Mari-Claudia Jiménez

Partner | Co-head of art law | Withers Art and Advisory | New York

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+1 212 848 9808
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Secretary Gina Cashia

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+1 212 894 8969

Mari-Claudia is a partner and global co-head of our art law practice and leads Withers Art and Advisory, advising on art law, art market advisory and the acquisition, financing, stewardship and disposition of fine art, luxury assets and significant collectibles. 

Advising the global art market

Throughout her career, she has been a trusted art market advisor, legal counsel, and advocate for renowned collectors, family offices, fiduciaries and estates, prominent museums, institutions, galleries and auction houses, and has been involved in major art acquisitions, consignments and litigation involving fine art, significant collectibles, luxury goods and other alternative tangible assets.

As a New York-based art law attorney, she advises on complex matters across the international art market.
 

Leadership experience in the international art market

Mari-Claudia previously served as Chairman, President, Americas and Head of Global Business Development of Sotheby's, where for close to a decade she led Sotheby's client and business development activities globally, using her extensive experience in the field as a principal dealmaker and driver of major estate and single-owner collections. Her work included structuring and driving complex sales involving not only fine art, but also culturally significant collectibles, luxury objects, memorabilia and other alternative tangible assets.

She played an integral role in numerous landmark sales, including the collection of philanthropist and art patron Emily Fisher Landau, the $922 million Macklowe Collection, the collection of music producer Mo Ostin, and celebrity collections such as those of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Sinatra, Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, the Nobel Prize-winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, and unique collectibles such as a first printing of the US Constitution and a 1714 'Golden Period' Stradivarius violin.
 

Major art transactions and landmark sales

In her legal career, Mari-Claudia has worked on numerous significant art transactions that have attracted international attention, including the sale to the Neue Galerie of Gustav Klimt’s Adele Block Bauer I, at the time the most expensive painting ever sold (she represented the buyer).

She also advised on the restitution and sale, both privately and at auction, of five masterpieces by Kazimir Malevich worth hundreds of millions of dollars (Jiménez represented the sellers), and on the sale of what was at the time the most expensive painting sold at auction, Picasso’s $106.5 million Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, which formed part of the approximately $300 million sale of the Estate of Frances Lasker Brody.

Mari-Claudia has also advised clients on high-value collections beyond traditional fine art, including jewelry, watches, classic automobiles, design objects, natural history specimens, dinosaur fossils, memorabilia and other rare and exotic collectibles. She counsels collectors, estates and family offices on ownership structures, valuation strategy, lending and collateralization, estate and succession planning, and the strategic disposition of these complex passion assets.
 

Art restitution and international claims 

Mari-Claudia has also played an important role in domestic and international art restitution and claims, with particularly noteworthy success in cases seeking the return of Nazi-looted art. She is the foremost legal expert on art misappropriated in Cuba, a subject she maintains a strong connection to through her Cuban-Spanish heritage.


Achievements

A thought leader at the intersection of art, collectibles and the law, Mari-Claudia is a frequent speaker on issues affecting the art market, luxury asset ownership, collectibles, fiduciary stewardship and the evolving market for alternative tangible assets. She has been featured in leading trade and international publications such as CNN, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Forbes, and The Financial Times. In 2019, she was featured in People Magazine en Español as one of the “25 Most Powerful Women of 2019” (25 Mujeres Más Poderosas del 2019).

She has also received professional recognition within the legal profession, including being named to Spear's Best Art Advisors 2025.

Gustav Klimt, Waldabhang bei Unterach am Attersee

Withers Art and Advisory

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Me in a minute


From the time I was an art history student at Williams College and spent every college summer interning in some of the world's best museums I knew that my passion was to work in the art world. I am fortunate enough to be able to say that I have spent my entire professional career working with art—both as an art lawyer, zealously advocating for my clients as they navigate the idiosyncrasies of the art market and as senior art world executive, helping to lead a major auction house through fluctuating markets and changing tastes and I rely on both of those perspectives and all the market experience that comes along with them when counselling and advising clients. 

Recent recognition

Legal 500 Leading Partner 2026 badge for Private Client services, featuring a teal and navy design with the Legal500 logo and the words ‘Leading Partner’ above ‘Private Client 2026’

Experience

Art Families and family offices
High net worth individuals Private client

Talks

External Publications

Admissions

  • New Jersey, 2004
  • New York, 2005

Education

  • Fordham University Law School, JD
  • Fordham University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, MA
  • Williams College, BA

Languages

  • English
  • Spanish

Memberships

  • Williams College Museum of Art Visiting Committee, Board Member

Withers History

  • Joined 2025

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