Post-War and Contemporary Art

Edmond Francey is Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art in London, overseeing the management and development of highly successful auctions and private sales. He moved from Christie’s Paris in 2015, where he was head of the department, having joined as a specialist in Post-War and Contemporary art in 2012.

Prior to joining Christie’s, Edmond gained over 15 years of experience in the international contemporary art market. After completing a Master’s degree in finance, he began his career at the Waddington Galleries in London in 1997, then joined Helly Nahmad Gallery in 1999 where he worked on major exhibitions of 20th century art. In 2002, he collaborated with Albert Baronian to create Baronian-Francey, one of the leading contemporary art galleries in Brussels. Representing artists such as Gilbert and George, Robert Crumb, Wang Du and Lionel Esteve, the gallery’s programme was dedicated to important exhibitions of contemporary art.

Alice de Roquemaurel has played a pivotal role in shaping the private sale landscape, leading the business for Post War and Contemporary art in Europe and driving its critical success within the organization. With a deep understanding of the market, Alice has personally facilitated private sales at the highest level, including the placement of masterpieces in prestigious institutions. As part of the private sale team, Alice has played a role in various innovative private selling exhibitions.
In this role, Alice is responsible for managing the growth and development of the channel, ensuring its continued success and strategic expansion within the art market.
Alice first joined Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary department in 2006. Her expertise lies in European Post-War Art. A French national, Alice holds a B.A. in English and a Master’s in Communication (Celsa) from Sorbonne University, Paris, as well as a Master’s degree in Post-War and Contemporary Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London.

Tessa is Head of Post War and Contemporary Art London, overseeing the management of the London auction platforms with a focus on the bi annual Evening auctions. Previously Head of the Evening Sale, Tessa has been key in delivering a number of record prices for artists including Daniel Richter and Banksy. Her passion for figurative painting, from Francis Bacon to Lynette Yiadom-Boakye has continued the evolution of the Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale platform, bringing the very best artists to the fore in the London market. A career highlight was working on the Jeremy Lancaster Collection, which achieved top prices for Philip Guston and Bridget Riley as well as setting the benchmark for Howard Hodgkin with a selection of works sold that spanned his career. Tessa joined Christie’s in 2013, having graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in History, gaining a Master’s degree in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art in 2012. Tessa is fluent in Spanish and lives in London.

Alessandro Diotallevi is a Senior Director and Senior Specialist in the Post-War & Contemporary Art department in London. He started his career as a researcher in Christie’s London office in 2010, before cataloguing his first Italian Sale in 2012. In 2014, he was the Junior Specialist on the historic Eyes Wide Open: An Italian Vision, the sale of one of the most important collections of Arte Povera which realized fifteen artist records including those for Michelangelo Pistoletto, Janis Kounellis, and Alighierio Boetti. The following year he joined the Evening Sale team and worked on successful sales which achieved record results for a number of artists in the category. In 2017, he curated the unique Up Close auction which focused on the “greatest small-scale paintings and sculptures by some of the 20th centuries most important artists.”

In the summer of 2018, Alessandro relocated to the USA to join the team in New York where he was the Director of the Private sale team in New York. In 2021 Alessandro moved back to London where he is focusing on the Evening sale as well as masterpiece level consignment. In 2021 Alessandro was one of the leading specialists in the consignment of Jean-Michel Basquiat, In this Case, 1983 and Jean Michel Basquiat, El Gran Espectaculo (The Nile), 1983, currently the second and fourth record price for the artist at auction. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Communications from the L.U.M.S.A University in Rome, and is fluent in English and Italian.

Claudia Schürch is a Senior Specialist in the Post-War and Contemporary Art department at Christie’s in London. She has been with the company for over eight years, holding a range of roles across both the auction and private sales teams. From 2023 to 2024, she was the Co-Head of the Evening Sale and subsequently took on the role of Acting Head of Department during a maternity leave cover.

Before joining Christie’s, Claudia spent five years in the Private Banking division of Credit Suisse in Zurich and London, advising ultra-high-net-worth individuals across the UK and Nordic regions.

Anna Touzin is Co-Head of the Evening sale in the Post-War and Contemporary Department.

Previously Head of the Day sale where she consistently achieved market share for the category in London. Having joined the department in 2014, Anna has worked closely with across all auction channels as well as private sales, with a special focus on contemporary art. She has been instrumental in record prices for artists such as Karin Mamma Andersson.

Anna holds on BA in History of Art and German from University College London and an MSc in History of Art and Curating from the University of Edinburgh. Anna speaks English, French, Swedish and German fluently and works closely with Scandinavia to develop Christie’s presence there.

Isabel Bardawil is a Director, Senior Specialist and Co-Head of the Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale at Christie’s in London. Since joining Christie’s in 2015, Isabel has worked on numerous Evening and Day sales and was head of the highly successful First Open online sales from 2020-2022. In October 2022, Isabel was responsible for the sale of the largest single owner collection of contemporary art from Africa and the diaspora. She has worked closely on collaborations with 1:54 Contemporary African Art fair since 2020 and has delivered several exhibitions at Christie’s in London of emerging artists and artists from Africa and the diaspora.

Isabel has worked on several highly successful charity partnerships and fundraising auctions. Highlights have included collaborating with the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) in 2023 to raise funds for the museum’s Rainforest Gallery and the Nigeria Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2024; working with Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) to raise fund for the new Children’s Cancer Centre at GOSH in 2025 and partnering with Syri-Arts and Kayany Foundation in 2018.

Isabel graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History of Art from the Courtauld Insitute of Art, London in 2015.

Stephanie Rao is a Specialist in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Department in London. Since joining Christie’s in 2016 as the Cataloguer for the Chairman of Post-War and Contemporary Art EMERI, Stephanie has worked on the Evening Auctions in London, Hong Kong and Shanghai and the curated Masterpieces of Design and Photography, as well as the single-owner auctions The Leslie Waddington Collection (2016) and The George Michael Collection (2019). Stephanie holds a BA in Law and Business from the University of Warwick, an MSc in Management and Strategy from the London School of Economics and an MLitt in Art History from the University of Glasgow. Stephanie is fluent in both English and Mandarin.

Nicole Ching is a Specialist Advisor in the 20/21st Department in London. Before entering the world of auctions, Nicole came from the museum space, having worked at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, Shanghai’s Long Museum and written for ArtAsiaPacific. She also founded Museum 2050 in Beijing in 2017, a platform for investigating key issues about the future of cultural institutions in the Greater China region and for providing a place for young museum professionals to converse, share ideas and create a vibrant museum community. Prior to Christie’s, Nicole worked at another international auction house for almost three years, were she was a Deputy Director in the Private Client Group. Nicole graduated from UCL with a BA in Classics and read for an MSc in Visual, Material, and Museum Anthropology at Oxford and was chosen to be a Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University where she received a Masters of Global Affairs in International Relations. She is fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese.

Marie-Claire is a specialist in the Post-War & Contemporary Art department at Christie’s based between London and Dubai. She is passionate about discovering and promoting emerging and overlooked artists with a particular interest in artists from the Middle East and North Africa. In her role as Head of Sale for Modern & Contemporary Middle Eastern Art, she has contributed to the growth of the category and has helped to give it a contemporary and international profile through successful auctions and private selling exhibitions in London, Dubai and Paris.

Marie-Claire grew up in the Netherlands and speaks fluent Dutch and English, conversational French, and is learning Arabic. Marie-Claire attended Amsterdam University College and holds a BA with a double major in International Relations and Economics and a minor in Art History. She moved to London to complete a MA in Art Business and joined Christie’s in 2015. In the Post-War & Contemporary Department in London she has been working across the Evening, Day and Online sales, gaining a breadth of knowledge of the art market and playing a pivotal role in the consignment and successful sale of various single owner collections including the Jeremy Lancaster Collection, the Le Jeune Collection and most recently the Dalloul Art Collection.

Andrea is an Associate Specialist in the Post-War and Contemporary Art department in London. Having joined Christie’s in early 2020, Andrea previously worked in the financial industry for Bloomberg L.P. for 12 years in a myriad of roles. He then completed a Masters in History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art in 2017 and subsequently worked for the National Portrait Gallery where he worked on fund raising for their capital regeneration project, including a dedicated auction of works sold to benefit the project at Christie’s in March 2019. Andrea also holds a degree in Economics and is fluent in Italian.

Annabelle Scholar is a Director and Senior Client Advisor within Christie’s Client Advisory department. Since joining Christie’s in 2016, Annabelle has advised several international private collectors and advisors across categories while nurturing new buyers and cultural partnerships. She has placed important works by artists including Francis Bacon, Tracey Emin, Jean Dubuffet, Vincent van Gogh, and Joan Miró into significant private collections. Before joining Christie’s, Annabelle spent four years working in Design at a world-renowned gallery in Paris and with another leading auction house. Her passion for engaging new audiences has been central to her role at Christie’s—she was part of the team that launched Christie’s Lates, a monthly after-hours event series that attracted over 1,000 visitors each month and remains a key public-facing programme for the business today.
In 2022, she co-curated The Art of Literature, a cross-category exhibition spanning three millennia of artworks, objects, and manuscripts in dialogue with literature, presented in partnership with fashion designer Molly Goddard. To coincide with this exhibition, Annabelle organised and hosted a dinner bringing together young patron groups from across London’s most important museums and institutions in a celebration of London as a cultural hub.
Annabelle has also led and contributed to several meaningful charitable initiatives at Christie’s. Notably, she co-organised and spearheaded the Build It Beat auction and dinner in support of Great Ormond Street Hospital, which raised over £1.2 million. Her work on other philanthropic efforts includes the Rays of Sunshine auction, which raised £2.2 million for children with life-limiting illnesses, and Studio Voltaire’s 30th Anniversary XXX auction and benefit. She has served on the committee for the Serpentine Future Contemporaries since 2021.