Who

Kim Heirston is a contemporary art advisor who helps the very wealthy spend their hard-earned (or not-so-hard-earned) money on very expensive artwork. She's also a fixture at fashionable art events around town.

Backstory

Kim Heirston was raised in Huntington by her single mother, an employee at Grumman Aerospace. After graduating from Yale, where she flirted with the idea of becoming an actress, Heirston worked at prominent New York galleries like PaceWildenstein and Robert Miller before becoming the director of Stux Gallery in 1989. Although several collectors wanted to back her to open a gallery, she decided instead to begin an advisory business in the early 1990s—and procured her first clients Cindy Shermans and Damien Hirsts at prices that would make current collectors dizzy with jealousy. These days, she counsels collectors on what to buy and how much to pay, and does the bidding for clients who don't have the time to attend auctions, or don't want to be seen in public buying up expensive art. They also turn to Heirston for the clout she has with the city's most prominent gallerists: At a time when competition for hot art is fierce, well-connected advisors are often the only people who pry open doors with the most exclusive of dealers.

Of note

The striking, six-foot Heirston, who is omnipresent at important art world events, works with many Wall Street big shots, entrepreneurs, and celebrities. Her clients include Tom Clancy, Kate Spade, Salman Rushdie, the Miller sisters, and Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece. One of Heirston's recent tips has been to diversify: Given the overheated modern art market, she thinks it makes financial sense to buy, say, a reasonably priced Turner as well as an expensive Currin. Heirston's art knowledge has been put to use on TV, too. Michael Patrick King brought her in to consult on the Sex & the City episode where Charlotte poses nude for a famous artist.

In print

Besides her appearances on the style pages of the Times, in Vogue, and in ARTnews, Heirston is also included in the book Having It All? Black Women and Success. She's working on another book detailing her insights and knowledge of the contemporary art world.

Personal

Once engaged to movie producer Staffan Ahrenberg, she's now married to Richard Evans, an Australian real estate investor (they met at a gala at Denise Rich's Hamptons house and were married twelve weeks later). Heirston and Evans live in an Upper East Side apartment designed by Lisa Jackson and Catherine Aaron that's been featured in the New York Times and Elle Decor.