PER Live Series: The Role of Economists in the Art Market

Drew Watson
Senior Vice President, Art Services at Bank of America Private Bank
Drew Watson is Senior Vice President, Art Services Specialist at Bank of America Private Bank. Based in New York City, Drew has over 15 years of experience in art auction, art finance, and arts and cultural institutions. Drew leads client outreach for Art Services to offer art collectors, their families, and advisors a tailored suite of art banking services, including art lending, art planning, consignment services and arts nonprofit services.
Prior to joining Bank of America Private Bank (formerly U.S. Trust), Drew oversaw business operations, finance, and consignment deal structuring for various sale departments at Christie’s auction house in New York. Before his tenure at Christie’s, Drew managed UHNW client relationships in a boutique wealth management firm. He began his career as a manager and consultant for arts and cultural institutions in North America and Europe. Drew earned a Bachelor of Arts in French and Art History from Columbia University in New York City, where he also participated in a joint program with The Juilliard School. He also holds a Master’s of Business Administration from INSEAD business school in Fontainebleau, France.
Drew speaks regularly on art world-related topics at art fairs, educational institutions, professional associations, and investment conferences nationwide. He is a regular media contributor to national news organizations on the intersection of art, business, and finance, and has been quoted in The New York Times.

Li Jun Xian
Partner, Emigrant Bank Fine Art Finance 
Li Jun Xian is a Partner at Emigrant Bank Fine Art Finance, the specialty financing subsidiary of Emigrant Bank (Member FDIC, founded 1850). Emigrant Bank Fine Art Finance focuses on lending secured by art, antiques, classic cars, fine wine, stringed instruments and other passion assets. She regularly advises and structures loans for collectors, dealers and gallery owners, and institutions who are seeking liquidity from their passion assets, and counsels the financial advisors, accountants, lawyers and other professionals on whom they rely.
Prior to joining Emigrant Bank Fine Art Finance in 2007, Ms. Xian was a credit analyst at Goldman Sachs, where she was responsible for analyzing and monitoring the firm’s counterparty trading risk, and advising major public and private companies on capital structure decisions and their effects on credit ratings.
Ms. Xian was instrumental in the formation of Emigrant Bank Classic Car Finance in 2015. She began her career in the art world as an intern at Robert Miller Gallery and Christie’s, and is currently Treasurer of the Professional Organization for Women in the Arts (POWarts). Ms. Xian graduated with honors from Dartmouth College with a degree in Economics and Art History.

Moderator:

Sophia N. Johnson, Ph.D.
Program for Economic Research (PER), Columbia University

This event was livestreamed via the Economics Department’s YouTube channel. Closed captions are provided in the video. You may also read a transcript of the conversation.

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This conference is co-sponsored by Columbia University’s Program for Economic Research (PER). Please direct all questions to econ-per@columbia.edu.

Poster Image Credit:
© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London 2017. Photo credit: National Galleries of Scotland