Roy Miles

Who was Roy Miles?

Roy Miles was a colourful London art dealer who was one of the first dealers to recognise the commercial potential of the art of the former Soviet block.

Born Roy Marsh in Liverpool, Roy took his step-father's name of Miles and moved to London at an early age to work for an antique dealer. He quickly changed to hairdressing and owned a salon in London's West End. In the late 1960s he began in business as an art dealer.

Miles specialised first in British Victorian art and later toured the former Soviet Union buying Socialist Realist art that he sold for a huge mark up. In the 1970s and 80s he was able to capitalise on the rising status of London as an art centre and his innate entrepreneurial skills and flare for self-publicity. Miles' parties at his various galleries became legendary social events and Miles was associated with names such as Rudolf Nureyev, Edward Heath, Lord Forte, Raine Spencer, Ossie Clark, the Duke of Devonshire and Jonathan Aitken.

Publicity material, correspondence, photographs, visitors' books and printed material from the Roy Miles Gallery c. 1973 to 1998 forms part of the collection of the Tate Gallery Archive.