Gagosian is a contemporary art gallery owned and directed by Larry Gagosian. The gallery exhibits some of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. There are 16 gallery spaces: five in New York City; three in London; two in Paris; one each in Basel, Beverly Hills, Rome, Athens, Geneva and Hong Kong.

Development

1980s

Larry Gagosian opened his first gallery in Los Angeles in 1980. In the 1980s, the Los Angeles gallery showed the work of young contemporary artists such as Eric Fischl,

Jean-Michel Basquiat Jean-Michel Basquiat (; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement. Basquiat first achieved fame as part of the graffiti duo SAMO, alongside Al ...

and

David Salle David Salle (born September 28, 1952; last name pronounced "Sally") is a Pictures Generation American painter, printmaker, photographer, and stage designer. Salle was born in Norman, Oklahoma, and lives and works in East Hampton, New York. He ear ...

, as the New York City space mounted exhibitions dedicated to the history of The New York School,

Abstract Expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

and Pop Art by showing the earlier work of

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...

Roy Lichtenstein Roy Fox Lichtenstein (; October 27, 1923 – September 29, 1997) was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. H ...

and

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter ...

. In 1985, the business expanded from Los Angeles to New York. In 1986, Gagosian opened a second space on West 23rd Street in Manhattan.

1990s

In 1989, a new and more spacious gallery opened in New York City at 980

Madison Avenue Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd St ...

with the inaugural exhibition: "The Maps of Jasper Johns." During its first two years, the Madison Avenue space, once used by

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

, presented work by

Yves Klein Yves Klein (; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein ...

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

Cy Twombly Edwin Parker "Cy" Twombly Jr. (; April 25, 1928July 5, 2011) was an American painter, sculptor and photographer. He belonged to the generation of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. Twombly is said to have influenced younger artists such as ...

and

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a ho ...

. Shortly after, artists such as

Walter de Maria Walter Joseph De MariaRoberta Smith (July 26, 2013)Walter De Maria, Artist on Grand Scale, Dies at 77 ''New York Times''. (October 1, 1935July 25, 2013) was an American artist, sculptor, illustrator and composer, who lived and worked in New Yor ...

Philip Taaffe Philip Taaffe (born 1955) is an American artist, who has shown his works all around the world. His work sometimes blended motifs from multiple cultures. Biography Taaffe was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth, New Jersey and studied at ...

Francesco Clemente Francesco Clemente (born 23 March 1952) is an Italian contemporary artist. He has lived at various times in Italy, India and New York City. Some of his work is influenced by the traditional art and culture of India. He has worked in various ar ...

, and

Peter Halley Peter Halley (born 1953) is an American artist and a central figure in the Neo-Conceptualist movement of the 1980s. Known for his Day-Glo geometric paintings, Halley is also a writer, the former publisher of '' index Magazine'', and a teacher; he ...

joined the gallery. Gagosian Gallery's second New York City location opened in the neighborhood of

SoHo Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develo ...

, then the heart of the New York art scene, in 1991. Shortly before, the gallery had wooed

and

from long-term relationships with the

Mary Boone Mary Boone (born c. 1951/1952) is an American art dealer and collector. Life Boone moved to New York City at the age of 19 from Erie, Pennsylvania to a working class family of Egyptian immigrants. She studied Art History at Rhode Island School o ...

Gallery. The new venue served to show large-scale works by artists such as

Richard Serra Richard Serra (born November 2, 1938) is an American artist known for his large-scale sculptures made for site-specific landscape, urban, and architectural settings. Serra's sculptures are notable for their material quality and exploration of ...

Mark di Suvero Marco Polo di Suvero (born September 18, 1933, in Shanghai, China), better known as Mark di Suvero, is an abstract expressionist sculptor and 2010 National Medal of Arts recipient. Biography Early life and education Marco Polo di Suvero was b ...

Barnett Newman Barnett Newman (January 29, 1905 – July 4, 1970) was an American artist. He has been critically regarded as one of the major figures of abstract expressionism, and one of the foremost color field painters. His paintings explore the sense of ...

, and

Chris Burden Christopher Lee Burden (April 11, 1946 – May 10, 2015) was an American artist working in Performance Art, performance, sculpture and installation art. Burden became known in the 1970s for his performance art works, including ''Shoot (Burden), Sh ...

. The downtown location showed younger artists such as

Ellen Gallagher Ellen Gallagher (born December 16, 1965) is an American artist. Her work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions and is held in the permanent collections of many major museums. Her media include painting, works on paper, film and ...

Jenny Saville Jennifer Anne Saville (born 7 May 1970) is a contemporary British painter and an original member of the Young British Artists.Royal Academy of ArtsJenny Saville RA , Artist , Royal Academy of Arts accessdate: 29 August 2014 Saville works and ...

Douglas Gordon Douglas Gordon (born 20 September 1966) is a Scottish artist. He won the Turner Prize in 1996, the Premio 2000 at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997 and the Hugo Boss Prize in 1998. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Work Much of Gordon's ...

and

Cecily Brown Cecily Brown (born 1969) is a British painter. Her style displays the influence of a variety of contemporary painters, from Willem de Kooning, Francis Bacon (artist), Francis BaconScott, Sue (2013). "Cecily Brown" in ''The Reckoning: Women Artis ...

. The uptown gallery maintained its commitment to historical exhibitions by showing monumental sculptures by Miró, Calder and

Moore Moore may refer to: People * Moore (surname) ** List of people with surname Moore * Moore Crosthwaite (1907–1989), a British diplomat and ambassador * Moore Disney (1765–1846), a senior officer in the British Army * Moore Powell (died c. 1 ...

. Andy Warhol was exhibited at both New York galleries, in collaboration with the

Andy Warhol Foundation Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

, including exhibitions of his Rorschach Paintings, Camouflage Paintings, Late Hand-Painted Paintings, Oxidation Paintings and the Diamond Dust Shadow Paintings. In 1996, The

Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United King ...

exhibition "No Sense of Absolute Corruption," was the first exhibition in America to show Hirst's animals in

formaldehyde Formaldehyde ( , ) ( systematic name methanal) is a naturally occurring organic compound with the formula and structure . The pure compound is a pungent, colourless gas that polymerises spontaneously into paraformaldehyde (refer to section ...

tanks, a controversial series of the artist's oeuvre. Gagosian opened a location in Beverly Hills designed by architect

Richard Meier Richard Meier (born October 12, 1934) is an American abstract artist and architect, whose geometric designs make prominent use of the color white. A winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1984, Meier has designed several iconic buildings ...

in 1995. The Beverly Hills gallery mounted exhibitions by

Edward Ruscha Edward Joseph Ruscha IV (, ''roo-SHAY''; born December 16, 1937) is an American artist associated with the pop art movement. He has worked in the media of painting, printmaking, drawing, photography and film. He is also noted for creating sever ...

Nan Goldin Nancy Goldin (born September 12, 1953) is an American photographer and activist. Her work often explores LGBT subcultures, moments of intimacy, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the opioid epidemic. Her most notable work is '' The Ballad of Sexual Depend ...

Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry, , FAIA (; ; born ) is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions. His works are considere ...

Jeff Koons Jeffrey Lynn Koons (; born January 21, 1955) is an American artist recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror-Surface fi ...

and

Richard Prince Richard Prince (born 1949) is an American painter and photographer. In the mid-1970s, Prince made drawings and painterly collages that he has since disowned. His image, ''Untitled (Cowboy)'', a rephotographing of a photograph by Sam Abell and ...

. It also showed modern artists such as

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is ...

, Roy Lichtenstein and

group exhibitions. To finance Koons's giant "Celebration" sculptures, a consortium of dealers, including Gagosian, spent years helping the artist line up buyers willing to prepay for them. The buyers paid $2 million to $8 million apiece to own one of the artist' car-sized sculptures of balloon dogs and candy-colored hearts.Kelly Crow (April 1, 2011)
The Gagosian Effect
''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

''. In 1999, Gagosian Gallery moved from SoHo to West 24th Street, in New York's industrial Chelsea.

Richard Gluckman Gluckman Tang Architects, (previously Gluckman Mayner Architects), is a New York City based architecture firm providing services in architecture, planning, and interior design. Established by Richard Gluckman in 1977, the firm is known for mini ...

designed the gallery in which Richard Serra presented the monumental sculpture, "Switch," in November 1999. The new space was fully completed in September. The large viewing space at West 24th Street allowed Gagosian artists, such as

and Damien Hirst, to exhibit large scale works with great flexibility.

2000s

In spring of 2000, Gagosian became an international gallery with the opening in London of a

Caruso St John Caruso St John is a London-based architectural firm established in 1990 by Adam Caruso and Peter St John. Practice Caruso St John gained international recognition for its designs of public spaces. The practice came to public attention with The ...

-designed space on Heddon Street, near

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Cou ...

, then the largest commercial art gallery in London.Charlotte Higgins (May 10, 2004)
King's Cross a Go-Go as top US art dealer unveils new gallery
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

''. The UK gallery inaugurated its exhibitions program with a performance by the Italian artist

Vanessa Beecroft Vanessa Beecroft (born April 25, 1969) is an Italian-born American contemporary performance artist; she also works with photography, video art, sculpture, and painting. Many of her works have made use of professional models, sometimes in large nu ...

, followed by an exhibition of works by Chris Burden. In September 2000, in New York, Gagosian held the Hirst show, ''Damien Hirst: Models, Methods, Approaches, Assumptions, Results and Findings''. A second London Gallery, also designed by Caruso St John, on Britannia Street, opened in May 2004 with a paintings and sculpture show by Cy Twombly. Comparable to the Chelsea exhibition space in size, this addition was then the largest commercial art gallery in London. It accommodated large sculpture, video pieces and installations such as

Martin Kippenberger Martin Kippenberger (25 February 1953 – 7 March 1997) was a German artist known for his extremely prolific output in a wide range of styles and media, superfiction as well as his provocative, jocular and hard-drinking public persona. Kippenb ...

's show, ''The Magical Misery Tour, Brazil''. The Heddon Street location closed in July 2005, and a new storefront space on Davies Street opened simultaneously with an exhibition of Pablo Picasso prints. To complement the West 24th Street gallery, a

designed space on West 21st Street opened in October 2006. A joint exhibition with the 24th Street gallery, ''Cast a Cold Eye: The Late Works of Andy Warhol'', launched Gagosian Gallery's second location in Chelsea and third location in New York. In 2009, the 21st Street gallery held an exhibition of Pablo Picasso's late works entitled ''Mosqueteros'', curated by Picasso historian John Richardson. The Madison Avenue location introduced a fifth-floor gallery space, set up to focus more on young and upcoming artists. Featuring works by Hayley Tompkins and

Anselm Reyle Anselm Reyle (born 1970) is an artist based in Berlin. He is known for his often large-scale abstract paintings and found-object sculptures. Biography Anselm Reyle was born in Tübingen, Germany in 1970. He studied at the Staatliche Akademie d ...

, Old Space New Space inaugurated the space in January 2007. The fifth-floor gallery has since showcased the works of

Steven Parrino Steven Parrino (1958–2005) was an American artist and musician associated with energetic punk nihilism. He is best known for creating big modernist monochrome paintings (his colors were limited to monochrome black (or black-and-white), orange, ...

Mark Grotjahn Mark Grotjahn (born 1968) is an American painter best known for abstract work and bold geometric paintings. Grotjahn lives and works in Los Angeles. Early life and education Grotjahn was born in Pasadena, but grew up in the Bay Area.Arcy Douglas ...

and

Isa Genzken Isa Genzken (born 27 November 1948) is a German artist who lives and works in Berlin. Her primary media are sculpture and installation, using a wide variety of materials, including concrete, plaster, wood and textile. She also works with photograp ...

Dan Colen Daniel Colen (born 1979) is an American artist based in New York. His work consists of painted sculptures appropriating low-cultural ephemera, graffiti-inspired paintings of text executed in paint, and installations. Early life and education Bor ...

and

Dash Snow Dashiell A. Snow (July 27, 1981 – July 13, 2009) was an American artist based in New York City.Roberta Smith"Dash Snow, New York Artist, Dies at 27" '' The New York Times'', July 14, 2009. Snow's photographs included scenes of sex, drugs, viol ...

, among others. From 2007 on, Gagosian Gallery has also shown at the art gallery of the Eden Rock St Barths,

Saint Barthélemy Saint Barthélemy (french: Saint-Barthélemy, ), officially the Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Barthélemy, is an overseas collectivity of France in the Caribbean. It is often abbreviated to St. Barth in French, and St. Barts in Englis ...

, including an exhibition of

(2007). Gagosian opened a gallery in Rome in 2007, exhibiting new works by Cy Twombly. The Italian space is a refurbished former bank on Via Francesco Crispi, built in 1921 and redesigned by Rome-based architect Firouz Galdo in collaboration with Caruso St John. The renovation transformed the classical space into a contemporary gallery while retaining its Roman character. The main banking hall of the building had a huge bay window, and the architects have remodelled the opposite, formerly perpendicular, wall to create an oval space, with plenty of daylight coming through the windows. In November 2008, Gagosian Gallery expanded its Madison Avenue gallery to the fourth floor, with an inaugural exhibition of works by

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

and

Alberto Giacometti Alberto Giacometti (, , ; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman and printmaker. Beginning in 1922, he lived and worked mainly in Paris but regularly visited his hometown Borgonovo to see his family an ...

in ''Isabel and Other Intimate Strangers'', in collaboration with the Giacometti Foundation and the Bacon Foundation. Between 2003 and 2008, artists who had previously been represented by other renowned galleries joined Gagosian, such as

from

Gavin Brown's Enterprise Gavin Brown's enterprise was an art gallery with venues in New York City and Rome owned by Gavin Brown between 1994 and 2020. In 2020, it merged with Gladstone Gallery. History Broome Street The gallery was established by Gavin Brown in 1994 on ...

;

John Currin John Currin (born 1962) is an American painter based in New York City. He is best known for satirical figurative paintings which deal with provocative sexual and social themes in a technically skillful manner. His work shows a wide range of in ...

from Andrea Rosen; Mike Kelley from

Metro Pictures Metro Pictures Corporation was a motion picture production company founded in early 1915 in Jacksonville, Florida. It was a forerunner of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The company produced its films in New York, Los Angeles, and sometimes at leased fac ...

; Tom Friedman from Feature;

Takashi Murakami is a Japanese contemporary artist. He works in fine arts media (such as painting and sculpture) as well as commercial (such as fashion, merchandise, and animation) and is known for blurring the line between high and low arts as well as co ae ...

from Marianne Boesky; and Richard Phillips from Friedrich Petzel. On the other hand, several artists left the stable for smaller galleries, including Tom Friedman,

, and

Ghada Amer Ghada Amer ( ar, غادة عامر, May 22 1963 in Cairo, Egypt) is a contemporary artist, much of her work deals with issues of gender and sexuality. Her most notable body of work involves highly layered embroidered paintings of women's bodies re ...

. The estate of

went to rival

Pace Gallery The Pace Gallery is an American contemporary and modern art, modern art gallery with 9 locations worldwide. It was founded in Boston by Arne Glimcher in 1960. His son, Marc Glimcher, is now president and CEO. Pace Gallery operates in New York, L ...

in 2010.

2010s

In 2010, Gagosian opened its Paris gallery on 350-square-meter (3,757 square feet) at 4, rue de Ponthieu, where it debuted with an exhibition of five new acrylic abstracts and five bronze sculptures by Cy Twombly. Priced between $4 million and $5 million each, all the paintings sold before the gallery officially opened. Located off Rue du Rhône in Geneva's business district, a 140-square-metre Art Deco space was opened as the gallery's Swiss outpost later that year. In early 2011, the gallery, which has had a representative in Hong Kong since 2008, opened a facility at the

Pedder Building The Pedder Building, located at No. 12 Pedder Street, in Central, Hong Kong, is a historic commercial building built in the Beaux-Arts style. Built in 1923

there. The outpost was inaugurated with an exhibition by

. That year, a survey of dealers in ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' estimated that Gagosian Gallery's annual sales approached $1 billion. In May 2011 alone, roughly half the works for sale by the major auction houses in New York (evening sales only) were by artists on the gallery's roster. In October 2012, Gagosian Gallery opened a new gallery outside of Paris in

Le Bourget Le Bourget () is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. The commune features Le Bourget Airport, which in turn hosts the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace (Air and Space Museum). A very ...

. Designed by architect Jean Nouvel, the space is the 12th Gagosian location worldwide. From 2016 until 2021, Gagosian Gallery operated a space on

Howard Street Howard Street may refer to: * Howard Street (Baltimore), a major street in Downtown Baltimore, Maryland **Howard Street Tunnel fire, a disaster that struck the freight railroad tunnel under Baltimore's Howard Street in 2001 *Howard Street (Sheffiel ...

in San Francisco. Over the course of four years, it hosted shows by Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha, Jonas Wood, and Jay DeFeo, among others, and partnered with the

Golden Gate National Recreation Area The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is a U.S. National Recreation Area protecting of ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of the park is land formerly used by the United ...

and the

Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy Founded in 1981, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy is a nonprofit cooperating association that supports park stewardship and conservation in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area—the most visited national park in the U.S. Recogn ...

to install two large-scale sculptures by Giuseppe Penone at

Fort Mason Fort Mason, in San Francisco, California originated as a coastal defense site during the American Civil War. The nucleus of the property was owned by John C. Frémont and disputes over compensation by the United States continued into 1968. In 18 ...

from 2020 until 2021. Gagosian has a global presence with 17 exhibition spaces in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Paris, Rome, Athens, Geneva, Hong Kong and Basel, designed by world-renowned architects including Caruso St John, Richard Gluckman, Richard Meier, Jean Nouvel, Selldorf Architects, and wHY Architecture.

Further expansion

As of 2008, buyers from Russia and other republics of the former Soviet Union account for almost 50 percent of total global sales at Gagosian Gallery. Strong relationships with Russian collectors and an expanding Russian art scene, encouraged Gagosian to host temporary exhibitions in Moscow. In 2007, ''Insight?'' featured works by Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Willem de Kooning and Pablo Picasso, in the Barvikha Luxury Village. In late 2011, following "Brazil: Reinvention of the Modern," a 2011 exhibition Gagosian Gallery held in its Paris outpost featuring the 1960s and '70s Neo-Concrete artists

Sérgio de Camargo Sérgio de Camargo (April 8, 1930 – 1990) was a sculptor and relief maker, born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Sergio De Camargo studied at the Academia Altamira in Buenos Aires under Emilio Pettoruti and Lucio Fontana. Camargo also studied phil ...

Lygia Clark Lygia Pimentel Lins (23 October 1920 – 25 April 1988), better known as Lygia Clark, was a Brazilian artist best known for her painting and installation work. She was often associated with the Brazilian Constructivist movements of the mid-20 ...

Amilcar de Castro The Amilcar was a French automobile manufactured from 1921 to 1940. History Foundation and location Amilcar was founded in July 1921 by Joseph Lamy and Emile Akar. The name "Amilcar" was an imperfect anagram of the partners' names. The ...

Hélio Oiticica Hélio Oiticica (; July 26, 1937 – March 22, 1980) was a Brazilian visual artist, sculptor, painter, performance artist, and theorist, best known for his participation in the Neo-Concrete Movement, for his innovative use of color, and for ...

Lygia Pape Lygia Pape (7 April 1927 – 3 May 2004) was a Brazilian visual artist, sculptor, engraver, and filmmaker, who was a key figure in the Concrete movement and a later co-founder of the Neo-Concrete Movement in Brazil during the 1950s and 1960 ...

, and

Mira Schendel Mira Schendel (June 7, 1919 – July 24, 1988) was a Brazilian contemporary artist of the 20th century. She made numerous drawings on rice paper, but was also active as a painter, a poet, and a sculptor. Her work drew upon the art of language an ...

, the gallery will stage a major sculpture exhibition in a warehouse in Rio de Janeiro as part of the ArtRio fair. Since its arrival in Hong Kong in 2011 of its 26 solo exhibitions only one has featured a woman artist.

Auction records

Gagosian Gallery aims to maintain the price level of its artists by actively playing a role at art auctions. When

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artémis, t ...

established an auction record for Henri Matisse by selling a bronze relief for $48.8 million in 2010, it was Gagosian that bought the work. Also, Gagosian Gallery purchased Ed Ruscha's ''Angry Because It's Plaster, Not Milk'' (1965) for $3.2 million at

Phillips de Pury Phillips, formerly known as Phillips the Auctioneers (briefly as Phillips de Pury), is a British auction house. It was founded in London in 1796, and has head offices in London and in New York City. It was owned by the Mercury Group, a Russian ...

in 2010, again establishing an auction record for that artist. Not long after joining Gagosian Gallery in 2003, the painter John Currin made his auction record of $847,500; his highest price before was a little over half that.

Legal issues

Tax evasion

In 2003, the Internal Revenue Service sued Larry Gagosian and three of his associates, accusing them of evading $26.5 million in taxes, interest and penalties on a 1990 sale of contemporary art. The IRS charged Gagosian and his partners deliberately shifted assets out of a company they created, Contemporary Art Holding Corp., to avoid paying taxes. In May 2016,

New York Attorney General The attorney general of New York is the chief legal officer of the U.S. state of New York and head of the Department of Law of the state government. The office has been in existence in some form since 1626, under the Dutch colonial government ...

Eric Schneiderman Eric Tradd Schneiderman (born December 31, 1954) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 65th Attorney General of New York from 2011 until his resignation in May 2018. Schneiderman, a member of the Democratic Party, spent ten years ...

announced a $210,000 tax settlement with Gagosian Gallery director Victoria Gelfand-Magalhaes, though the settlement involved 31 works—including pieces by

John Baldessari John Anthony Baldessari (June 17, 1931 – January 2, 2020) was an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lived and worked in Santa Monica and Venice, California. Initially a painter, ...

and

Cindy Sherman Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. Her breakthrough work is often co ...

—that she had bought between 2005 and 2013 through her company Artemis, not Gagosian. In July 2016, Gagosian Gallery agreed to a $4.28 million settlement on

back taxes Back taxes is a term for taxes that were not completely paid when due. Typically, these are taxes that are owed from a previous year. Causes for back taxes include failure to pay taxes by the deadline, failure to correctly report one's income, or ...

, interest and penalties after Schneiderman and the

New York State Department of Taxation and Finance The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance (NYSDTF) is the department of the New York state government responsible for taxation and revenue, including handling all tax forms and publications, and dispersing tax revenue to other agencie ...

found that the company and its affiliate Pre-War Art Inc. in Beverly Hills, California, had failed to pay New York State

sales tax A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a gove ...

on hundreds of art transactions from 2005 to 2015.

Copyright infringement

When French photographer Patrick Cariou launched a copyright lawsuit against Richard Prince in 2009, the suit also named as defendant Larry Gagosian, who had displayed the disputed series of painting in a show titled "Canal Zone".

Other issues

In 2009, a deal that Gagosian Gallery had struck to buy $3 million in gold bricks for the work ''One Ton, One Kilo'' by the artist

was frozen when it turned out that the bricks had been acquired from a Houston-based company owned by financier

Allen Stanford Robert Allen Stanford (born March 24, 1950) is an American financial fraudster, former financier, and sponsor of professional sports. He is serving a 110-year federal prison sentence, having been convicted in 2012 of fraud, on charges that his i ...

, who was later charged by the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

and sentenced to 110 years in prison for cheating investors out of more than $7 billion over 20 years in one of the largest

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comi ...

s in US history. In March 2011, British collector Robert Wylde sued the Gagosian Gallery for selling him

Mark Tansey Mark Tansey (born 1949) is an American painter. Life Tansey had an early introduction to art. These early childhood experiences had a profound effect on Tansey's painting style from the inception of his career as an artist. Many of Tansey's pa ...

painting, ''The Innocent Eye Test'' (1981), which, it turned out, had been promised to the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...

by its owner, Jan Cowles. The case was later settled for in January 2012. Shortly after, Gagosian Gallery was sued before the

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York State. Two of these are in New York City: New ...

by Cowles herself, who claimed that the gallery sold another painting, ''Girl in Mirror'' (1964) by

, from her collection in 2008–2009 without her consent. In 2018,

Steven Tananbaum Steven Andrew Tananbaum (born 1964 or 1965) is an American hedge fund manager, the founding partner and chief investment officer of GoldenTree Asset Management, which he founded in 2000. In 2018, ''Bloomberg'' referred to Tananbaum as "one of Wall ...

brought a case to the

New York Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...

against Gagosian Gallery and the studio of

over their alleged failure to deliver three works by the artist for which he had paid more than $13 million.Alex Greenberger (September 23, 2019)
Gagosian Continues Fight to Nix Billionaire Collector's Suit Over Delayed Sculptures From ‘Perfectionist' Jeff Koons
''

ARTnews ''ARTnews'' is an American visual-arts magazine, based in New York City. It covers art from ancient to contemporary times. ARTnews is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. It has a readership of 180,000 in 124 countr ...

''.

References

External links

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Larry Gagosian and Thomas Ammann to buy Hughes Warhols together
{{Authority control Art museums and galleries in Los Angeles Art museums and galleries in Manhattan Contemporary art galleries in the United States Contemporary art galleries in France Contemporary art galleries in London Contemporary art galleries in Italy Art galleries established in 1979 1979 establishments in California

Development

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

Further expansion

Auction records

Legal issues

Tax evasion

Copyright infringement

Other issues

See also

References

External links