Judith Benhamou

Judith Benhamou is an independent journalist, author and major cultural voice who has documented the international art world for more than three decades. A weekly columnist for Les Echos, she is also an independent curator and the author of several books, and regularly publishes articles related to art and the art market on her own blog Judith Benhamou Reports. . She explores the people, ideas and forces shaping contemporary culture through reporting, interviews and on-the-ground coverage. Known for her editorial independence and exceptional access, she offers a distinctive perspective on the artists, institutions and cultural leaders influencing today’s global art scene.

Career Writing In the early 1990s, Benhamou began her career as a weekly columnist for the French daily Les Échos Benhamou collaborated with Interview Magazine, Vogue Paris, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Art & Auction, Artinfo, ArtPress, Beaux-Arts and Connaissance des Arts. In the early 2000s she began her weekly column for the French Magazine Le Point. She is now also involved in Les Echos TV and BFM TV where she presents, on a weekly basis, her views on current art exhibitions of the French and international art scene.

Alongside to her journalistic achievements, Benhamou wrote several books. Among them are Art Business (2001) and Art Business (2) (2007), published in English with the title The Worth of Art and The Worth of Art (2). In these publications, Benhamou analyzes the principles of valuation in the contemporary art market. Thus far, the two volumes have been translated from French to English, Mandarin Chinese and Russian.

In 2008, Benhamou authored Global Collectors, written in both French and English and published by Phébus in which she profiled 120 international art collectors.

In 2012, Benhamou wrote Les Artistes ont Toujours Aimé L'Argent. D'Albrecht Durer à Damien Hirst, a study of notable artists throughout history and their – sometimes unexpected - relationship to money. The book was published by Grasset in France and by World Publishing Beijing in China.

In 2014, Benhamou authored a biographical account of the life of the artist, Robert Mapplethorpe, published in France by Grasset. Titled Dans la vie noire et blanche de Robert Mapplethorpe, the book was followed closely by Mapplethorpe, Vivant – Réponse à des Questions in which Benhamou presented a series of exclusive interviews of relatives, friends, curators and former boyfriends of Mapplethorpe, each relating singular details of the artist’s life and art. The book was published by Presses du Réel. Both works emanate from researches Benhamou did on the occasion of her curating and co-curating two shows on Mapplethorpe at the Musée Rodin and at the Grand Palais in Paris.

Curatorial Practice As an independent curator, Benhamou curated an exhibition titled Warhol TV (2009) in which she explored Andy Warhol's connection to television and for which she also wrote the exhibition catalogue. Warhol TV toured in Paris at La Maison Rouge, the Berardo Museum in Lisbon, and in several other institutions in Brazil including Oi Futuro Flamengo in Rio de Janeiro, Oi Futoro in São Paulo.

In 2014, Benhamou co-curated the exhibition "Mapplethorpe-Rodin" Assouline 2001 The Worth of Art: Pricing the Priceless Assouline 2006 Femme Cuillière Cinq Sens 2008 Art Business (2) Assouline 2008 The Worth of Art (2) Assouline 2008 Global Collectors Phoebus / Senses 2009 21st-Century Embroidery in India: In Their Hands Prestel Publishing 2010 Les œuvres d'Art les plus chères du monde Éditions du Chêne 2012 Les artistes ont toujours aimé l'argent Grasset 2014 Mapplethorpe, vivant - réponse à des questions Les Presses du réel 2014 Dans la vie noire et blanche de Robert Mapplethorpe Grasset 2015 Les artistes ont toujours aimé l'argent World Publishing Beijing 2017 Aleijadinho – Le Brésil est un sculpteur métisse (in French) Les Presses du réel 2018 Ai Weiwei Fan-Tan Manuella 2022 Serra/Seurat. Drawings Guggenheim Bilbao 2023 Histoires extraordinaires de l'art à l'hôtel Drouot - De Vermeer à Louise Bourgeois (in French) Flammarion