Oh! the Stories Kristina O'Neill Can Tell As Head of Sotheby's Media & Magazine AOC Art of Living

Kristina O’Neill, former EIC of WSJ Magazine is now installed at Sotheby’s as Head of Sotheby’s Media and editor-in-chief of a revamped Sotheby’s Magazine.

What an exciting creative road lies ahead of her. AOC raises this topic because O’Neill seems perfectly primed to tap into the creative and business evolution going on at the world’s largest auction house. Visually, it’s one that expands the customer base and also acquires “heart” along the way.

O’Neill can catch the modernized Sotheby’s football and run with it. Her decade of work at WSJ Magazine reveals her status as a change agent. Only someone like AOC who can easily call up a decade of her work is aware that O’Neill was featuring Black talent long before the summer of 2020 and the death of George Floyd.

British-Ghanaian photographer Campbell Addy comes to mind. Outside of a small feature in British Vogue in 2018, Addy shot for WSJ Magazine before any of the other major magazines.

Just looking at the slice we took today from the Sotheby’s Instagram, I can imagine some raised eyebrows and the question: This is Sotheby’s?

The brand has an assortment of IGs for key auction categories:

@sothebysjewels
@sothebyswatches
@sothebysdesign
@sothebyssneakers
@sothebysstyle
@sothebyswine

and so many exciting stories to tell.

Knowing LVMH as we do, it’s clear that synergies between the two businesses extend beyond the business of luxury. There are multple initiatives that are part of Sotheby’s Impact: Empowering an Inclusive Art World. Scanning their descriptive text, it existed in perfect harmony with the new LVMH presentation of year-end financials. but also important initiatives under the umbrella of sustainability and also hiring women executives, for example.

Media is changing so dramatically, that Kristina O’Neill arrives in this Sotheby’s role at the perfect time. AOC considers all the stories her team can develop about the different categories at auction.

There’s some really wonderful content that comes out of the Smithsonian Museum, even if it’s not always as hip from a technlogy standpoint, as the features O’Neill will create.

Read more of our thoughts about Sotheby’s as a change agent and Kristina O’Neill assuming her place as conductor of a prestigious new content orchestra at top of page link.