Heritage Auctions Celebrates Fourth Straight Record-Setting Year With Six Additional Partners

Heritage Auctions, the world’s leading collectibles auction house, will end 2024 with its fourth straight year of record-setting sales. The news heading into the new year is no less celebratory, as Heritage will begin 2025 with six new partners among its executive leadership, including top experts in the Numismatics, Currency, Entertainment, Popular Culture, Historical and Comic Art categories, among many others.

The new partners are, in alphabetical order: Executive Vice President Todd Hignite (Comic and Illustration Art), Vice President Dustin Johnston (Currency), Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena (Entertainment, Historical and Popular Culture), Senior Vice President Sarah Miller (Numismatics), Executive Vice President Sam Spiegel (World and Ancient Coins) and Senior Vice President Jim Stoutjesdyk (Numismatics).

These six new partners join Heritage’s long-time managing partners Co-Chairman and CEO Steve Ivy, Co-Chairman Jim Halperin, President Greg Rohan, COO Paul Minshull, Executive Vice Presidents Cristiano Bierrenbach, Marc Emory and Todd Imhof and Director of Numismatics Ryan Carroll.

“My co-founder, Jim Halperin, and Heritage Auctions’ other senior partners couldn’t be more pleased to introduce our new partners,” Ivy says. “This move and others like it will ensure Heritage Auctions’ success well into the future.”

Biographies for Heritage’s new partners follow.

Todd Hignite is one of the world’s top Comic Art experts, overseeing numerous record-setting results and playing a key leadership role in the dramatic expansion of that market over the last 15 years, which has seen Heritage established as the dominant international auction house in the field. With his extensive experience as a writer and curator in both the museum and gallery worlds, and significant expertise and experience in both Contemporary and 20^th Century American art, Hignite has been instrumental in increasing cultural awareness of comics as an art form, notably in organizing the most significant retrospective devoted to Robert Crumb in the United States. He has also led the growth of Heritage’s Illustration Art department, and as part of Heritage’s executive team, he has mentored staff in multiple categories and has been integral to the company’s continued expansion into broader art markets.

Dustin Johnston joined Heritage 26 years ago. Working in numismatics fulfilled a childhood dream, and by the age of 14, he was buying and selling coins at national coin shows. Johnston joined Heritage as a U.S. Coin specialist, buying and selling material for the wholesale division and then working with consignors. After six years, he moved into Currency to help guide that department through exponential growth. He oversees the U.S. and World Currency categories, each the largest and most trusted in the industry. Johnston’s involvement in numismatics and oversight of a significant market share in auctions landed him on Coin World’s list of Top 100 Most Influential People in Numismatics.

Joe Maddalena, a 40-year veteran of the auction industry and a trailblazer in Hollywood memorabilia and collectibles, achieved a historic milestone this year on December 7, when Heritage sold Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers from The Wizard of Oz for $32.5 million during the most successful Hollywood and Entertainment auction ever held. Previously, in 2011, Maddalena was responsible for the Debbie Reynolds Auction, which held the record as the highest-grossing Hollywood auction until this month’s $38.6 million event. Maddalena, who joined Heritage Auctions in 2020, and his team are responsible for the top five Entertainment auctions ever held, with four of them – including the Game of Thrones, Planet Hollywood, and Greg Jein events – conducted in 2023 and ’24. Now heading Heritage’s newly created Pop Culture division, Maddalena leads more than 20 categories, including Entertainment, Hollywood and Music, Movie Posters, Historical, Video Games, Animation Art, TCG Cards, Toys, Non-Sports Trading Cards and Vintage Guitars. His unparalleled expertise, vision and stewardship have firmly established Heritage Auctions as the premier destination for pop culture and entertainment collectibles.

Sarah Miller is based in New York and has been with Heritage Auctions for 11 years. Her fascination with rare coins began in childhood, and years of experience collecting, buying, and selling rare coins have made her widely known in numismatic circles. While Miller’s expertise is in numismatics, her enthusiasm for all forms of collecting allows her to advise collectors in areas beyond her specialty. She works closely with partners Todd Imhof and Greg Rohan to assist many of Heritage’s top global clients as part of its Legacy Client program.

Sam Spiegel began as an ancient coin specialist in the World and Ancient Coin department in 2013, joining Heritage after he graduated from the University of Chicago. His role quickly expanded to include working with the category’s top clients, improving the department’s IT infrastructure and expanding Heritage’s global footprint. Under Spiegel’s stewardship, Heritage’s World and Ancient Coins category has become the worldwide market leader, with technological features that provide more and better information than any other auction firm in the space. As a result, the category has realized more than $100 million for each of the past four years – a feat unsurpassed by any other world and ancient coin firm anywhere in the world. In addition to continuing to oversee the World and Ancient Coin department, he works closely with all of Heritage’s international offices in Hong Kong, London, Tokyo and Europe, as well as the company’s IT department, to help keep Heritage on the cutting edge.

Jim Stoutjesdyk, Senior Vice President of Numismatics at Heritage, has been a pivotal team member since 1993. Stoutjesdyk was active as a young numismatist and was honored as the American Numismatic Association’s (ANA) Outstanding Young Numismatist of the Year in 1987. Following this early accolade, he furthered his expertise by graduating from the University of Michigan. Stoutjesdyk is responsible for buying and selling millions of dollars in rare coins each month, pricing all of the new coins for sale and expertly managing the daily operations of the rare coin department at Heritage. In 2019, he received the prestigious Doctor of Numismatics honorary degree from the ANA.