Martin will be running a team of 10 and is planning to hire a valuer/cataloguer to join the north London branch.
She previously worked at Stacey's Auctioneers and Valuers in Essex and has been a freelance specialist, TV presenter and author for the past 17 years.
She said: “Having worked for a provincial auction house it seemed a natural progression to move to a larger London saleroom. Criterion are a successful auctioneers and have the foundations on which to build an exceptional saleroom.”
She joins as auction and marketing manager and plans to raise its profile and move the focus to higher value, smaller objects.
Criterion, which closed its Wandsworth saleroom in December, opened a valuation office at 239 High Street Kensington last month in the hope of winning work following the planned closure of Christie’s South Kensington.
The firm now plans to hold weekly auctions at its Islington saleroom, currently being refurbished, and monthly country house sales at Jaggards House in Corsham, near Bath.
