Jeremy Eckstein is recognized as one of the leading experts on the fine art economy and is a frequent author, speaker and lecturer on both the fine art economy and fine art as an asset class, and performs the strategic advisory work in the commercial art market business environment. Mr. Eckstein is an Associate of the Institute of Actuaries, holding the Institute's Certificate of Finance and Investment. He is also a founder member of PAIAM, the association of Professional Advisors to the International Art Market.
After starting his career as an actuary and fund manager, Jeremy joined Sotheby’s in 1979 as Head of Research, creating the Sotheby’s Index and developing a range of tools and strategies appropriate to the treatment of art as an asset class. He advised the British Railways Pension Fund on the performance of its fine art investment portfolio, and assisted Citibank in setting up its ground-breaking Art Advisory Service in the early 1980s. He became a Deputy Director of Sotheby’s in 1987, with overall responsibility for research. He left Sotheby's in 1990 to establish Jeremy Eckstein Associates, an independent consulting firm specializing in research and economic analysis within the cultural and heritage sectors. In 2004, he was a member of the due diligence team appointed to evaluate prospective fine art investment funds on behalf of the bank ABN AMRO. Jeremy’s principal interest continues to be the economics and dynamics of the art market. He designed and regularly conducts the Biennial Survey on behalf of the UK’s Society of London Art Dealers (the association representing almost 150 of the UK’s leading fine art dealers) and he maintains excellent relations with both dealers and auction houses, allowing him to gather market intelligence across a broad spectrum of stakeholders. In 2007 he was commissioned by TEFAF, the pre-eminent European fine art fair, to design and conduct a study on the economic impact of the fair to mark its 20th anniversary.
Mr. Eckstein lectures widely on business planning and finance, fine art as an asset class, the securitization of art, and art market trends. He has advised a Singapore-based dealer on a business plan for introducing western Master paintings to a wider SE Asian audience, and in 2011 and 2012 he was invited to present papers on collecting and securitization in China. He is a senior Consultant Lecturer at Sotheby’s Institute, on their MA in Art & Business program in London, and at the Paris-based Institut d’Etudes Supérieures des Arts.