Melanie Gerlis

Melanie Gerlis is the art market columnist for the Financial Times and Editor at Large for The Art Newspaper.  She was previously Art Market editor of The Art Newspaper for nine years and has been reporting on auctions, art fairs and market news globally since 2006.

She previously worked for ten years at Finsbury, a strategic communications and investor relations firm, advising investment banks, hedge funds and other financial services clients.

She has a BA in English Literature from Clare College, Cambridge and an MA in Art Business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London. Her book, ‘Art as an Investment? A Survey of Comparative Assets’, was published by Lund Humphries in 2014.

Melanie is a trustee of the Art360 Foundation and The Art Academy, London, and a member of the governing body of Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London.

Thomas Eller

Passionate about art, frequent visitor of exhibitions, Widewalls photography specialist and Editor-in-Chief.

Thomas Eller (born 8 September 1964) is a German visual artist and writer. Born and raised in the German district of Franconia he left Nürnberg in 1985 to study fine art at the Berlin University of the Arts. After his forced dismission he studied sciences of religion, philosophy and art history at Free University of Berlin. During this time he was also working as a scientific assistant at the Science Center Berlin for Social Research (WZB).

From 1990 he exhibited extensively in European museums and galleries. In 1995 he obtained his green card and moved to New York City. Next he participated in exhibitions in museums and galleries in the Americas, Asia and Europe.

In 2004 he moved back to Germany and founded an online arts magazine on the internet platform artnet. As managing director he developed the Chinese business team and was instituting several cooperations e.g. with Art Basel and the Federal German Gallery Association (BVDG). In 2008 he became artistic director of Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin on Schlossplatz at the heart of Berlin.

Arianne Piper

Arianne Levene Piper works closely with international collectors and institutions on building and managing quality contemporary and modern art collections with a global focus. Founded in 2006, Arianne Piper Art Advisory offers clients unique access to the art world, enabling the opportunity to cultivate a critical, informed, and distinctive appreciation of art.

With over 15 years of specialist experience in the art world at Sotheby’s, the Dresden State Art Collections, and the Lord Rothschild collection, Arianne has developed a relevant expertise and is deeply involved in the global art scene.

Arianne was nominated for Art Advisor of the Year at the Spear’s Young Turk Awards in 2012 and has been written about in the Financial Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Huffington Post, The Art Newspaper and more.

Fang Fang

Founder of Star Gallery

>> Discover more about Star Gallery in IRL {In Real Life} at ASIA NOW 2019

Serge Tiroche

Serge Tiroche was born in Israel in 1966 and grew up with art. His father was a dealer and his mother a painter. As a teenager he decided to broaden his horizons. He studied International business and later obtained an MBA from INSEAD. He then joined Citigroup Private Bank where he had a multi-faceted 10 year career. In 2008 he left Citi in order to dedicate himself to what had become his lifetime mission... bridging art collecting and financial investment. He founded START, Israel's first art incubator project and Serge Tiroche Consultants, a financial services consultancy with focus on art. In 2009-2010 he was named Chairman of Artist Pension Trust and in 2011 he co-founded Art Vantage Ltd, owner of the Tiroche DeLeon Collection. In 2015 he co-founded a start-up to revolutionise the art logistics industry, ArtRunners. He is currently working on 2 new ventures, Art Vantage Global - a global contemporary art fund and Africa First - impact investments in contemporary art from the continent.