Cheyenne Westphal (born September 1967) is a German-born, London-based art dealer and art advisor. She was Global Chairwoman at auctioneers Phillips from March 2017 to June 2025 .[1][2][3][4][5][6]She was worldwide head of contemporary art at Sotheby's until April 2016, having joined the firm in 1990.[7][8]
Westphal joined Phillips in 2017 as Global Chairwoman, overseeing major sales and the company’s strategic expansion in the contemporary art market, leading to record years in 2021 and 2022.[9][10][11] In 2019, she was named by Forbes as "the most powerful woman in contemporary art." [12] During her tenure at Phillips, notable works sold included Peter Doig’s Rosedale ($28.8 million), which at the time set a record for the artist; [13]Pablo Picasso’s La Dormeuse ($57.8 million);[14]Mark Bradford’s Helter Skelter I ($10.4 million), which set the highest auction price at the time for a living African-American artist;[15] and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled ($85 million).[16] In May 2025, Phillips announced that Westphal would step down from her role after eight years with the auction house.[5][6]
Before joining Phillips, Westphal served as Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s.[17] She led sales that resulted in world records for Gerhard Richter (Abstraktes Bild, $46.3 million), Sigmar Polke (Jungle, $27.1 million), Piero Manzoni (Achrome, $20.2 million), and Alberto Burri (Saccho e Rosso, $13.2 million), among many others. Westphal presided over every Sotheby’s contemporary sale in Europe since 1999,[18] including the most successful contemporary art auction in Europe in July 2015, which achieved a record-breaking $204.7 million.[19]
Westphal brought a number of single-owner collections to market, including the Damien Hirst sale, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, which raised $200.7 million in 2008.[20][21]This was followed by the $140 million Helga and Walther Lauffs Collection of Post-War European and American Art[20] and The Lenz Schoenberg Collection in 2010, yielding £23 million and setting nineteen auction records, many for art from the ZERO movement. She negotiated the sale of Count Duerckheim's Post-War German Art in 2011, which raised a record $92.2 million and set records for German artists.[22]
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