Stephen Loakes

Stephen graduated with a first-class degree in 'Fine Art Valuation' at Southampton in 1997. He has over 25 years' experience in the Chinese Art field starting his career with Phillips, then Bonhams and for the past 17 years in the Chinese Department at Sotheby's Bond Street, latterly as a Director.

One of his career highlights was spotting, in a rather poor image, a rare Imperial jade seal of the Qianlong period which went on to sell for over £3m.