CHICAGO — Hindman LLC today announced an expansion to the auction house’s growing team, including the appointment of finance industry veteran Joan Wagner as Vice President for its Midwest region and two new additions to the fine art department. Joe Stanfield has been appointed Director of Fine Art and will be based in the Chicago headquarters. Monica Brown will join the Denver location as Senior Specialist for Prints and Multiples. This growth follows Hindman’s previously announced acquisition of Leslie Hindman Auctioneers (est.1982) and Cowan’s Auctions (est.1995), which together operate more salerooms than any other auction house in the country.
“Since the acquisition of Leslie Hindman Auctioneers and Cowan’s Auctions, Hindman has been poised to expand upon the capabilities available to our clients,” said Hindman CEO Thomas Galbraith. “The appointment of Joan Wagner, Joe Stanfield and Monica Brown—each experts in their own right—exemplifies our commitment to excellence, and to providing the highest quality services nationwide.”
As Vice President of the Midwest Region at Hindman, Joan Wagner will lead the business development teams in Chicago, St. Louis and Milwaukee, working with executors, fiduciaries and beneficiaries for appraisals and disposition services in addition to serving a broad network of private clients in need of asset and collection management. Wagner’s prior experience includes serving as a Managing Director of CIBC Private Wealth; Director, Citi Private Bank and, most recently, Director of Business Operations at Chapman and Cutler LLP. She has served on boards of leading cultural institutions including the Auxiliary Board and Old Masters Society Boards of The Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Wellesley Club.
“It is an incredibly exciting growth period for Hindman as a company, and I am honored to have a role in its expansion,” said Hindman Vice President of the Midwest Joan Wagner. “This position will leverage my extensive experience in finance and development and apply those skills to an industry that is very dear to my heart.”
As Director of Fine Art at Hindman, Joe Stanfield will lead the national fine art team, overseeing categories including Post War and Contemporary Art, American and European Art and Prints and Multiples. He will spearhead the department’s valuation services and determine optimal approaches to offering art works at auction. Stanfield began his career at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers in 2006, and continued his work at Toomey & Co. Auctioneers, where he oversaw significant collections such as the Tribune Tower Collection, the Warshawsky Collection, the Estate of Candice B. Groot, the collection of Governor Jim Thompson and many others. An active member of the Sustaining Fellows at The Art Institute of Chicago and The Arts Club of Chicago, Stanfield returns to Hindman, where he will use his expertise to grow the department he helped to build in 2006.
“I made my start in the auction industry at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers back in the formative stages of its fine art department,” said Hindman Director of Fine Art Joe Stanfield. “Returning now as the Director of Fine Art is incredibly gratifying. I am emboldened by this opportunity and look forward to upholding Hindman’s standards of excellence, while always seeking new methods of innovation.”
While the fine art department is based in Chicago, fine art experts are located in several of Hindman’s locations including Palm Beach, Atlanta and St. Louis. Hindman’s Denver location now joins that list with the addition of Monica Brown as Senior Specialist for Prints and Multiples. With extensive experience in over five centuries of works on paper from her tenure at The Newberry Library in Chicago, as well as over ten years of experience dealing privately, Brown brings a high level of expertise to Prints and Multiples at Hindman.
For more information on Hindman’s new specialists, click here.
Hindman conducts over 100 auctions annually and appraises thousands of objects throughout the year in addition to handling major single-owner collections. The firm is currently accepting consignments for summer, fall and winter sales. To contact the Chicago office of Hindman LLC, visit lesliehindman.com/chicago or call 312.280.1212.
About Hindman LLC
Leslie Hindman Auctioneers (est.1982) and Cowan’s Auctions (est.1995) were acquired in 2019 by Hindman LLC. Together they form one of the nation’s leading fine art auction houses offering holistic solutions that connect cities nationwide to the global art market by providing expertise across all categories, sales channels and price points. Hindman operates more salerooms in the United States than any other auction house and conducts over 100 auctions a year in categories such as fine jewelry and timepieces, contemporary art, 20th century design, rare books, furniture, decorative arts, couture, Asian works of art, Arts of the American west, numismatics, and more. Headquartered in Chicago, Hindman is home to 150 employees, with additional offices in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Milwaukee, Naples, Palm Beach, Scottsdale and St. Louis. Visit lesliehindman.com and cowansauctions.com for more information.
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