Bona Montagu

Spear’s Review

Bona Montagu has spent decades navigating the upper echelons of the art market.

After gaining a degree from the Courtauld Institute and cutting her teeth in the contemporary department at Christie’s, she helped to establish the Post-War and Contemporary department at Dickinson and opened the Skarstedt Gallery in London. She founded Montagu Arts in order to advise major collectors and significant families on acquisitions, often operating at the highest levels of confidentiality. ‘Why would I want to tell the world what I’m looking at for a client? I’m just going to create more competition for them,’ she explains. ‘Discretion is so important.’

For Montagu’s clients, art isn’t simply a form of investment but a source of joy. ‘I don’t work with anyone that doesn’t buy to enjoy and live with the art,’ she says. ‘The way we put a collection together is very much how the [artworks] respond to each other.’

Adviser Profile

Bona Montagu is a collections curator with over 30 years’ experience as a gallerist, dealer and adviser. Known for her expertise in Modern, Post-War and Contemporary art, Bona has assembled and worked with some of the leading private, corporate and institutional collections internationally.

Bona joined Christie’s Contemporary art department in 1993, leaving in 1996 with James Roundell, Head of Impressionist and Modern art, to form the Post-War and Contemporary department at the leading private dealership Dickinson, where she also advised families and artist estates until 2012. In 2012, Bona opened Skarstedt Gallery, London, whilst continuing to advise under Montagu Arts. She served as Vice Chair of SLAD from 2019 to 2024.

Montagu Arts is an art consultancy specialised in assisting its clients in cultivating their own critical appreciation of art so that they can build collections of long-term significance and value which reflect their individual tastes and interests.

Bona Montagu’s established relationships with galleries, international curators and auction houses enable her to obtain privileged access to market information and sought-after works ahead of others.  Her breadth of experience and transactional expertise make her an invaluable resource to clients who want to collect art with objective analysis and strategic impartial guidance.