Auctions

Jewelry auction veteran joins Bonhams

AuctionsAug 15, 2016

Jewelry auction veteran joins Bonhams

Daniel Struyf now is the international jewelry director at Bonhams, a newly created role that will see him expanding the company’s market share in the jewelry sector.

London--A jewelry auction and industry veteran who is fluent in multiple languages and has worked in the three major jewelry hubs around the world has joined the Bonhams team.


Daniel Struyf, the newly appointed international jewelry director at Bonhams, which holds more than 40 dedicated jewelry sales every year in New York, Hong Kong and London

Daniel Struyf, who has been a jewelry specialist at Christie’s since March 2011, now is the international jewelry director at Bonhams, a newly created role that will see him expanding the company’s market share in the jewelry sector as well as enhancing the auction house’s work on a national and international level.

Struyf, whose appointment is effective Sept. 21, will be based in New York and work directly with Matthew Girling, Bonhams’ global CEO and global head of jewelry.

“As our clients are based all around the world and our business continues to grow at a global level, it was apparent that we needed someone wholly dedicated to focusing on jewelry at an international level in order to meet our ambitious plans for the future,” Girling said.

Struyf has lived in 10 countries and speaks six languages fluently. He has a degree in Middle Eastern studies, a master of laws degree and a master of arts degree. In addition to Christie’s, he has worked for diamond company Backes & Strauss in Antwerp and Olympic Diamond Corp. in New York.

Bonhams has seen large, important stones move through its auction houses recently.

In April, the auction house sold every one of the 740 lots that made up the sale of the estate of the late Lauren Bacall, which included a gold chain necklace by Tiffany & Co. that sold for $52,500 and a Schlumberger ring that realized the same amount. It also sold a diamond rivière necklace for $1.2 million at its New York location in June.

In addition, Bonhams announced last week it will be offering the “Hope Spinel” at auction later this month, a 50.13-carat rose-hued spinel that has not been on the auction block for 98 years.

While business appears to be on the rise for Bonhams, 2015 has been a somewhat tumultuous year for Christie’s.

In late February, the Sothern Trust, the trust for Elizabeth Taylor, filed a lawsuit against Christie’s, accusing it of cancelling sales from its record-setting December 2011 auction of the late actress’s jewelry without good reason.

Court papers show that in June, that case was moved from federal court in Los Angeles to New York, with the judge granting Christie’s request for a change of venue.

Christie’s has said it looks forward to a “speedy resolution” of the lawsuit.

In addition, Bloomberg Business reported in March that the heirs of an Italian senator sued Christie’s International Plc over the sale of the 34.65-carat fancy intense pink “Princie Diamond,” which sold for $39.3 million in 2013, alleging that the stone was stolen and that the auction house failed to investigate its rightful ownership before selling it.

Christie’s next jewelry auction, Jewels & Watches, is slated for Sept. 16 in London, while Bonhams will hold a sale of Fine Jewelry on Sept. 24, also in London.

Michelle Graffis the editor-in-chief at National Jeweler, directing the publication’s coverage both online and in print.

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