about

Serge Tiroche / Co-Founder

Mr. Tiroche was born in 1966 in Israel, to a family of art dealers. His late father, Jean Tiroche, was a recognized gallery owner and dealer in NY, Tel-Aviv and Paris. Tiroche's hands-on involvement in the art world began while working as an intern at Parisian auction house Loudmer in 1986. In 1992, he co-founded Tiroche Auction House in Israel and has since been closely involved with the family's international art trading activity.

In addition to his art background, Mr. Tiroche has substantial banking and investments expertise. He completed with distinction a Bachelor degree in Business Administration and Modern Arts from the American University of Paris in 1992, and an MBA from INSEAD in 1997. After graduating, he joined Citigroup’s Private Bank where he had a multi-faceted 10 year career as a private banker, managing investments for some of Israel's and Turkey’s wealthiest families. As business head, he was a board member of Citigroup Israel and was a member of Citigroup’s European Wealth Management Leadership Committee.

Prior to the financial crisis in 2008, he left his Managing Director position at Citi, in order to dedicate himself to his long-time passion for art. He immediately founded START, Israel's innovative art incubator project, and Serge Tiroche Consultants, a financial advisory services firm with particular focus on art investments. Prior to founding Art Vantage in 2011, Tiroche served as Chairman of board of Artist Pension Trust, a Mutual Art company, for two years. In 2015 Tiroche co-founded ArtRunners, a cloud-based marketplace enabling the easy and efficient acquisition of all art logistics services, globally. He is currently working on 2 new ventures, Art Vantage Global - a global contemporary art fund and Africa First - impact investments in contemporary art from the continent.

Mr. Tiroche is passionate about developing platforms, educating and creating investment vehicles that will enable the greater public to access art as an investment. He invested and advised the boards of numerous companies supporting that objective, including: Mutual Art Holdings, Artist Pension Trust, Mutual Art Services, Split-Art and ArtRunners to name a few. Over the years he served on numerous Boards of cultural institutions, including the Board of Governors of the Tel-Aviv Museum, the "Here & Now" committee of the Israel Museum and the Public Councils of the Batsheva Dance Company and Shenkar College in Israel, and as a Council member of the Serpentine Gallery in London. He is also a regular speaker at art investment seminars and conferences all over the world.

For more insight about Serge Tiroche, watch this short reportage.