Bonhams Gets New Owner and Executive Team

By Rob Bates | October 22, 2025

London-based auction house Bonhams has been purchased by Pemberton Asset Management, which has installed a new management team.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Bonhams had been owned since 2018 by another private equity firm, Epiris Fund II. In 2023, Bloomberg reported that Epiris was looking to sell the auction house.

All the just-appointed Bonhams executives seem to lack auction or traditional luxury experience. New CEO Seth Johnson previously headed IGPL, the family office of U.K. billionaire Michael Spencer.

Johnson takes over from Chabi Nouri, a former CEO of Piaget, who became Bonhams’ global CEO in mid-2024.

Liese Thomas, formerly CFO of McLaren Automotive, has been named Bonhams’ chief financial officer, while Jennifer Babington, who ran operations for Envision Racing Formula E Team, is the new chief operations officer.

In addition, ArtNews reported that Céline Assimon, the former head of De Beers’ retail chain, has left, after less than six months as Bonhams’ chief commercial officer. Bonhams didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.

Current chief financial and operations officer Alex Lejeune will remain with Bonhams until the end of the year to “support the transition,” according to ArtNews.

Bonhams chairman Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard said in a statement that the 232-year-old auctioner’s “new senior leadership team [has] a proven track record of success in serving high-value customers in marketplaces and steering through periods of change.”

In the seven years Bonhams was owned by Epiris Fund II, it acquired a number of rivals, including Boston-based Skinner; Denmark’s Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers; Bukowskis, a leading auction house serving the Nordic market; and Cornette de Saint Cyr in Paris.

Top: Bonhams’ London headquarters (photo courtesy of Bonhams)