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Sotheby’s Dealmaker-in-Chief

Madeline Lissner, the auction house’s new head of global fine art and major collections, opens up about the impact of the Breuer Building, managing client relationships, and the latest global market trends.

Madeline Lissner
"We used to think of relationships with clients as primarily around bringing in property and selling property, but now there’s this added layer of relationships with clients, around bringing in guarantees or third-party bids. As we focus on relationships with clients, we’re thinking about that through their whole collecting journey, and not just those selling moments," says Sotheby's head of global fine art and major collections Madeline Lissner. Photo: Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images
Julie Brener Davich
November 30, 2025

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Several weeks ago, at the opening of Sotheby’s new Madison Avenue location, Madeline Lissner, the auction house’s new head of global fine art and major collections, spoke about the blockbuster artworks her team had secured to inaugurate the Breuer Building. In pure art market kismet, the star of the season was the collection of Leonard Lauder—the former president of the Whitney Museum, which was once housed in the Breuer. The sale included museum-quality masterpieces by the likes of van Gogh, Matisse, Munch, and three works by Klimt, whose Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer made $236 million—a record for a modern work of art.