Former Sotheby’s chair and president for the Americas Mari-Claudia Jiménez has joined UK law firm Withers as a partner and head of its newly formed art and advisory practice in New York. 

Jiménez, who was also Sotheby’s global head of business development, left in February to form her own legal and art advisory practice, which is now being combined into Withers. For nearly a decade, she served as Sotheby’s principal dealmaker and driver of major estate and single-owner collections. 

Withers plans to leverage her expertise and inner workings of the art market to lead the practice and serve collectors and fiduciaries with their art acquisitions, collection management and plans to bring artwork or a collection to market.

Jiménez has been involved in numerous high-profile art sales, including the collection of philanthropist and art patron Emily Fisher Landau; the $922m Macklowe Collection; the collection of music producer Mo Ostin; and celebrity collections such as that of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Sinatra, Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, and the Nobel Prize-winning Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 

She has also worked on several prestigious transactions including representing Neue Galerie in its purchase of Gustav Klimt’s Adele Block-Bauer I, at the time the most expensive painting ever sold; the restitution and sale – both privately and at auction – of five masterpieces by Kazimir Malevich worth hundreds of millions of dollars; and the sale of what was at the time the most expensive painting sold at auction – Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves and Bust – which was part of the roughly $300m sale of the Estate of Frances Lasker Brody.

Withers’ CEO Margaret Robertson said: “We are tremendously pleased to have Mari-Claudia join us to further broaden our commitment and capability to fully serving the needs of those with a passion for art and collectible assets, and the institutions that serve them, around the world.”

Jiménez added: “Withers has always innovated in the field of art law and I am delighted to join this storied history to lead Withers’ art and advisory practice. I am excited to join the firm and create this powerful new practice that combines the skills of talented professionals across numerous disciplines.”

In addition to heading Withers’ art advisory practice in New York, Jiménez will co-lead the firm’s global art advisory practice with London-based partner Sarah Barker.

Jiménez began her career in Herrick Feinstein’s art law group in 2004 as an associate and later became a partner before joining Sotheby’s in 2016. 

Withers’ global art law practice works with major collectors, artists and artists’ estates, public and private museums, galleries and auction houses, and includes practitioners with specialist skills in finance, contracts, intellectual property, tax, charity law, estates administration and art litigation, among other areas.