news.artnet.com Open in urlscan Pro
104.18.23.72  Public Scan

Form analysis
2 forms found in the DOM

POST https://www.artnet.com/api/subscriptions

<form class="newsletter-signup-form" action="https://www.artnet.com/api/subscriptions" method="POST">
  <div class="newsletter-form-content">
    <h2 class="widgettitle"> The best of Artnet News in your inbox. </h2>
    <div class="widgethint"> Sign up to our daily newsletter. </div>
    <input type="hidden" name="Source" class="source" value="artnetnews">
    <div class="form-group text">
      <input type="text" name="Email" class="signup-email form-control" placeholder="Enter your email">
      <div class="form-group buttons">
        <input type="submit" class="btn btn-primary btn-xs btn-block" value="Subscribe">
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="errors">
      <div class="invalid-email">Please enter a valid email address</div>
      <div class="signup-failed">Signup failed. Please try again later.</div>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="newsletter-signup-thank-you">
    <header>Thank you!</header>
    <main>You have successfully subscribed to Artnet News.</main>
  </div>
</form>

POST https://www.artnet.com/api/subscriptions

<form class="newsletter-signup-form" action="https://www.artnet.com/api/subscriptions" method="POST">
  <div class="newsletter-form-content">
    <h2 class="widgettitle"> The best of Artnet News in your inbox. </h2>
    <div class="widgethint"> Sign up to our daily newsletter. </div>
    <input type="hidden" name="Source" class="source" value="artnetnews">
    <div class="form-group text">
      <input type="text" name="Email" class="signup-email form-control" placeholder="Enter your email">
      <div class="form-group buttons">
        <input type="submit" class="btn btn-primary btn-xs btn-block" value="Subscribe">
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="errors">
      <div class="invalid-email">Please enter a valid email address</div>
      <div class="signup-failed">Signup failed. Please try again later.</div>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="newsletter-signup-thank-you">
    <header>Thank you!</header>
    <main>You have successfully subscribed to Artnet News.</main>
  </div>
</form>

Text Content

PRICE DATABASE

03 August 2024
Log In or Register 
Artists

Auctions
 * Artnet Auctions
 * Global Auction Houses

Galleries

Events

News

Price Database
 * Use the Artnet Price Database
 * Market Alerts
 * Artnet Analytics

Hidden


Buy
 * Browse Artists
 * Artnet Auctions
 * Browse Galleries
 * Global Auction Houses
 * Events & Exhibitions
 * Speak With a Specialist
 * Art Financing
 * How to Buy

Sell
 * Sell With Us
 * Become a Gallery Partner
 * Become an Auction Partner
 * Receive a Valuation
 * How to Sell

Search

Hidden





 * Join Artnet PRO
 * About

Sections
 * News
 * Art World
    * Art & Exhibitions
    * Artists
    * Archaeology & History
    * Art & Tech
    * Art Collectors
    * Law & Politics
    * Opinion
    * Pop Culture
    * People
    * Museums & Institutions
    * Collectibles
    * Marketplace
       * Artnet Auctions
       * Gallery Network
   
    * See All Art World

 * Market
    * Columns
       * The Art Detective
       * Wet Paint
       * The Hammer
       * Kenny Schachter
       * The Gray Market
   
    * Auctions
    * Galleries
    * Art Fairs
    * Special Reports
       * The Intelligence Report
       * The Innovators List
   
    * See All Market

 * Podcast
 * About

 * Join Artnet PRO
 * About


 * News
 * Art World
    * Art & Exhibitions
    * Artists
    * Archaeology & History
    * Art & Tech
    * Art Collectors
    * Law & Politics
    * Opinion
    * Pop Culture
    * People
    * Museums & Institutions
    * Collectibles
    * Marketplace
       * Artnet Auctions
       * Gallery Network
   
    * See All Art World

 * Market
    * Columns
       * The Art Detective
       * Wet Paint
       * The Hammer
       * Kenny Schachter
       * The Gray Market
   
    * Auctions
    * Galleries
    * Art Fairs
    * Special Reports
       * The Intelligence Report
       * The Innovators List
   
    * See All Market

 * Podcast
 * About







 * 
 * 

THE BACK ROOM


THE BACK ROOM: IT’S GOGO TIME

This week: Larry’s life and legacy, Zwirner on Zwirner, cultural infrastructure
accounting, and much more.


Larry Gagosian. (Photo by Andrew Toth/WireImage). Illustration by Artnet News.

Artnet News July 28, 2023 ShareShare This Article

Every Friday, Artnet News Pro members get exclusive access to the Back Room, our
lively recap funneling only the week’s must-know intel into a nimble read you’ll
actually enjoy.



This week in the Back Room: Larry’s life and legacy, Zwirner on Zwirner,
cultural infrastructure accounting, and much more—all in a 7-minute read (2,084
words).



_____________________________

Programming Note: Today’s edition of the newsletter will be the final one
overseen by Tim, who departs Artnet News next week for new endeavors. 



TOP OF THE MARKET

THE LION IN WINTER

Larry Gagosian, 2017. Photo: Harold Cunningham/Getty Images.

The talk of the art market this week has been the New Yorker’s mega-profile of
mega-dealer Larry Gagosian, almost inarguably the definitive account of the
78-year-old titan’s life, career, and perspective to date.



The first notable aspect of the profile is that it exists at all. The
notoriously press-averse Gagosian agreed to multiple sitdowns with
writer Patrick Radden Keefe, author of the acclaimed Sackler family takedown
tome Empire of Pain, as well as an incalculable amount of the New Yorker’s
famously rigorous fact checking to bring his story to life. The end result runs
almost 18,000 words. (The audio version clocks in at just under two hours.)



Keefe’s reporting doesn’t upend the prevailing wisdom about Gagosian. Instead,
it sharpens the consensus to a more exacting edge than ever. If you want to
understand what makes the man once dubbed “Gogo” so unrelenting and so singular,
the profile offers at least three answers…



1. Profits Beat Purity (But Not the Law).

One of the most telling takeaways comes when Gagosian admits that ethical
question marks about a client should never stand in the way of a good deal. “If
the money is correct, if the transaction is correct, I’m not going to be a moral
judge,’” he told Keefe.



The profile documents Gagosian’s relationships with an array of major collectors
with major baggage. The rogue’s gallery stretches from the U.S. to the far
corners of the world.



The stateside list includes Leon Black, the embattled financier and Jeffrey
Epstein associate; Steven A. Cohen, whose hedge fund paid a $1.8 billion fine
after pleading guilty to insider trading; and Sam Waksal, the pharmaceutical
giant who pleaded guilty to securities and bank fraud, obstruction of justice,
and perjury, to name a few.



Then there are the emirs and oligarchs. Keefe notes that Gagosian has been doing
“a lot of business” with the UAE despite its “appalling record on human rights.”
He also chronicles Gagosian’s decades of dealings with some of Russia’s richest
collectors, including Roman Abramovich and Mikhail Fridman.



But once Abramovich was sanctioned by the E.U. after Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine, a source told Keefe that Gagosian emailed his sales directors to make
clear that “You cannot jeopardize the gallery to sell to these people,” not even
through “their fake businesses in Liechtenstein.”



The distinction is fine but important: Gagosian has built his empire on
transactions made in ethical gray areas. But the law is still a red line—at
least, when buying or selling to someone who has crossed it risks bringing down
the palace.



2. Personal Impropriety Has Shadowed But Never Sullied Him.

Gagosian was dogged by rumors of all kinds during his rapid rise in the 1980s,
but perhaps the most persistent concerned his alleged habit of making lewd phone
calls to women.



Although Gagosian refutes the accusations, Andy Warhol wrote about the calls in
his diaries and even warned (or gossiped) about them to others, including
photographer Paige Powell. Keefe also spoke to a woman who recounted receiving
just such an obscene call after meeting Gagosian four decades ago—an account
corroborated by her husband and a close friend.



“When I told Gagosian about my conversation with the woman, without sharing her
identity,” Keefe writes, “he said, flatly, ‘Not true. Never happened. Never. I’m
not that kind of guy.’ In any case, the consensus among people who say that
Gagosian made harassing phone calls is that he stopped.”



Gagosian and his gallery have largely steered clear of personal misconduct
scandals in the roughly 30 years since, with one recent exception: the 2020
allegations that Sam Orlofsky, one of Gagosian’s top directors, had exhibited
sexually predatory behavior toward multiple women, including gallery staff.



An investigation led to Orlofsky’s firing and a companywide declaration from the
founder that there was no place for such behavior at Gagosian. Whether his
stance was more a result of personal evolution or recognition of changing social
mores (and legal standards), the episode contrasts sharply with the
controversy-courting Gagosian of the ‘80s.



3. Stopping for Any Reason Is Unthinkable.

One of the more vulnerable moments in Keefe’s profile details a 2020 exchange
between Gagosian and in-demand British artist Issy Wood, who he had been
courting for weeks in hopes of adding to the gallery’s roster. Keefe writes:



“Wood wanted to know about the gallery’s long-term future, so she asked, ‘What
will happen when you die?’

‘What the fuck is wrong with you?’ Gagosian exploded. ‘Talking about my death
when we’re trying to have a meeting!’ Wood now concedes that this wasn’t very
diplomatic. But she wanted an answer, and she was ‘pissed at him.’”



The moment shows the mega-dealer’s reticence to admit that his 19 galleries,
which rake in about $1 billion annually, will one day need to be managed by
someone else. He also downplayed the idea that his recently formed board of
advisors, featuring the likes of Sofia Coppola, J. Tomilson Hill, and Jenny
Saville, relates to succession planning “per se” (as did the actual board
members, in Keefe’s estimation).



Gagosian also told the writer that even retirement is impossible for him to
consider, saying, “I enjoy what I do… I don’t know what else to do.”



This gels with numerous assessments of his genius lying in a mix of extreme
ambition and extreme tunnel vision. The profile ultimately suggests that this
concoction may be both a gift and a curse for Gagosian, the man, and Gagosian,
the gallery.



___________________________________________________________

THE BOTTOM LINE

For now, Keefe’s profile of Gagosian may be the most comprehensive portrait we
have of the dealer who has most powerfully shaped the art trade in the post-Leo
Castelli era. (A forthcoming unauthorized biography by Michael Shnayerson will
challenge for that honor.) Still, it leaves some of the most tantalizing
questions surrounding him unanswered.



How will the already-sprawling gallery continue expanding at a pace that matches
its founder’s voracious appetite? What will happen to Gagosian’s business when
mortality finally does catch up to him? Will he in fact donate his expansive
personal collection to a public museum, as he has suggested, or will he follow
the private foundation route, like many of his wealthiest clients?



Keefe’s reporting implies that not even Gagosian himself may know the answers
yet (and may never). Even so, the past 40+ years have proven that his legacy as
a dealer, an innovator, and most of all, a hustler (in the most positive sense)
are already secure—and like it or not, the rest of us are all living in the art
market he built.



[READ MORE] 

_________________________________________________________

PAINT DRIPPINGS

This week’s Wet Paint was still being mixed at newsletter time, so here’s what
else made a mark around the industry since last Friday morning…



Art Fairs

 * Frieze Seoul announced programming details for its second edition (September
   6–9), including screenings of video works by 14 Korea-based artists and the
   inaugural edition of Frieze Music Seoul, featuring a performance by Korean
   rapper Colde. (Press release)
 * Expo Chicago named Amara Antilla and Rosario Güiraldes as curators for the
   2024 edition of its In/Situ section, which focuses on large-scale and
   site-specific works. (ARTnews)
 * Germany‘s government announced that it will subsidize Berlin galleries as
   much as €12,000 ($13,000) to participate in up to two art fairs per year
   domestically or abroad. (Artnet News)

Auction Houses

 * You already know that Gustav Klimt’s Dame mit Fächer (Lady With a Fan) was
   the most expensive lot auctioned in June, but we rounded up the 14
   runners-up, too, including works by Fu Baoshi, Cy Twombly, and Lucian Freud.
   (Artnet News Pro) 
   
   
 * Christie’s opened a two-part, 150-work exhibition of modern and contemporary
   art from the Arab world at its London headquarters as part of a bid to amp up
   global demand for the genre ahead of a forthcoming live sale this fall.
   (Artnet News)
 * Total sales across three major South Korean auction houses reached only ₩61.3
   billion ($47.9 million) during the first half of 2023, a decline of 47
   percent by value compared to the equivalent period in 2022, per new research
   from the Korea Art Authentication and Appraisal Research Center. [Korea
   Herald]

Galleries

 * In roster news, Pace now represents British abstract painter Pam Evelyn (who
   also works with Massimo de Carlo); Jack Shainman added Jessie Krimes, the
   formerly incarcerated artist and cofounder of the Center for Art and
   Advocacy; Hales added British painter Laetitia Yhap; and Sargent’s
   Daughters added Bogotá-born, L.A.-based Yaron Michael Hakim. (Press
   releases).
   
   
 * In real estate news, David Zwirner took the $50 million budget earmarked for
   a Renzo Piano-designed, 50,000-square-foot gallery on West 21st street in
   Chelsea and redirected it to two projects: a forthcoming Annabelle
   Selldorf-designed, 18,000-square-foot gallery on West 19th Street, and a
   36,000-square-foot office space on West 20th Street that opened last month;
   and Schoelkopf Gallery, a specialist in American art from 1875 to now, will
   relocate from the Upper East Side to a new location at 390 Broadway
   in Tribeca this fall. (New York Times, Press release) 
   
   
 * Gagosian has launched an advisory service to build collections of rare books,
   with a focus on 20th and 21st century art tomes. The enterprise is run by the
   gallery’s rare books specialist, Douglas Flamm, who has been in the role for
   seven years.  (Artnet News)

Institutions

 * South Korea’s finance ministry greenlit plans to build a ₩118.6 billion
   ($93.5 million) art museum in the heart of Seoul to house the 23,000-piece
   collection of the late Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee. (Yonhap) 
   
   
 * The Broad hired former Kickstarter exec Elyse Mallouk as its first ever chief
   strategy officer for audience and community and named Eva Seta, who most
   recently ran comms for L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art, as its next
   director of marketing and communications. (Flaunt)

 * Amada Cruz, former CEO and director of the Seattle Art Museum, will be
   the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s next CEO and director. Cruz will take over
   for the retiring Larry J. Feinberg, who has held the same dual role for the
   past 15 years. (The Seattle Times)

Tech and Legal News

 * Joe Lewis, the billionaire British art collector and currency trader, was
   charged with 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy in
   New York this week stemming from what U.S. Attorney Damian Williams labeled a
   “brazen insider trading scheme.”  (Artnet News)
 * Former MoMA chair Leon Black reached a $62.5 million settlement with the U.S.
   Virgin Islands over claims related to his extensive ties to convicted child
   predator Jeffrey Epstein, but on Tuesday, the Senate Finance
   Committee announced that an ongoing investigation into Black’s taxes, estate
   planning, and other financial dealings with Epstein had already turned up
   “serious tax issues and other concerns with trusts and structures”—while a
   new lawsuit accused Black of raping and sexually assaulting a mentally
   disabled minor in 2002. (Artnet News, Washington Post)
 * The judge presiding over the court case against Lisa Schiff partly restricted
   what Schiff can sell or access in terms of both her personal assets and the
   proceeds from sales of the artworks under scrutiny. (Artnet News)

_______________________________________________________

> “There must be 10 good artists, but he represents 30 or 40.”
> 
> —Ninety-year-old art-dealing veteran Rudolf Zwirner, father of David Zwirner,
> on the roster at his son’s mega-gallery. (FAZ)

____________________________________________________________

DATA DIP

THE CULTURE SECTOR’S REBAR REBOUND

Courtesy of AEA Consulting.

Global investment in cultural projects further rebounded from pandemic lows last
year, according to the latest Cultural Infrastructure Index. While the pipeline
for such projects was more robust than ever, the number finished dipped modestly
from 2021, which saw a glut of completions due to pandemic backlogs.



AEA Consulting crunched the numbers for its seventh annual report. Here are
three key takeaways…

 * A whopping 225 new cultural infrastructure projects were announced in
   2022—the highest number recorded since AEA began tracking the sector in 2016,
   and an almost 30 percent increase from 2021’s total of 174 projects. 
   
   
 * Museums and galleries still lead the pack, with 110 new projects planned and
   97 completed in 2022.
   
   
 * The value of all cultural infrastructure projects also increased by 13
   percent year-over-year, from $6.5 billion in 2021 to $7.3 billion in 2022.

But, but, but… AEA notes that “while the volume of projects has increased, the
value of investment remains consistent with 2016, representing a reduction in
real terms.” In other words, when you adjust for inflation, the numbers leave
something to be desired—for those of us invested (emotionally if not literally)
in cultural venues, at least.



—Guelda Voien


Follow Artnet News on Facebook:





Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the
breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive
the conversation forward.


Share This ArticleShare This Article
Article topics
Artnet Pro

ARTNET NEWS

 * 
 * 
 * 


 * THE BEST OF ARTNET NEWS IN YOUR INBOX.
   
   Sign up to our daily newsletter.
   
   Please enter a valid email address
   Signup failed. Please try again later.
   Thank you!
   You have successfully subscribed to Artnet News.

 * 


 * RELATED ARTICLES
   
    * THE GRAY MARKET
      
      
      WHAT HAVE I LEARNED ABOUT THE ART MARKET SINCE JANUARY 2018? A LOOK BACK
      AND A FAREWELL
      
      By Tim Schneider, Aug 2, 2023
   
    * ART WORLD
      
      
      ART INDUSTRY NEWS: DAVID ZWIRNER CHANGES TACK ON PLANS FOR $50 MILLION
      CHELSEA GALLERY + OTHER STORIES
      
      By Artnet News, Jul 27, 2023
   
    * ART WORLD
      
      
      ART INDUSTRY NEWS: IS THERE ANYONE ON LARRY GAGOSIAN’S BLACKLIST? THE
      MEGA-DEALER ON HIS MORAL LINE + OTHER STORIES
      
      By Artnet News, Jul 26, 2023


 * THE BEST OF ARTNET NEWS IN YOUR INBOX.
   
   Sign up to our daily newsletter.
   
   Please enter a valid email address
   Signup failed. Please try again later.
   Thank you!
   You have successfully subscribed to Artnet News.


MORE TRENDING STORIES

Law & Politics


Controversy Erupts Over Paris Olympics Take on Leonardo’s ‘Last Supper’

Artists


Overlooked Modernists Take Center Stage at the Venice Biennale. Here Are 5 You
Should Know

Art World


Art Bites: Art Used to Be an Olympic Sport

Art History


What to Know About the Greek Discobolus, a Hallmark of the Ancient Olympics

Law & Politics


CONTROVERSY ERUPTS OVER PARIS OLYMPICS TAKE ON LEONARDO’S ‘LAST SUPPER’


Artists


OVERLOOKED MODERNISTS TAKE CENTER STAGE AT THE VENICE BIENNALE. HERE ARE 5 YOU
SHOULD KNOW


Art World


ART BITES: ART USED TO BE AN OLYMPIC SPORT


Art History


WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE GREEK DISCOBOLUS, A HALLMARK OF THE ANCIENT OLYMPICS


Previous Article

MUSEUMS & INSTITUTIONS


BRITISH MUSEUM DIRECTOR HARTWIG FISCHER WILL STEP DOWN, LEAVING THE UNRESOLVED
PARTHENON MARBLES DEBATE TO HIS SUCCESSOR

By Adam Schrader, Jul 28, 2023

Next Article

BOOKS


5 MOVING LIFE LESSONS A FORMER MUSEUM GUARD LEARNED FROM HIS TIME AT THE
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

By Eileen Kinsella, Jul 28, 2023

Load More
 * Artnet
 * Artnet Auctions

 * Advertise
 * Press Releases
 * Terms
 * Privacy
 * Cookies
 * About

 * artnet Magazine Archive:
 * English (US)
 * Deutsch
 * Francais

 * Facebook
 * Instagram
 * Twitter
 * Pinterest
 * LinkedIn
 * Weibo

©2024 Artnet Worldwide Corporation. All Rights Reserved.


✓
Danke für das Teilen!
AddToAny
Mehr…