WRITING & CURATION
For his bestselling book The New Antiquarians: At Home with Young Collectors, Michael drew on over a decade of antiques advocacy to spotlight a rising generation of collectors whose spirited interiors are resetting the conversation around historic art and design.
ANTIQUES EVANGELISM
On the Middlebrow podcast with comedians Dan Rosen and Brian Park, Michael makes a spirited case for antiques, connoisseurship, and the importance of cultural history—leaving one of the hosts unexpectedly converted.
TRANSHISTORICAL TASTEMAKING
For Christie’s In the Frame series, Michael discussed his latest projects, preoccupations, and picks from the treasure-filled collection of Irene Roosevelt Aitken, which went on to fetch a record-setting $28 million—with 172% hammer and premium against low estimate.
Photo by Fujio Emura
EDITORIAL & CREATIVE DIRECTION
For a guest-edited "Collector's Edition" of The Magazine ANTIQUES, the century-old publication at the heart of the collecting field, Michael assembled curators, dealers, designers, photographers, preservationists, technologists, veteran connoisseurs, and new voices to imagine the future of antiques and ANTIQUES.
MATERIAL CULTURE
For Frieze London and Frieze Masters 2025, Michael highlighted an ancient pottery fragment, a snuffbox decorated with sea creatures, and a contemporary sculpture to cleverly house them.
Photos by Sophie Davidson
LEADERSHIP & COMMUNITY
For the Design Leadership Network’s twentieth-anniversary summit in Madrid, Michael orchestrated a multi-day, city-wide experience that combined thought leadership, cultural immersion, and explorations of Spanish architecture, art, design, and fashion with the distinctive sense of community that defines DLN gatherings.
Under Michael’s leadership, the Design Leadership Network has mounted summits in Rome, Mexico City, and Edinburgh, alongside the cultural, editorial, and educational programming he guides throughout the year. Together, these efforts expand collective knowledge, spark collaboration, advance best practices, and bring designers and makers into conversation on craft, heritage, emerging ideas, and the rapidly evolving future of the design field.
For The Madrid Summit, Michael and DLN editorial director Hadley Keller Lloyd produced a special edition of the Design Leadership Network’s quarterly magazine—part summit guide, part city guide for those wishing to delve deeper into the Spanish capital.