The American Collector

Since joining Christie’s in 2018, Julia Jones has been instrumental in the successful sale of works of important American furniture and paintings, Outsider art and Decorative arts. Julia has worked on landmark sales such as the Collection of Anne and Gordon Getty, La Rêverie: The Collection of Sydell Miller and the Collection of Henry Ford II. She oversaw the white glove sale of High Style in Highland Park: The Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Edwin L. Cox. Julia graduated with B.A.’s in Art History and Anthropology from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and went on to receive her Master’s degree in History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.

Peter joined Christies in 2016 after twenty years working with manuscript Americana, spending the first portion of his career cataloging for, and later managing, a Connecticut auction house specializing in historical autographs. In 2005 he left that firm to pursue opportunities as a consultant, agent and dealer. Although his primary interests center on early America, especially the American Revolution and Early Republic, Peter has appraised, cataloged and sold a wide range of material from the 17th to the 20th centuries.

Since joining Christie's, Peter has worked with many important collections including the papers of the Marquis de Chastellux, The Private Collection of President and Mrs. Reagan, The Findlay-Wright Papers, the Roger Judd Collection of American Historical Autographs, the Louisiana Purchase Collection of A. J. Tullock, The Collection of Lee Bouvier Radziwill, The Private Collection of William S. Reese, The Birth of Wikipedia, The Papers of Richard N. Goodwin, and most recently, DJ Kool Herc and the Birth of Hip Hop and The Collection of André Leon Talley. Some of Peter’s more prominent auction records include the sale of the Albert Einstein God Letter, bringing $2.89 million—a world record for an Einstein letter at auction; the unique Ionic Original disc of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” (£1.48m); and most recently the Arizona Spike: one of four presentation spikes presented at the ceremony marking the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 ($2.22m). Peter holds a B.A. in History from Antioch College, and a M.A. in History from the University of Delaware with a certificate in museum studies. He has curated several exhibits including a major exhibition at Federal Hall in New York celebrating the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln in 2009.

Cara Zimmerman is a Vice President, Head of Americana and Outsider Art. Since joining the company in 2014, Cara has developed and expanded Christie’s Outsider Art sales, creating stand-alone auctions for the category and achieving world auction records for important Outsider artists including William Edmondson, William Hawkins, Bill Traylor, and Carlo Zinelli, among many others. She has also been instrumental in highly successful Folk Art sales, which have achieved top prices for works by artists including Edward Hicks, Ammi Phillips, Wilhelm Schimmel, and Samuel Addison and Ruth Whittier Shute.

Before joining Christie’s, Cara worked for the Philadelphia Museum of Art and served as Executive Director for the Foundation for Self-Taught Artists in Philadelphia. She has edited and written for catalogues published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Ackland Art Museum at UNC Chapel Hill, San Jose State University, and the University of Delaware University Museums. Cara received her AB from Harvard University and her MA from the University of Delaware. She is a PhD Candidate at the University of Delaware.