Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch Ltd. is an independent art dealership. Since we are not attached to or affiliated with any other dealer, museum or auction house, we can represent clients with absolute objectivity and impartiality, and guarantee complete confidentiality.
Private sales
As respected authorities, with experience and connections built up over twenty five years, we have negotiated significant sales to the world’s most prestigious museums and collectors. In England, acquisitions have been made by the Ashmolean, Fitzwilliam and British Museums, as well as the British Library and The Victoria & Albert Museum. In Europe, our clients include the David Collection, Copenhagen, the Staatliche Museum Agyptischer Kunst, Munich and the Rietberg Museum, Zurich. In America, we have made sales to major institutions including the Cleveland Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum. In 2010, we arranged the sale of an exceptional Roman marble statue of The Three Graces, now one of the major attractions in the Roman Court, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Other important sales include a Chola bronze figure of Siva Nataraja, sold to The Louvre Abu Dhabi on behalf of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; more recently, we sold a 12-century Persian gold and silver-inlaid bronze tray, from The Aron Collection, to the same institution.
Negotiating sales by auction
Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch Ltd. has successfully negotiated a number of renowned private collections with Christie’s and Sotheby’s. Sales include the David Sylvester, Sadler, Vollmoeller and Stanford Place Collections.
Purchases
The company will buy on behalf of clients, carrying out research into authenticity, condition, provenance and price, as well as negotiating with the seller. We will also bid on clients’ behalf at auction.
Library sales
Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch Ltd. handled the sale of the library of Dr. James Harle, former Keeper of Eastern Art at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum. The company also negotiated the sale of the Stanford Place library of Classical Art to the Leon Levy Foundation, New York; as well as the libraries of the scholars Martin Robertson, Brian Shefton, and the personal archive of the archaeologist Humfry Payne (1902-36).
Exhibitions
In New York, the company has held an annual exhibition of Indian Painting as part of the spring Asia Week since 2008. In 2011, we also held an exhibition of the Ophiuchus Collection of Antiquities.
In London, we held an exhibition of the Wyss Collection of Ancient Sculpture in 2009, followed in 2013 by an exhibition of Antiquities from the Collection of the late Ernst Langlotz.
Valuations and Collection Management
Drawing on decades of experience, Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch Ltd. will provide written valuations for sale, insurance or probate purposes, accompanied by an inventory including images and descriptions. The company has undertaken valuations for the Oriental Museum, Durham, Swansea University (property of the Wellcome Trust), the late Jassem al-Homaizi, the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait and numerous private collectors both in Europe and America. We have also valued prospective acquisitions for the UK’s National Art Collections Fund (NACF) and Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).
Recent management projects include arranging a temporary loan of the Myers Collection, held at Eton College, to the Johns Hopkins Museum, Baltimore.
We will also advise on conservation, museum loans and import and export issues.