Suleyman C. Cooke is a fine art curator, specialist, and appraiser with more than three decades of experience in Old Master and Modern Master prints and drawings, with particular expertise in the graphic work of Pablo Picasso. He is President of Fine Art Group, LLC, based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Mr. Cooke has spent over 30 years working intensively with works on paper, assisting collectors and institutions with their collections, developing a reputation for scholarly rigor, connoisseurship, and deep technical knowledge of printmaking processes. His expertise spans Old Master prints and drawings through the Modern Masters, with a focus on authenticity, provenance, and historical context. He has written extensively on printmaking and has authored and self-published scholarly essays and books on Picasso and the graphic arts.

He received his B.A. in English Literature with a minor in Art History from the University of San Francisco and pursued advanced studies at Oxford University’s Keble College, including postgraduate coursework in art and architecture through the Medieval Renaissance Program and studies emphasizing the Romantic poets. His postgraduate education also includes modern languages studies at Gobner House in Oxford, research at the Maeght Foundation in Vence, France, and three and a half years of volunteer work in the Achenbach Foundation’s Works on Paper Department at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Mr. Cooke has lectured internationally on artists including Picasso, Chagall, Miró, Rembrandt, and Matisse. His speaking engagements include guest lectures at the University of San Francisco, Oxford University’s Keble College Lecture Series, the Chagall Museum in Nice, and art appreciation programs for The Ritz-Carlton Company, LLC.

His field research has taken him extensively throughout France, where he conducted in-depth studies retracing Picasso’s life and graphic production, interviewing printers and leading scholars, including Brigitte Baer, and working with historic ateliers such as the Roger Lacourière Studio in Paris. His training also includes authentication methods for 15th–18th century Italian drawings under the guidance of experts affiliated with the Louvre Museum and Drouot.

Mr. Cooke has curated and organized significant international exhibitions and institutional projects, including the inaugural works-on-paper exhibition at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar; large-scale exhibitions of Modern Masters and Pop artists in mainland China; and specialized museum research and collection management projects in the United States and the Middle East. In 2002, he founded Salon D’Art, and in 2006 he introduced fine French and European Old Master drawings to the Western U.S. market, becoming the only gallery on the West Coast offering works of that caliber at the time.

In 2025, Mr. Cooke completed Core Course ISA/USPAP appraisal compliance and is a Member Candidate of the International Society of Appraisers, further formalizing his longstanding appraisal, advisory, and research practice.