"Dan Klein, who began his career as an opera singer, became a leading authority — and commercial force — in the field of 20th-century decorative arts. Several of the record prices he achieved as an auctioneer during the 1990s remain unbeaten. Glass was Klein’s chief passion, and he did more than any other to embrace the emerging British studio glass movement, encouraging its artists and promoting them to a wider audience.
Son of Middle-European parents, Dan Klein was born in Bombay in 1938. The family moved to London around 1946, and he was educated at Westminster School and at Wadham College, Oxford, where he read Greats. A gifted linguist, he spoke fluent French, German and Italian.
After Oxford he studied singing and was an opera and lieder singer for 12 years from 1966. He became a soloist at Sadler’s Wells, and was a member of Benjamin Britten’s English Opera Group in 1968-73.
Throughout this time he maintained an interest in the decorative arts, buying and selling pieces that caught his eye. Realising that he would not reach the top as a singer, he changed careers in 1978 by opening a gallery in Canonbury, North London, specialising in 20th-century decorative arts and contemporary glass. A scholarly dealer, he staged numerous exhibitions accompanied by illustrated catalogues. They included the designs of Christopher Dresser, the Aesthetic movement and masters of Czech glass. He also staged one-man shows of British artists such as John Piper, Ivor Abrams and Quentin Bell.
In 1984 Klein joined Christie’s as director in charge of 20th-century decorative arts, responsible for sales in London, Monaco, Amsterdam and Geneva. Three years later he became vice-president of Christie’s Switzerland. As an auctioneer he helped to establish many landmark prices, including records for René Lalique, Emile Gallé and Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The records for Lalique and Mackintosh still stand.
Klein’s interests were broad, but he specialised in decorative arts from 1850. His particular passion was for modern art glass, and he was one of the first in Britain to collect and write about it. In 1984, before he joined Christie’s, his collection of 1950s glass was sold at Sotheby’s. The first auction of its kind, it provided the market with a benchmark for the future.
Klein was also a prolific author. As well as articles for British and foreign arts magazines, he wrote several books, beginning with The All Colour Book of Art Deco (1974). Reference works which he co-wrote or edited included The History of Glass(1985), Decorative Arts from 1880 to the Present Day (1986) and In the Deco Style (1986). His Glass: A Contemporary Art (1989) is a standard work. His Artists In Glass: Late Twentieth Century Masters In Glass(2001) examined 80 of the world’s leading glass artists.
Klein served as external examiner to the Royal College of Art’s department of glass and ceramics and was on the board of Pilchuck, the world’s foremost glass school, near Seattle.
After leaving Christie’s in 1995 Klein held a variety of appointments. He advised Rosenthal, the German glass and ceramics manufacturer. He was art consultant to Byrne-Sutton & Bonnard, a firm of lawyers in Geneva, specialising in art law. In 1996 he was confirmed as Professor in Glass at the University of Sunderland and he founded Dan Klein Associates, with his partner Alan J. Poole, to promote British and Irish contemporary glass.
In 1997 he joined Phillips as a consultant. In May 2000 he made headlines when he auctioned a Malevich painting for $17 million.
Klein was patron of the Guild of Glass Engravers, a lifetime honorary member of the Contemporary Glass Society and president of the Scottish Glass Society. He and Poole staged an auction of contemporary and modern glass at Bonhams only six weeks ago.
Klein’s large, jointly owned collection of British and Irish contemporary glass is expected to be donated to a British museum.
Dan Klein, writer and authority on the decorative arts, was born on November 4, 1938. He died of cancer on June 28, 2009, aged 70"
The Times Online. "Dan Klein, writer and authority on the decorative arts." July 4, 2009. website accessed July 30, 2009. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6632395.ece
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