COURTESY PHILLIPS
It’s déjà vu all over again: Phillips has found a job for another former Christie’s staffer, making it the fourth time this month that Phillips has plucked new hires from the rival auction house’s talent pool. This time, it’s Clarice Pecori Giraldi, who will be the regional director for Italy, based in Milan, working to expand the auction house’s presence in the country. She’ll work alongside Phillips senior international specialist Carolina Lanfranchi and Francesco Bonami, the curator who serves as a senior advisor to the auction house.
Giraldi leaves behind her former positions as managing director of Italy and, more recently, head of European private sales at the competing auction house.
It’s been a big month for people jumping ship from Christie’s for new opportunities at Phillips. In the last few weeks, Dina Amin, Cândida Sodré, and Vivian Pfeiffer have all left their roles at Christie’s to join its rival. A similar exodus took place in August 2015 when Phillips CEO Ed Dolman hired away Christie’s higher-ups Robert Manley, Hugues Joffre, and Jean-Paul Engelen. (None of this can be too surprising: Dolan spent nearly three decades at Christie’s, and served as its CEO.)
Dolman discussed Giraldi’s hire in a statement, saying that “Italy has always been one of the world’s most important centers of art and will become an increasingly important market for Phillips.”