Valuing Knowledge: In Conversation with Sotheby's

Valuing Knowledge: In conversation with Sotheby's Gabriel Heaton

Join us at the intersection of culture and commerce as we delve into the world of priceless artefacts with Gabriel Heaton, a director at Sotheby's, most recently involved in auctioning the lyrics of Freddie Mercury and the discovery of the spectacular Melford Hall Manuscript of John Donne's poetry. This exclusive event will take place on Wednesday, March 13, 2024 at 18:00 in the Safra Lecture Theatre in the Strand building of King's College London, with a drinks reception to follow.

Come armed with questions as Gabriel shares his insights and experiences. How does one assign a financial value to a rare book? What is involved in the process of identifying, assessing, and preparing a book for sale? And how does the auction floor operate? This conversation, moderated by Daniel Starza Smith of the King's English Department, promises to touch on a wide range of topics, including the creation and preservation of knowledge, the significance of rare books, and the value of the written word in today's digitised world. Students will also have the opportunity to ask questions about careers in the world of rare books. Connect with fellow scholars and archivists, exchange ideas, and gain a fresh perspective on the place of knowledge in our lives.

Don't miss this incredible opportunity to engage with one of the world's foremost specialists of rare books and manuscripts.

Dr Gabriel Heaton has been a specialist at Sotheby’s since 2005, and has a particular interest in English literary and historical manuscripts. He has been responsible for many auction highlights including Freddie Mercury’s lyrics, major literary manuscripts by Jane Austen and Samuel Beckett, Sylvia Plath’s letters to Ted Hughes, historical documents by Queen Elizabeth I and Mahatma Gandhi, the rules of the world’s oldest football club, and more unusual items such as an Elizabethan book of spells, Friedrich von Hayek’s Nobel Medal, and the copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover that was used in the novel’s obscenity trial. He was the specialist in charge of such auctions as the Coronation Sale (2023), Sex Pistols sale (2022), John Lennon sale (2014), and the series of sales History in Manuscript (2020-2022) and The Beatles (2019-2021). He has overseen the private sale of numerous archives and individual manuscript treasures, and was the key specialist responsible for the sale of the Honresfield Library to the Friends of the National Libraries for £15m in 2021.