Need a signed Andy Warhol painting for the boardroom, or an ancient manuscript relating to Bermuda history for a personal collection? For many years, art and antiques dealer Nick Lusher was the go-to man in Bermuda.Three years ago, however, he became part of a growing wave of professionals leaving the Island for better prospects. He now lives in New York from where he runs two businesses Nicholas Lusher Antiques in Bermuda, and Lusher Gallery LLC in Manhattan.“Unfortunately, the contemporary art market was drying up in Bermuda,” he said. “Bermuda art charities were cornering the market, gobbling up desirable Bermuda-related art. Moving to New York was natural for me because it is close by, and my wife, Jamie, is American. I have also done a lot of business in New York over the years and I know a lot of the dealers. It is also a wonderful metropolis of culture.”When Mr Lusher spoke to Lifestyle he was preparing for the start of Armory Arts Week, the industry equivalent of New York’s Fashion Week. He anticipated being flat out busy as the city filled with art enthusiasts.“It is an intense period of work for me,” he said. “I will be trying to put buyers and selling together. There are a lot of art openings, art shows and fairs. There is more to do than one individual could possibly cover.”His love of art started at age nine when a teacher sparked an interest in art history.“My first major sale was when I was a teenager. I bought in a beautiful Edward James watercolour from a dealer on Duke Street in London. This was in St James, the heart of London’s art dealing district. The name of the dealer was Niall Hobhouse. I brought it to Bermuda and sold it to the Chappell family of Coral Beach. I think people were surprised I was doing this, particularly a lot of my contemporaries. I was making quite a lot of money and I paid my way through college, while most of the other students were completely broke.”He returned to Bermuda in 1985 after finishing university and worked for Bristol Cellars, while at the same time trading art and antiques.Mr Lusher has no physical show room and does not carry much stock. Instead, he is usually hired to look for things for clients, or he finds something interesting and then looks for a client that might like it.“I am a broker on the individual level and at the museum and corporate level,” he said. “If a corporation came to me and said ‘We need X’, I would help them find it. For example, if they wanted several examples of Andy Warhol’s work, I could find that; if they wanted original signed prints I could find that.”About half of the works he sells are Bermuda-related. In the last two years, he has sold work by three artists that stand out: E Ambrose Webster, Georgia O’Keefe and Norman Lewis.“Lewis is kind of a relatively new discovery for Bermuda,” said Mr Lusher. “I won’t say I discovered his connection to Bermuda, but he is an important African-American abstract expressionist.”In his business maintaining personal connections and staying on the pulse of events is very important.“I have to network at a lot of art openings,” he said. “You have to educate yourself, and sharpen your eye. There is such a frenetic rate of activity up here. It is very different from the much slower pace of the market in Bermuda. I haven’t done any work selling to American museums, but I have helped enrich the collections of Bermuda museums. I would most like to find another Bermuda Winslow Homer or Andrew Wyeth.”Many wealthy individuals invest in art as a hedge against inflation and gravitate to the best quality works, he explained.“I drift between the high-end market, the middle market and the low-end market,” he said.He does miss the sunshine in Bermuda sometimes, but when he is in Bermuda he misses the hustle and bustle of the city. Regular commutes allow the best of both worlds.He has recently become quite interested in old manuscripts, especially those related to Bermuda.“I currently have a Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick 17th Century manuscript that I am selling to a client,” he said. “It is probably the nicest manuscript I have handled. It is a very expensive and wonderful piece of Bermudian patrimony. It is a letter written from Robert Rich in Bermuda to his son, Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester. I found it up here in New York. I am heavily into manuscripts these days.”