Partner Susan McDonough, AAA, has been accredited by the Appraisers Association of America in the category of Latin American Art. The recognition reflects Susan's experience appraising works by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Fernando Botero, Wifredo Lam, Gabriel Orozco, and many other artists working across the region. The accreditation marks a full-circle moment in Susan's career, which began with a joint degree in Art History and Latin American Studies at Columbia University and an internship at the pioneering Latin American art gallery CDS, followed by work on the 1993 landmark exhibition Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century at MoMA.

Dr. Atl (Mexican, 1875–1964), La sombra del Popo, 1942.

In a rare 2011 interview, Barbara Gladstone described the similarities between being an art dealer and raising a family. “Being a parent, a mother, means that you’re responsible for helping someone develop to the best of their potential,” she said. “The artist–gallery relationship also involves a dependency on the part of the artist to trust the person who represents this most precious thing, the art. And that’s not something to take lightly.” Gladstone, who died in 2024 at age of 89, was speaking from personal experience; She shepherded the careers and developed long-lasting relationships with an international roster of big-name artists including Matthew Barney, Shirin Neshat, Anish Kapoor, and Carroll Dunham.

Robert Mapplethorpe, “Barbara Gladstone” (1988)

Richard and Elizabeth “Betty” Hedreen began collecting art for practical reasons: to fill the walls of their new home. “We started out looking for paintings that reflected the Seattle region, made by artists who were from around here,” Richard said. “We wanted works that would connect our home to the area [such as] William Ivey and Guy Anderson.”

The French actress Jacqueline Delubac (1907-1997) was considered the most elegant woman in Paris, and her art collection, which featured modernist works by Picasso, Degas, Lam, Léger, and more, followed suit.

“Contemporary collecting, it seems to me, involves the eye and the mind in a particular relationship. The eye must be relied on primarily, for it is usually the more trustworthy guide, especially when the forms are novel,” Gifford Phillips once said. “I have found in collecting that there is still no substitute for time and repeated exposure in distinguishing the artist of superior talent.”

Gifford and his wife, Joann, were patrons of cultural institutions and passionate advocates of contemporary art. Their personal collection included work by Richard Diebenkorn, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, and Mark Rothko.