and long-term relationships Art Market Advisors hold in the industry, clients will gain access to a network of independent specialists with unrivaled expertise and a variety of art-related resources. The new partnership capitalizes on the combined experience and individual reputations of its partners for securing highly favorable financial terms for clients, implementing the most creative sales strategies and providing hands-on guidance of the sales process while providing exceptional personal service.

About the Team

Deborah Schmidt Robinson

Deb Robinson has 30 years of experience in the international art market. After starting her own boutique art and estate consulting firm, Lioness Art Partners, she has now joined her former colleagues as a partner at Art Market Advisors.

Ms. Robinson began her career at Sotheby’s in 1989 where she worked in New York and Chicago in various executive and management roles as a key contact for Trust & Estate professionals. Her entire career at the firm was focused on working closely with clients and their advisors on often high-profile consignments, acting as their advocate and internal partner at the firm. When she left the auction house after 26 years to devote herself exclusively to the best interests of her clients, she was Senior Vice President, Executive Director of Trusts & Estates.

In addition to several art and historical related board positions, including the Board of Trustees of the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Arts, the Board of Trustees of the Greenwich Historical Society, Ms. Robinson has also been the auction consultant for special projects to the United Nations. Deb is certified in Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP).

Warren P. Weitman, Jr.

Prior to founding Art Market Advisors in 2016, Warren Weitman was Chairman of the Americas of Sotheby’s, a position he held from 2000. He spearheaded and secured many of the major consignments and record-setting sales for the auction house during his 38-year tenure at the firm.

Mr. Weitman joined Sotheby’s in 1978 to work directly with the Trust & Estate community and in 1980, he created Sotheby’s Appraisal Company. In the mid-eighties, he was appointed Director of Business Development worldwide and directed Sotheby’s regional network in the Americas.

He has overseen and has been instrumental with a number of individual record-setting sales including the world-record painting at the time. Van Gogh’s Irises, in 1987 for $53.4 million from the Collection of Joan Whitney Payson; the first ever work ever sold at auction for more than $100 million, Picasso’s Boy with a Pipe on behalf of the Greentree Foundation in 2004, and the world-record for American Art, Rockwell’s Saying Grace, with sold for $46.1 million in 2013.

Mitchell Zuckerman

Mitchell Zuckerman’s career in the industry began in 1974 when he was assigned to the Sotheby’s account by the law firm he joined after graduating from Columbia Law School. He became Sotheby’s US General Counsel in 1979. He moved on to other management assignments, and beginning in 1984, he structured, negotiated and closed many of Sotheby’s major transactions around the world until he left to start Art Market Advisors in 2016.

As the creator of Sotheby’s Financial Services in 1988, Mr. Zuckerman established Sotheby’s secured lending business and closed several billion dollars in art loans in jurisdictions throughout America, Europe and Asia. Beginning in 1995, he managed Sotheby’s guarantee business globally. In that capacity, he created risk-sharing devices such as the ‘irrevocable bid,’ and he innovated merchant banking services for art dealers and collectors.