Tom Baring was born in 1979 and educated at Eton before studying History of Art at Bristol University. In 2001 he joined the Old Master Paintings department at Sotheby's where he worked as an expert until his departure in 2009 to start Baring Fine Art. 

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The Baring family have been collectors of Old Master Paintings for the last two centuries, forming one of the most important collections of Old Master Paintings assembled in the 19th century. The Dutch Old Master Paintings was one of the best such collections ever assembled, and was sold to King George IV and which now forms the core of the Dutch paintings in the Royal Collection. The Barings were also important early supporters of Sir Thomas Lawrence and close friends of Edward Lear, they have through the years been patrons to Benjamin West, John Singer Sargeant, Philip de Lazlo and Wyndham Lewis. 

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Baring Fine Art specialises in Italian, English and Dutch Old Master paintings, with an emphasis upon 16th, 17th and 18th century pictures. We are happy to advise on the formation, management and dispersals of collections, as well as to undertake attributional research. We have also built a unique digital archive, which at present represents a collection of over 125,000 images, which are organised in an innovative taxonomy system to aid with our research