• Join Puck

    Directly Supporting Authors

    A new economic model in which writers are also partners in the business.

    Personalized Subscriptions

    Customize your settings to receive the newsletters you want from the authors you follow.

    Stay in the Know

    Connect directly with Puck talent through email and exclusive events.

  • What is puck? Newsletters Authors Podcasts Events Gift Puck Careers

Sotheby’s Master of Old Masters

George Wachter, a Sotheby’s lifer who has long led its Old Masters department, is overseeing the category’s most valuable single-owner sale ever this week. We spoke about dirty old paintings, Victoria Beckham, and how the art market has (and hasn’t) changed over the past 50 years.

George Wachter
"Old Masters has always had a place. There’s always been a group of collectors who buy them," says Sotheby's Old Masters co-chairman George Wachter. Photo: Courtesy of Sotheby’s
Julie Brener Davich
May 18, 2025

On the eve of Sotheby’s sale of the $80 million Old Master painting collection of Jordan and Thomas Saunders this week—the most valuable single-owner sale ever in the category—I spoke with George Wachter, co-chairman of Old Master paintings worldwide. He recently celebrated his 50th year at Sotheby’s, where he began as a trainee straight out of college. He first met Jordan in the late 1990s, and went on to help the Saunderses build their collection over many years, advising them on both public and private acquisitions.