JAVIER TOURNÉ

Javier Tourné, Partner and Founder of Tourné, is a seasoned gallerist, curator, art advisor, and collector with roughly 20 years of experience in the art and design industries. 

Javier has collaborated with museums and arts institutions across the United States and Europe to facilitate acquisitions and has curated dozens of exhibitions at museums, art fairs, and public spaces in the United States and Europe. In 2020, he partnered with the Leiber Collection in Springs, New York to launch the “Centennial Legacy” exhibition in remembrance of artist Gerson Leiber and his wife Judith Leiber, the famed handbag designer. The exhibition was featured on the Nasdaq billboard in Times Square. More recently, Javier curated a solo exhibition at the Museum of Art and Science in Milan, Italy for Madalena Negrone. He also produced a multimedia project using video imagery of Negrone’s painting against a track composed by award-winning songwriter Alberto Bof. The project was exhibited in New York inside the Oculus at the World Trade Center.  

In 2000, Javier moved from Bogotá, Colombia to New York, where he worked in architecture and design on projects for clients including Citigroup, Lufthansa, Lehman Brothers, and the Smithsonian Institution. He later managed design showrooms and galleries before launching Tourné in 2008.

CHRISTINA TOURNÉ

Christina Tourné is Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Tourné. Since 2009, she has supported the growth and international expansion of the gallery, led its philanthropic activities, and spearheaded with Javier the vision and acquisition of artworks for the Tourné Collection. 

In 2024, Christina joined Tourné fulltime following a nearly two-decade career in financial innovation. Working with governments, investors, United Nations agencies, foundations, and nonprofit organizations across six continents, she has catalyzed billions of dollars in investment for international development initiatives and raised tens of millions of dollars for charitable causes. She has served on and chaired several boards of directors of foundations and nonprofit organizations.

Christina studied Art History at the Sorbonne and International Studies at Sciences Po in Paris, France before obtaining her degrees in Political Science and International Affairs from the George Washington University. She holds a certificate in Business and Financial Modeling from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and completed a fellowship, sponsored by the British Council, at the University of Cambridge Churchill College. Christina’s research and analysis has been widely published, including in Foreign Affairs, The Asia Times, World Politics Review, and various books and policy papers. She has been a featured speaker at academic conferences, investor forums, and government convenings and has lectured at a number of colleges and universities, including Georgia Institute of Technology’s Scheller College of Business, Bard College, University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, and the United States Military Academy at West Point. 

CLAUDIA MERCHÁN

Claudia Merchan is a communications specialist from Bogotá, Colombia. She has worked with a number of Colombian artists supporting the cataloging of their artwork as well as their social media and digital marketing campaigns.

Claudia studied communications at the INPAHU University Foundation in Bogotá and previously worked as a journalist. She has been with Tourné since 2021.

KRISTEN DAVIDSON-SCHWARTZ

Kristen Davidson-Schwartz joined Tourné in 2024. She is a Sotheby’s Institute of Art MA student passionate about international artist discovery, indigenous arts, and Americana antiques. Her thesis will focus on 19th century American globemaking, pulling from her work with George Glazer Gallery in New York.

Prior to Tourné, Kristen worked for a year at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, the only museum outside Australia dedicated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. Kristen is a published author in the Kluge Ruhe’s Madayin exhibit catalog, Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting, touring nationally 2022-2024.

Kristen holds a BA in History, Economics, & Art History from the University of Virginia.