Freya Yuan-Richards

Freya was born in Shanghai but educated in the United Kingdom at Harrogate Ladies College. After graduating in business management she went on to complete a Masters degree in Chinese Art History at Christie’s Education. Art is in Freya’s blood as she is following in the footsteps of her father who is an art scholar in China.

Since Freya started with Woolley & Wallis she has been involved in some of the most high-profile auctions including the Fernandes Collection in 2012 which grossed over £2 million. Freya is fluent in English, Mandarin and Shanghainese, and she plays an instrumental role in the development of Woolley & Wallis’s position in the Chinese art market through social media websites including Weibo and WeChat.

Freya has a real passion for Chinese paintings and in 2018 she created Woolley & Wallis’s first specialist Chinese paintings and calligraphy department. With only her second sale she smashed the house record for paintings when Yang Fei Yun’s seminal work the ‘Northern Girl’ from the Anita Roddick Foundation fetched £1.9 million. More recently, a wonderful and rare Zhang Daqian painting broke the record again fetching £2.7 million.

Freya was appointed as an Associate Director at Woolley & Wallis in 2021.