Anthony Browne, President
Chairman of the British Art Market Federation, 1996-2024.
Member of the Ministerial Export Advisory Group for the Cultural Industries, 1998–2001; the Ministerial Advisory Panel on Illicit Trade, 1999–2003; the Quinquennial Review Panel on the Export of Works of Art, 2001-2003; and the Advisory Group on Museum Acquisitions (Goodison Review), 2003. He represented BAMF in numerous parliamentary hearings both in the UK and in the EU.
He was a director of Christie’s (1978–96), and is a senior consultant to Christie’s International. He was a Board Member of the European Fine Art Foundation and was Vice Chairman of Art Fortnight London. He is an advisor to Arts Economics and is an Honorary Associate of the Society of Fine Art Auctioneers.
Tom Christopherson, Chairman
Tom Christopherson is a solicitor, legal consultant to Bonhams and a longstanding member of the executive committees of BAMF and SOFAA. Previously he was European General Counsel at Sotheby’s, consultant to art law firm Constantine Cannon, and Head of Art and Law Studies at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art. He worked at city law firms Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Withers, before joining Sotheby’s and the art world in 1997.
Tom is a member of PAIAM (Professional Advisors to the International Art Market) and the Association of Art Lawyers, and was previously a trustee of the Rolls Building Art and Education Trust. In the City of London, he is chairman of the Treasures Committee of the Worshipful Company of Tylers and Bricklayers, a Past Master of The Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars, and recently Chairman of the Arts Scholars Charitable Trust, which supports institutions, education and opportunity across the historic and decorative arts.
Mark Dodgson, Secretary
Mark Dodgson is secretary general of the British Antique Dealers’ Association (BADA), a position he has held since 2008. More recently he became vice-president of the Confédération Internationale des Négociants en Œuvres d’Art (CINOA), which represents some 5,000 of the leading antique and fine art dealers in the art market countries of the world. In 2023 he was appointed a member of the European Commission’s Sub-group on Liaison with the Art Market. Mark has more than three decades’ experience in dealing with many of the vital issues that affect antique dealers, including some of the disproportionately burdensome legislative restrictions that have been imposed on the art market. His knowledge of the operations of antique dealers across a wide range of object disciplines means that he is able both to advise dealers as well as to liaise with outside bodies. He was formerly secretary of the Art Trade Liaison Committee. He has been a member of BAMF’s Executive Committee since 1996.
Freya Simms, Deputy Chairman and Treasurer
Freya Simms was appointed CEO of The Association of Art and Antiques Dealers in June 2018. Freya’s career in the art market began as press officer for Christies Fine Art and in the intervening years she also worked in-house for both Bonham’s and Sotheby’s. Freya was appointed Fair Director at Clarion in 2005. In 2010 Freya founded Muse, the communications consultancy for the art and heritage market which won the Queen’s Award for Excellence in Enterprise in 2014. In 2014 Muse merged with Cawdell Douglas to form Golden Squared Consulting. She remains a non-Executive Board member of Golden Squared Consulting and is also a Board Member of PAIAM.