His funeral service will take place at 12pm on Thursday 16 February at St John’s Wood Church, Lord’s Roundabout, London NW8 7NE. A reception will follow at Danubius Hotel Regents Park.
Flowers from family members only please, but donations can be made to St John's Hospice, 60 Grove End Rd, London NW8 9NH.
David Moss’ introduction to the art and antiques trade began after he left Exeter University when he started working for a dealer in the West Country.
After moving to London and joining the editorial team at Art and Antiques Weekly, he later spent more than 25 years writing for Antiques Trade Gazette, founding the ‘Dealers’ Dossier’ column (later renamed Dealers’ Diary) and becoming the first point of contact for dealers and fair organisers.
With the trade and its characters remaining a lifelong passion, he remained a well known and informed figure on the fairs circuit right up to his final few weeks.
Since his untimely death at the age of 71, ATG has been sent many tributes from people who knew him and we would like to send our thanks to everyone for contacting us.
A selection of tributes can be found below and a full obituary appears in this week’s ATG’s print issue.
Tributes to David Moss (1945-2017)
David has been in our lives for what seems like forever. He was supportive in every way. We enjoyed many lunches and dinners together and he was a great friend. The art world will miss him so much and our love and sympathy goes out to his wife Isabel who he met at our Asian art fair in New York.
Brian and Anna Haughton
I shall always remember David with enormous pleasure for his sense of fun, his invariably courteous attitude and his decidedly non-pushy behaviour.
David was without doubt one’s ideal of what journalists should be: always courteous, always knowledgeable, never pushy or unpleasant. You instinctively knew that your view was going to be fairly reflected by David.
I shall always remember those sessions when David interviewed me during my years as Chairman of TEFAF Maastricht (2007-2014) as entirely pleasurable and fun.
If you bumped into David anywhere around the world, be it at the Paris Biennale, in New York or in London, it was always a pleasure to see him and to hear his well-informed viewpoint.
The art world is definitely a poorer place without David.
On behalf of TEFAF I wish to express our gratitude to this remarkable man and I for one shall definitely miss him.
Ben Janssens
I am deeply saddened by the news that David has passed away. He was a big personality at the ATG and became a good friend with whom it was always a pleasure to have lunch and to see at various fairs. His is the perfect example of a life well lived.
Deep condolences to all who worked with David and knew him well.
Ingrid Nilson
David was a great character and supporter of the trade and his days at the ATG were where he excelled.
His editorial pieces were always informative and amusing and, as you got to know him, the articles did take on a distinctive ‘Moss’ style.
Evident from David’s presence at every fair and exhibition known to man was his passion. A party was never the same without David who was always supportive and enthusiastic of the cause. If you were lucky he might well have made mention of your exhibition.
David always described me as a ‘larger than life character’ however, I believe this accolade, belongs to him.
We will all miss ‘Our Man from the ATG’ and of course send all our sympathies to his wife.
Patrick Sandberg
It is with great regret that I see David Moss leaving us all behind. His presence in the market, at the fairs and in our galleries was always a treasured delight. He came with a laugh, a story, an ‘eye’, a brain, and, most important, a unique spirit and elegance.
I’ve known David Moss since the 1990s and all along these last 20 or so years he has never failed to enlighten me with his journalism and character.
I will miss him greatly.
Anthony JP Meyer
It is with great sadness that I hear of the death of my old friend and work colleague.
I worked with him as auction correspondent/gallery reviewer during his time at Art and Antiques Weekly.
My departure for other forms of journalism and David’s appointment to the Daily Mail did not mean we lost contact. He decanted to Antiques Trade Gazette, I went into the art and antiques business with my own operation.
The art world always seems to be fluid, and plenty of fluids were consumed at what seemed to be endless ‘business’ events we attended.
David had a mischievous louche sense of humour and was always considered an important ingredient of any successful gathering.
In a world that increasingly subscribes to conformity – I am pleased to say that my late friend was never a subscriber.
John A Hope-Falkner
I must have known David for some 45 years as a colleague and a good friend. He was a fine journalist and rarely, if ever, made a mistake. He had an enquiring mind, always a good attribute in a journalist, and would always find something of interest to say about an exhibition or fair beyond the press release.
A key to his success was a genuine love for the trade and he became everyone’s friend. I am sure an enormous number of people will be saddened by his death.
He usually came to the art fairs I was involved with and I remember his absolute joy at buying a Terry Frost drawing from Irving Grose one year.
Gay Hutson
I was shocked and deeply saddened to hear of David’s death. He has been a constant throughout my working life from taking me through my paces as a green (and very young press officer) at Christie’s to running a business, with much mentoring along the way. Every encounter was memorable – and often accessorised with a large glass of wine nearby!
Freya Simms
Back in the early 1970s, Art and Antiques Weekly revolutionised the approach to antiques dealing. It was weekly and in colour, seeking to bring buyers closer to the trade rather than so many other publications aimed at museum directors and the top 1% of collectors.
When David Moss’s he needed a colour illustration for the magazine, we would deliver a transparency or photograph to him in his offices under the arches in Charing Cross
Once he had approved the picture it was not unusual to transfer the business discourse to a nearby wine cellar. His love of life and conviviality would shine like a beacon as others, finding his office door locked, found their way to the cellar to join the impromptu party.
David Harvey
The iconic David Moss seems always to have been part of my working life. I first met David, during my first job with the arts PR Company Cawdell Douglas. At that time, we did PR work for the Olympia antiques fairs.
In more recent years I have been working in the antiques trade, again David would be there wherever we exhibited: TEFAF Maastricht, Olympia, Grosvenor House, Asian Art London or Masterpiece. There cannot have been many international fairs David did not cover.
Always friendly and interested in the latest trade news, he was a fixture and feature in the antiques world. He had a large group of fans, which one year during an Asian Art London party we dubbed the Mossy Posse. I am greatly saddened by the news of David’s passing, the end of an era of art trade journalism and the loss of a charming personality for our world.
Nynke van der Ven–van Wyngaarden
The Chelsea Arts Club in 1985 was the most appropriate place to meet David Moss for the first time. He immediately came across as highly engaging, instantly opinionated and hugely amusing.
We 'bonded' at the bar that evening, not over antiques or journalism, but a mutual admiration for the Kinks.
David became a close friend but professionally he never made life easy for those of us charged with eliciting favourable comment on the Moss page. He constantly challenged every PR story he was given and rarely believed a word he was told.
Over the 30 years I knew him, David was always great company, full of fascinating anecdotes and insight but with time to listen to others. Hours spent at the bar with David were never wasted. I shall miss him enormously.
Duncan Phillips
David was a curious and was an open minded man. He was very supportive and ran a story on a poetry competition I held at the Olympia Art Fair some years back.
He was charismatic and had lots of good stories some of which he shared with me over a drink on a ride to TEFAF in a rickety old train.
I will miss bumping into him at fairs
Alden Bennett
It was with great regret that I read of the death of David Moss.
I first met David in the early 1970’s when he was Editor of Art and Antiques Weekly and I was selling the advertising on The Daily Mail’s antiques page. I soon joined him on AAW and have very happy, if somewhat hazy, memories of many gallery openings and the daily lunchtime visit to the Mermaid Theatre Bar with David, dressed in his then-trademark velvet jacket and Paisley silk scarf.
We then went on together to found the Art & Antiques Monitor.
He was extremely knowledgeable, a good writer and editor and a very nice person. Such characters are rare and will be much missed.
Andrew Crisp
