This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Carla Caputo, the art collections manager and a senior vice president at Citi Wealth’s Art Advisory group, which supports clients in the private bank. She worked at the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art before joining Citi in 2023. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
More than anything, I think of myself as a high-level project manager for Citi’s high-net-worth clients. Sometimes I help them loan art to museums, sometimes I write condition reports, and sometimes I work on installations in their homes or offices.
When clients purchase art from a gallery or auction, installing it is often a long, expensive process. Once the art is paid for, I contact registrars and shipping managers to coordinate getting it into the client’s space. Does the piece already have a crate? Does it have a travel frame? Will it fit on a passenger flight, or does it need to fly on a freight plane? And if it does need a freight plane, how will it get to one of the few hubs that accommodate those flights? What route will it take?
Then there’s figuring out how to pick up the piece, deliver it to the client’s home or office, retrieve it, and unpack it. Next comes figuring out storage — are we keeping the crate or throwing it away? If we’re keeping it, where is it getting stored? To make it even more complicated, I’ve recently thought a lot about how much art weighs, because a wall may need to be reinforced if a piece is too heavy.
By the time our team is finally ready to install a piece, I have to work with a bunch of different people: house managers, conservators, furniture movers, fine art shippers. I really enjoy getting glimpses into clients’ homes, and I can’t even begin to describe some of their art collections. But there’s a lot of responsibility that comes with being in these spaces, and a few rules I always follow.
If I have my iPad or another small item, I don’t put it down, because I never know whether something is a chair or a piece of art. I also make sure that nothing is hanging off my body, and I tell art handlers, for example, to remove things like tape measures from their belts.
I always take off my shoes or use shoe covers. Sometimes the client isn’t home, which can make the process a bit easier, but I always try to be in and out. I have to hire furniture movers for certain projects, like when we had to deal with a huge, beautiful stone table that was in the way.
There have been times when I’ve observed that a room is really warm and advised clients to check the temperature, because heat can damage certain art. Or maybe there’s a lot of light coming in, and it’s worth investing in window shades. I’ve also helped clients upgrade their bulbs to more energy-efficient ones that give off less heat, which helps preserve art over time.
Our clients have high expectations of us, as they should. I don’t know what it’s like to be their banker, and I’m sure it’s very stressful in a different way. But for us, being in our clients’ homes and offices — even with all the precautions — helps us build strong relationships.
