Harry Smith

Spear's Review

Harry Smith first grabbed headlines in 2018, when he bought 13 Picassos on behalf of clients over a single week of auctions for £113 million. ‘I’ve been in this game for over 40 years, and this was very different to anything I’ve done before,’ he says. 

Now as executive chairman, Smith presides over Gurr Johns, expanding its valuation and advisory services into new markets and online through a partnership with valuation app Collector IQ.

‘We want to make the valuation side of the business the Bloomberg of the art market,’ he says. ‘People are now starting to look at their portfolios in a slightly different way – as an important part of their overall wealth.’