View from the Podium: 

A cornerstone of the auction industry is respect: respect for the material we handle; respect for our clients; respect for our incredible staff. Respect for the market and the centuries-old traditions of the trade. In 2025, our team did an exceptional job maintaining this cornerstone.

As we turn our focus towards 2026, Swann is upholding this industry standard with continued focus on being custodians and stewards of the material we sell. We’re looking forward to a fresh year and are doing so with a sense of gusto I haven’t experienced in quite some time.

This season, you can expect six months of fresh auctions, exhibitions, catalogues, events and programs. Not only do we have our usual roster of smart, sexy, focused and thought-provoking auctions, but we also have a number of new auctions coming which we trust will engage the market as much as they pique our own interests.

Nearest and dearest to my heart is a superlative single-owner poster collection, the highlights of which will be appearing at auction in May. This collection, put together over decades, features some of the rarest and most sought-after posters, including some that haven’t appeared at auction in over 20 years.

Following the success of our summer LGBTQ+ auctions, we are opening up the market even further with an additional auction of the material and combining it with another new favorite of ours, Subculture. The resulting Art, Subculture & LGBTQ+ History auction this February promises enticing and refreshing materia,l including a small archive of early Danceteria ephemera and much more from the 1980s New York City music scene.

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of America and what better way to celebrate the Semiquincentennial (a word which I just can’t say enough) than with an entire Printed & Manuscript Americana auction.

We have also been entrusted with an impressive single-owner collection of Important Signed Photographs, from a California Family Collection, which will be hitting the auction block in May.

All of this in addition to our regular auctions of books, fine art, graphic design, maps, photographs, and more presages the most delectable year of history, art, style, design, color, philosophy, fun, treasures and value.

We cannot wait to share it all with you and can only hope that you get as excited about it as we are.

Happy New Year to you all. Thank you for your continued patronage, and stay tuned for what promises to be the most excellent of auction seasons.

Respectfully yours,

Nicholas D. Lowry
President