International law firm Withers is pleased to announce that Mari-Claudia Jiménez has joined the firm as a partner and will lead Withers Art and Advisory practice in New York.
Under her leadership, Withers will be combining its renowned art law expertise with broader art advisory elements to provide clients with an innovative resource as they navigate the international art market. Withers Art and Advisory leverages Mari-Claudia's intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the art market at the highest level to provide collectors and fiduciaries with unbiased insight and counsel as they contemplate an acquisition, manage their collection, or consider bringing an artwork or collection to market.
Over her long career, Mari-Claudia has been a trusted advisor, counselor and advocate for renowned collectors and estates, prominent museums, galleries, and auction houses and has been involved in countless major acquisitions, consignments and litigations. Until recently, she was Chairman, President, Americas, and Head of Global Business Development for Sotheby's, where she spent close to a decade using her extensive experience in the field as a principal dealmaker and driver of major estate and single owner collections.
Mari-Claudia has played an integral role in numerous groundbreaking sales including the collection of legendary philanthropist and art patron Emily Fisher Landau, the US$922 million Macklowe Collection, the collection of legendary music producer Mo Ostin and celebrity collections such as that of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Sinatra, Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman and the Nobel Prize winning Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In February 2025 she left Sotheby's to form her own legal and art advisory practice, which is being combined into Withers. She was previously a partner in the Art Law Group at Herrick, Feinstein LLP.
In her legal career, Mari-Claudia has worked on numerous transactions that have captured world-wide attention, including the sale to the Neue Galerie of Gustav Klimt’s Adele Block-Bauer I, at the time the most expensive painting ever sold (she represented the buyer), the restitution and sale (both privately and at auction) of five masterpieces by Kazimir Malevich worth hundreds of millions of dollars (Jiménez represented the sellers) and the sale of what was at the time the most expensive painting sold at auction, Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, which was part of the roughly US$300 million sale of the Estate of Frances Lasker Brody.
Jay Dinwoodie, CEO of Withers' Private Client and Tax division, comments: “We are very excited to be welcoming one of the world's leading trusted art advisors to the firm and expanding the breadth of the offering we bring to the art market at the same time. Mari-Claudia counts a remarkable amount of 'firsts' on her CV, including market-topping transactions and significant art disputes which have changed the playing field. This, combined with her experience as a former President of Sotheby's and senior dealmaker, makes her unique in the industry. Our clients will benefit hugely from her experience and judgement.”
Withers' global art law practice encompasses work with major collectors, artists and artists' estates, public and private museums, galleries and auction houses, and includes practitioners with specialist skills in finance, contracts, intellectual property, tax, charity law, estates administration and art litigation, among other areas. The practice will now be co-led globally by Mari-Claudia in New York and Sarah Barker in London, working with international lawyers Eleni Polycarpou, Dean Nicyper, Giulia Cipollini, Caryn Young, Alison Lonshein, Usha Chandradas and many others.
Margaret Robertson, CEO of Withers, notes: "We are tremendously pleased to have Mari-Claudia join us to further broaden our commitment and capability to fully serving the needs of those with a passion for art and collectible assets, and the institutions that serve them, around the world."
Mari-Claudia says: “Withers has always innovated in the field of art law and I am delighted to join this storied history to lead Withers Art and Advisory practice. This practice will combine current art market expertise and insight with Withers extraordinary capabilities and track record in art law excellence. I am excited to join the firm and create this powerful new practice that combines the skills of talented professionals across numerous disciplines."