Former Thames & Hudson director Werner Guttmann dies, aged 97

Former Thames & Hudson director Werner Guttman has passed away at the age of 97, the publisher has announced.

Guttman, who died on 21st February, began his publishing career in export sales at Hammond & Hammond. Guttman joined T&H in 1960 as a production executive before being appointed to its board as production director in 1969. 

Over the next 20 years he was an instrumental figure in the development of the company, the publisher said, broadening its roster of print suppliers in Europe and spearheading its first forays into Asian print buying. 

Neil Palfreyman, T&H’s chairman, said: “When I first joined Thames & Hudson as a junior production executive in 1989, Werner was in the process of handing over the production baton to Christopher Ferguson. 

“First impressions were of a rather grand and daunting figure, but I quickly realised what a warm, intelligent and giving colleague he was. He was such a formative figure in the history of T&H.”

In 1989, Guttmann embarked on a successful decade-long career in international rights, with his native Germany one of his key markets. He also built many valuable relationships throughout most of Europe, Russia and what were then the Soviet satellite countries, which were starting to have dealings with publishers from the West.