Madeline
Heller

Madeline Heller is an art historian, writer, and independent curator based in New York, with experience in curatorial research and collections. She holds an MA from The Courtauld Institute of Art and has worked at Christie’s, London, where she developed her understanding of how art acquires value, moves through institutions, and enters the historical record. She is currently an associate for a private estate sales and liquidation company and is developing Flesch, an independent gallery program and arts publication based in New York. She also offers works of art for acquisition and welcomes inquiries from collectors looking for something specific.

Art Historian, Writer & Independent Curator

Learn More About Madeline Here! Acquisitions
Portrait of Madeline Heller wearing large wire-framed glasses and a mustard-yellow textured sleeveless top, against a pale grey wall in warm light.

Portfolio

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Toasty Gold Inc. retro logo: a smiling slice of toast in sunglasses and a gold chain giving a peace sign, over swirling 1970s-style stripes and flowers, above the words Estate Sales, Liquidations, Antiques, Collectibles, Vintage Finds.
Social Media Work for Toasty Gold Inc.
Diagnosing the Institution: the virtual exhibition poster.
Virtual Exhibition Portfolio
Dissertation: a performance still from Yingmei Duan’s Patience.
Dissertation
Migrations dossier and portfolio cover card.
Critical Debates Portfolio on Migration
The Inheritance of Post-Maoism: a Zhang Xiaogang Bloodline family portrait.
Research Paper: The Inheritance of Post-Maoism
Hallockville Museum Farm internship: two cows at a fence in a green pasture under a rainbow.
Hallockville Internship
Venice Biennale, In Minor Keys: the exhibition banner on a brick wall seen through ivy leaves.
Venice Biennale 2026: In Minor Keys

About.

A visitor seen from behind viewing a framed 19th-century painting of a seated jester dressed in red, hung on a deep green gallery wall.

Latest Project(s)

Madeline Heller works at the intersection of art history, curatorial practice, and the art market. She holds an MA from The Courtauld Institute of Art, where her research focused on how value, institutional power, and cultural authority shape what gets preserved, exhibited, and remembered. She went on to work at Christie’s in London, gaining direct experience of how the secondary market operates its merchandise, its relationships, and the judgments it makes.

She is developing Flesch, an independent gallery program representing emerging artists, and In the Flesch, a magazine of art criticism and market analysis. Her work across these platforms reflects a consistent interest in the gap between how art is talked about and how it actually circulates.

She currently works with Toasty Gold Inc., supporting estate sales and liquidations across Brooklyn, Long Island, Upstate New York, and New Jersey. Photographing and cataloguing objects for online auction, managing buyer logistics, and shaping the company’s digital presence. The work offers a granular, on-the-ground counterpoint to her institutional and auction house experience, tracking how objects move once they leave a collection altogether.

She is available for curatorial projects, advisory work, critical writing, and gallery sales. She is based in New York.

Inquiries

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