Art Advisors Should Be Protectors Says Citi Private Bank’s Mary Kate O’Hare

When Observer asked Mary Kate O’Hare, Head of Art Advisory at Citi Private Bank, to describe her role in the industry, her response was as thoughtful as it was revealing: “Sometimes I feel that I’m a protector for my client. Somebody who’s there to create a shield and to help my clients do this with confidence and know that we have their best interests at heart.”

The art world has long been known for its unspoken rules and labyrinthine and opaque dynamics, making it daunting for newcomers to navigate without a savvy guide. O’Hare is uniquely qualified to help newcomers brave these sometimes murky waters, with more than two decades of experience spanning leading curatorial and research roles at the Newark Museum of Art to her current post at one of the world’s foremost financial institutions. (Notably, Citi pioneered the concept of in-house art advisory services in 1979, with an advisory arm co-founded by none other than now-renowned dealer Jeffrey Deitch. Today, the company is a quiet art investment powerhouse, offering expertise in everything from acquisitions and sales to estate planning and collection management.)

“We work within an ethical framework that’s aligned with the ways museums usually work,” O’Hare says, discussing the backbone of Citi’s strategy. Having an art advisory service in-house allows the bank to integrate collecting into its broader wealth management services, ensuring that clients’ cultural pursuits align with their long-term financial goals. “Because we are part of a large financial organization, we have connectivity across multiple areas in the bank, whether it’s with our wealth planners, our philanthropy planners, we work with our bankers to make sure that our collectors have access to all of this expertise to help them to really plan effectively,” she adds. “Whether this is for their legacy, donations or the best way to buy, they have that kind of full plate of services available.”

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When asked if any one service has been more popular recently, O’Hare says her clients’ interests extend beyond passing trends. While the art market has been buzzing about the coming $84 trillion wealth transfer, she still has people at the start of their collecting journeys coming to her to learn more about buying or building an art collection. In terms of broader trends she can identify, O’Hare reports that optimism runs high among her clients, particularly among those under 40, who are increasingly treating art as an asset class within their portfolios. It’s an interest she’s seen “percolating with the younger generations”—particularly those new to wealth. “They’ve never thought that they’d be in a position to create a collection, and suddenly they realize they could… There’s a lot of pressure in the art market and it feels like this club, so we help them understand its secret dynamics by pulling back the curtain.”

Art collecting has its cycles, shaped by life’s inevitable twists—divorces, successions and downsizing are just some of the transitions that prompt more experienced collectors to sell. O’Hare admits she’s seen a lot of selling in the past year or two. Citi Private Bank’s position as a regulated fiduciary sets it apart from many other advisories in the art space, and her team “helps clients maximize returns by figuring out the best strategy, the right channels to sell, and the optimal moment.”

But O’Hare also stresses the diversity of her clients—there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, and looking at trends in the art market can’t tell you much about the needs and preferences of a single collector.  “Some clients focus on a particular period,” she says, “but a lot are much more interested in mixing it up and finding artworks that really speak across time and categories.” She describes working with several clients who were raised by art-collecting parents and needed help building collections that aligned with their own tastes versus those of their parents.

“Some clients come to us not knowing what they even like, so we provide the education,” O’Hare explains. “Whether it’s going to lectures or museums, we take them around. We educate them about the art market and all the different ways that the market operates. Next week, we’ll be in Miami for Art Basel, and in the last several weeks, we had clients preparing for auctions so they feel comfortable and understand the mechanisms that drive the art market.”

Something that O’Hare has observed, however, is that most clients are driven by passion rather than financial returns—something she finds particularly refreshing. “It might sound a little counterintuitive, being part of a bank, to not lead with investment, but the best collections historically have been built by people who buy things that they actually really love,” she says. “If you just look at art through only the investment lens, things get missed. And even in a massive collection, only a very small percentage of artworks will increase dramatically in value.”

That said, financial considerations are never far from the conversation, and a big part of that, according to O’Hare, involves educating art buyers so they’re equipped to avoid mistakes. “This includes analyzing the potential retention of value for a piece, assessing its condition, history and quality and weighing other key factors. We help them to understand all the criteria to take into consideration to make the best possible decision.” The team even, she adds, advises clients on preservation and maintenance.

Beyond that, estate planning has become an increasingly critical component of most advisory services. “It’s a really big concern,” according to O’Hare. “We have second-generation art collectors who are inheriting their family’s collections but might not be interested in them.” In these cases, she and her team draw on a deep bench of expertise, collaborating with philanthropy partners to explore options such as selling, donating to museums or other very personal solutions.

Reflecting on the season’s end and the road ahead for the art market, O’Hare offers an upbeat assessment of recent auction dynamics. “We’re not in a market that is necessarily tanking,” she says. “We’re in a thoughtful market, not seeing a complete market crash. We didn’t have anything really big and super splashy as in the frothy market we had in the past, but the things that we expected to do well in those auctions eventually performed very well.” To drive home her point, she points to the enduring power of certain works to stir public conversation, both within and beyond this space. “Thinking about Cattelan’s Comedian, it’s impressive to see how art can continue to really get people kind of angry, shocked and talking and thinking, even outside the art world.” Ultimately, this is a market that, while recalibrated from its more extravagant past, remains full of meaningful moments and significant performances.