Private collectors · Homes & offices · Institutions
Collect what you keep looking at.
Collins Art Advisory advises new and seasoned collectors on building collections of modern and contemporary art that reflect a clear point of view, live well in the rooms they hang in, and hold their value over time.
Start a conversationAbout the practice
Trained as an art historian. Practiced as a designer.
Sean Collins
Founder and Principal
Collins Art Advisory was founded on a simple idea: the best collections come from looking hard and buying with conviction. Sean Collins studied art history at Colby College, trained as a journalist at Boston University, completed graduate study at Sotheby's Institute of Art, and spent three decades in design and creative direction, work built on judging what holds attention and why.
He brings that eye to every acquisition. We focus on work that is exquisitely made, has a distinct voice, and earns its place in the conversation about art history. We are especially at home with postwar American figuration, the print tradition, and the painters who carried Matisse's lessons about flat color into the present.
- Education
- BA, Art History, Colby College
MS, Journalism, Boston University
MS, Sotheby's Institute of Art - Museum service
- Board of Governors, Colby College Museum of Art
- Scholarship
- Board of Advisors, Lunder Institute for American Art
- Focus
- Modern & contemporary painting, works on paper, editioned prints
“A painting should hold up on the hundredth look, not only the first. That is the only test I trust.”Sean Collins, Founder and Principal
What we do
Three kinds of engagement
For private collectors
Collection building
A defined strategy for a first acquisition or the next phase of a mature collection, with access to primary and secondary markets.
- Collecting brief and budget plan
- Gallery, fair and auction sourcing
- Condition, provenance and price review
- Negotiation and purchase management
For homes & workplaces
Installation
Art chosen for specific walls and light, then framed, shipped and hung with the same care as the purchase itself.
- Site visits and wall plans
- Archival framing and mounting
- Lighting recommendations
- Coordination with designers and architects
For institutions
Collection care
Support for museums, colleges and corporate collections on acquisitions, gifts and the records that keep a collection sound.
- Inventory and catalogue records
- Appraisal and insurance coordination
- Gift and bequest planning
- Deaccession review
How an engagement runs
From first meeting to hanging
Look together
We visit galleries and your space together to learn what you respond to and what the rooms can hold.
Write the brief
A short written plan: the collection's direction, priority artists, budget ranges and timeline.
Source and vet
We bring you a short list, each work checked against its catalogue raisonné, condition report and recent sales.
Acquire and install
We negotiate, manage payment, shipping and framing, and hang the work. Records go into your collection file.
Portfolio
Selected placements
Journal
Essays, fair notes and field notes
The flat and the felt: Katz after Matisse
How two painters sixty years apart used flat color and cropped form to make a picture that reads across a room and still rewards close looking.
Reading a print: what the catalogue number tells you
Edition size, state, paper and printer. A short guide to checking a print against its catalogue raisonné before you buy.
What we are watching this fall
Notes from the autumn fair season: the booths worth the visit and the artists we are following into next year.
The Collins letter
Get fair reports and new essays by email.
A few times a season: the best work from the fairs, gallery shows worth a trip, and notes on the collections we are building now. For a consultation, write to us directly.