Felicitas Kasper

Felicitas Kasper is an art historian and art-market specialist whose research examines the boom in private art museums. She is currently completing a PhD at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, where her thesis investigates the economic, socio-cultural and institutional roots of the private art museum boom in German-speaking regions since 1980 and its implications for museums and cultural policy. Her research is supported by a doctoral scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German Academic Scholarship Foundation).

Her broader research interests centre on how value is created, negotiated, and contested in the art market. She is particularly drawn to the interplay between the symbolic and commercial dimensions of art, and to how collecting, patronage, and institutions transform economic capital into cultural prestige, status, and legitimacy. These questions also inform her teaching as Lecturer at the University of St. Gallen, where she designed and teaches the course The Values of Art in the Contemporary Art Market, which examines how artworks acquire meaning and value across the global art system.

A Courtauld alumna, Felicitas holds an MA in History of Art, awarded with Distinction, and a Graduate Diploma, for which she received the Dean’s Prize, as well as a BA in Business Administration from the University of St. Gallen.

Alongside her academic work, Felicitas brings substantial first-hand experience of the commercial art world. While at Sotheby’s, she partnered with senior leadership across multiple departments on high-level valuations, single-owner sales, private sales, and strategic client initiatives, most notably leading the sale of the Estate of Karl Lagerfeld, the inaugural auction of the firm’s newly opened Cologne office.