The Director of Michael and Henrietta Spink Ltd, Michael Spink, brings to the business over 23 years of experience in the Asian art market, together with a long family tradition of taking a leading role in the London art market.

Michael completed his degree in History of Art at Cambridge University and worked at Spink and Son, formerly the family firm, from 1978 until the end of 1988. He then left the company to set up his own business, operating from Jermyn Street in London. He returned to Spink in 1992 as head of the Islamic, Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian departments, rising to become Senior Director Fine Arts. Since 1998 he has operated again under his own banner dealing in Islamic, Indian and Southeast Asian art, as well as retaining an interest in Himalayan art and Oriental Antiquities.

Michael's experience has been wide-ranging, both in terms of his knowledge of Asian art and in terms of his administrative and management experience (all of which are essential business skills in the art market of today). His dealing experience has covered all aspects of buying and selling, operating at the highest level in terms of quality and value,not only across the field of Asian art, but also with antiquities and medieval western art. He is also a qualified gemmologist, having taken his FGA (Fellowship of the Gemmological Association) examination in 1990. His management activities have encompassed supervising an active group of dealers, setting up overseas offices, and all matters relating to business plans, budgets, staff recruitment, financial projections and legal issues.

Other activities include serving as chairman of the successful Asian Art in London promotion from 1997 to 2000; serving various occasions with the vetting committees of antique Fairs in London, New York and Singapore, including the Grosvenor House Fair, the Asian Art Fair, TEFAF Maastricht and Tresors in Singapore.

This wide experience creates the broad approach, enabling us to advise our clients on every aspect of buying, selling and appraisals and support services in the busy art market at the start of the 21st century.

Objects acquired from Michael and Henrietta Spink Ltd are in many public and private collections, including the following museums:

Ackland Art Museum, North Carolina
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco
Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore
British Museum, London
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland
David Collection, Copenhagen
Denver Art Museum, Denver
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit
Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis
Musée des Arts Asiatiques, Nice
Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Peabody Museum, Salem
Oriental Museum, Durham
Peoples Palace Museum, Glasgow
Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh
Royal Armouries, Leeds (formerly Tower of London)
Rietberg Museum, Zurich
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond