Brian Balfour-Oatts

Balfour-Oatts staged the controversial exhibition The Difficulties of Attribution in 1994 after being introduced, by art dealer Julian Hartnoll, to the famous forger Eric Hebborn.

The exhibition of "recently discovered Old Master Drawings", complete with a mock auction catalogue[1] was widely covered in the press and drew large crowds, earning praise and criticism in equal measure.

During the late 1990s Balfour-Oatts began to deal in Modern British Art, which was exhibited alongside German Expressionist paintings and woodcuts, placing works in public collections such as the Moritzburg Museum, Halle, Germany and the National Portrait Gallery, London, amongst others.

ARCHEUS moved to 3 Albemarle Street, London (2000–2008) and embarked upon a programme of Modern British and International contemporary art, curated by Balfour-Oatts.

[9] In February 2023 Balfour-Oatts co-curated Pierre Soulages: Une Lumière Infinie, the first major posthumous exhibition of the work of the French painter and printmaker at Phillips (auctioneers) in London.

The star of the sale was Pablo Picasso's 1932 painting Femme à la montre, which made $139.4m and was the most valuable work sold at auction that year.

Artist's records were set for Agnes Martin and Mark Tansey and the value of the collection made it one of the top 5 single-owner estate sales in history, alongside those of Peggy and David Rockefeller and Paul Allen.

[11] Brian Balfour-Oatts presently curates and deals for ARCHEUS / POST-MODERN [1], handling significant secondary market works by Bridget Riley, Sam Francis, Lucian Freud, David Hockney, Ed Ruscha[12] and Pierre Soulages.