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Kenny Schachter's column reports on the fallout at Michael Werner Gallery following the departure of star artist Peter Doig. Co-owner Gordon VeneKlasen is accused of expensing luxury items—including private jets, Hamptons helicopter rides, and even a solo helicopter trip for his Labrador Retriever—while the gallery faced financial strain. The partnership is dissolving, with VeneKlasen moving to Los Angeles to open his own gallery and listing his West Village home for $20 million. Meanwhile, Schachter also notes Pace Gallery's financial troubles, with founder Arne Glimcher stepping in to stabilize operations.

fall art season new york galleries open

Mathieu Borysevicz, founder of Shanghai's Bank gallery, launched a six-month pop-up on New York's Lower East Side earlier this year, aiming to introduce his program to new audiences amid growing Asian art interest in the city. By mid-summer, however, Borysevicz observed a sharp market downturn as collectors withdrew, reflecting a broader trend of gallery closures, lawsuits, and fair cancellations that have marked a turbulent period for the art world.

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Hauser & Wirth has sold its Upper East Side townhouse at 32 East 69th Street for $10.5 million to a developer, ending a decades-long presence in the neighborhood. The property, purchased in the 1990s as a family residence, was renovated by architect Annabelle Selldorf and later used as gallery space from 2009, hosting exhibitions by artists like Pope.L, Anna Maria Maiolino, Luchita Hurtado, and Arshile Gorky. Gallery co-founder Iwan Wirth cited a shift in the family's center of gravity to Chelsea and the business's expansion downtown with new locations on West 18th Street and Wooster Street in SoHo.

how artverse helps galleries and advisors navigate todays art world

ArtVerse Advisory, a London-based B2B firm, has launched a suite of services designed to help galleries and art advisors overcome capital constraints and inventory limitations. Founded by CEO Amit Mehra, the company provides professional intermediaries with access to a curated selection of primary and secondary market works—ranging from blue-chip artists like Andy Warhol to rising stars like Raghav Babbar—through flexible deal structures such as consignments and personalized payment plans.

art dealer provocative solution poaching problem

Art dealer Wendi Norris of San Francisco has introduced buyout clauses in contracts with her artists, borrowing a strategy from professional sports. If an artist leaves for a mega-gallery like Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Pace, or David Zwirner, Norris receives financial compensation—such as the right to purchase works at her original prices for potential resale. This practice aims to address the widespread problem of poaching, where larger galleries lure rising artists away from the smaller dealers who nurtured their careers, often causing financial and emotional strain.

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Lynda and Stewart Resnick have donated a monumental Jeff Koons sculpture, *Split-Rocker*, to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). The 37-foot-tall work, made of a metal skeleton and planted with 50,000 flowers, resembles a hybrid toy head—half rocking horse, half dinosaur. It will be installed near a new group of galleries endowed by trustee David Geffen. The Resnicks listed an unnamed piece given to LACMA on their 2023 tax filings valued at $9.6 million. The donation is part of director Michael Govan’s long-term plan to add another major sculpture to LACMA’s campus, alongside works like Chris Burden’s *Urban Light* and Tony Smith’s *Smoke*.

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The Barnes Foundation has promoted Will Cary to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, where he will oversee new revenue initiatives, the Calder Gardens partnership, and a newly formed Brand department. Bukia Vakhania Gallery (formerly Gallery Artbeat) is opening a Berlin location on January 15 with a solo show by Nina Kintsurashvili. Heritage Auctions reported $2.2 billion in sales for 2025, its highest-ever annual total, driven by coins, comics, sports memorabilia, and illustration art. Antenna Space will open a Hong Kong outpost in March 2026, directed by Jeff Li. A Deloitte Private and ArtTactic report reveals that 50% of non-bank art lenders experienced loan defaults in 2024, up from 17% in 2023.

Tracking the Biggest Market Players at the Venice Biennale

The 61st Venice Biennale is underway, and while it is officially a non-commercial exhibition, market forces are increasingly influential behind the scenes. Artnet News host Margaret Carrigan reports on auction houses actively participating in opening week, and highlights Sotheby’s upcoming single-owner sale in London featuring works from billionaire Joe Lewis’s collection, expected to exceed $200 million. Meanwhile, Whitechapel Gallery has created a new economist-in-residence position to address ongoing financial strain in museums.

Sale of Robert Rauschenberg’s Captiva Compound to Developers Ignites Backlash

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has sold the artist’s 22-acre Captiva Island estate to South Seas, a neighboring resort developer, for $45 million. The sale includes Rauschenberg’s former home, studio, and several cottages where he lived and worked for decades. The Foundation defended the move by citing the prohibitive costs of protecting the site against rising sea levels and hurricane damage, confirming that the prestigious Rauschenberg Residency program will now come to an end.

This Small Dorothea Tanning Painting Sold for $120,000 per Square Inch—and Set a New Record

Dorothea Tanning's small 1942 Surrealist painting, 'Children's Games,' sold for £3.8 million ($5 million) at Christie's London, nearly quadrupling its low estimate. With fees, the final price reached $6.26 million, setting a new auction record for the artist and achieving a remarkable price of approximately $120,000 per square inch.

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A trio of Bob Ross paintings sold for over $1 million at Bonhams' “Americana” auction on January 27, 2026, with proceeds benefiting American Public Television (APT). The top lot, *Change of Seasons* (1990), fetched $787,900—more than 13 times its high estimate—followed by *Babbling Brook* (1993) at $279,900 and *Valley View* (1990) at $203,700. The sale follows APT's record-breaking November auction and is part of a series of 24 Ross paintings to be offered throughout the year.

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David Zwirner gallery in New York hosted a four-day benefit exhibition titled “Toward the Light: Artists for the Ali Forney Center,” which raised $950,000 for the Ali Forney Center, a nonprofit supporting queer youth with housing, education, job training, and medical care. Curated by art adviser Stephen Truax, the show featured 37 artists, including Ross Bleckner, Marlene Dumas, Jenna Gribbon, Julie Mehretu, and Wolfgang Tillmans, and generated $1.2 million in sales, with artists receiving $250,000 and the gallery waiving its commission. Truax, who previously co-organized smaller editions with Sotheby’s, shifted to a gallery partnership to gain more control over sales and pricing, more than doubling his initial $350,000 fundraising goal.

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Kyoko Hattori, vice president of Pace Japan, expressed her desire for Tokyo to become the center of art in Asia in a recent interview with the Japan Times. This comes one month after the third edition of Tokyo Gendai art fair closed with solid but unspectacular sales. Pace, the only mega-gallery with a location in Tokyo, opened a space in the Azabudai Hills development, which has been seen as a signal of the city's arrival on the global art stage. The article notes cautiously optimistic data, with Japan seeing 2 percent growth in the art market last year while the wider market contracted by 12 percent, and competitors China and Korea saw significant drops.

indian modernist tyeb mehtas market is soaring how high will it go

Tyeb Mehta's auction market has surged in 2025, with two record-breaking sales in April alone. Saffronart sold his 1956 painting *Trussed Bull* for $7.2 million, the highest price ever for the artist, followed by AstaGuru's sale of *Untitled (Diagonal)* (1973) for $6.8 million. Mehta produced only around 200 canvases in his lifetime, and most key works are held by institutions and private collectors, making major acquisitions rare and competitive. The article analyzes his market performance, including a 100% sell-through rate across seven lots in 2025, totaling $15.3 million.

Hauser & Wirth Heads to Palo Alto as Mega-Galleries Target Silicon Valley

Hauser & Wirth has announced plans to open a new gallery in Palo Alto, California, in spring 2026. The location, a historic former post office at 201–225 Hamilton Avenue, will offer 2,600 square feet of exhibition space, a bookshop, and a program of talks and events. Designed by architect Luis Laplace, it will be the gallery's sixth U.S. outpost and its third in California, joining existing spaces in downtown Los Angeles and West Hollywood. The expansion comes as the broader art market faces contraction, but mega-galleries continue targeting wealthy collector hubs like Silicon Valley.

5 Artists on Our Radar in January 2026

Artsy's January 2026 edition of 'Artists on Our Radar' highlights five emerging visual artists: Elladj Lincy Deloumeaux, Xiaochi Dong, and Bobbye Fermie (with two others implied). Deloumeaux, born in Guadeloupe and based in Paris, paints solitary figures exploring identity and displacement; his work is featured in a group show at Loft Art Gallery in Marrakech and he has a solo show upcoming at Musée de la Parure de Marrakech. Xiaochi Dong, a Shanghai-born artist trained in classical Chinese painting, creates intimate works evoking gardens and ecosystems, currently in a two-person exhibition at Albion Jeune in London. Bobbye Fermie, an Amsterdam-born London-based artist, produces dreamlike watercolors and collages, with works available at Wilder Gallery.

How the wealth transfer from Boomers to their children will shake up the art market

The article examines how the transfer of wealth from Baby Boomers to younger generations is reshaping the Australian art market. As Boomers downsize or pass away, their tightly held collections—featuring artists like Grace Cossington Smith, Howard Arkley, and Brett Whiteley—are entering auction houses, creating rare buying opportunities. Meanwhile, younger collectors (Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z) face economic uncertainty, leading to a softening in the ultra-contemporary market and a decline in NFTs. New models of online and agency representation are bypassing traditional galleries, and galleries themselves are undergoing generational change, with some closing and others like Ames Yavuz and D'Lan Contemporary expanding.

Ten Highlights From New York’s Spring Marquee Auctions

New York's spring marquee auctions are set for May 2025, with Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips presenting strong lineups after a 25% drop in total public sales in 2024. Highlights include the $250 million Leonard and Louise Riggio collection at Christie's, featuring Piet Mondrian's *Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue* (est. $50 million), and Alberto Giacometti's *Grande tête mince* (est. over $70 million) at Sotheby's. Other top lots include Lucio Fontana's *The End of God*, Jean-Michel Basquiat's *Baby Boom*, a Rothko from the Bass mansion, Claude Monet's *Crepuscular Peupliers*, Olga de Amaral's evening sale debut, a trove of 40 Roy Lichtenstein works, and an Ed Ruscha piece. The sales test market resilience amid supply constraints and a cautious art market.

Is the art market slump over?

Ist die Flaute im Kunstmarkt vorbei?

The New York spring auctions saw explosive top prices, with Jackson Pollock's drip painting "Number 7A" (1948) selling for $181.2 million at Christie's, making it the fourth most expensive artwork ever auctioned. Christie's evening sales alone generated $1.1 billion, including $630.8 million from 16 works from the S.I. Newhouse collection. Sotheby's opened the season with a Mark Rothko from the estate of dealer Robert Mnuchin, achieving $85.8 million, while Phillips sold all 40 lots for $115 million, double the previous year. Younger artists like Joseph Yaeger also saw prices far exceed estimates.

Diane Keaton artworks and personal collection will go to auction.

The personal art collection and belongings of the late actor and style icon Diane Keaton will be sold at auction this June. Bonhams, in partnership with The Fine Art Group, will conduct the sales under the title "Diane Keaton: The Architecture of an Icon" across four events in New York and Los Angeles.

U.K. Museum Races to Acquire 18th-Century Portrait of Black Gardener

The Garden Museum in London has launched a campaign to raise £420,000 ($560,000) to acquire the earliest known portrait of a Black British gardener, John Ystumllyn. Painted by an unknown artist in 1754, the work depicts Ystumllyn as a young man in a blue suit and waistcoat. He was abducted from West Africa as a child, trained as a gardener on the Ystumllyn estate in Wales, and later became a renowned horticulturist. The painting has been on loan to the museum since 2023, and the institution aims to permanently display it alongside another portrait of a Black gardener from 1905.

Chickens, train surfers and Marilyn Monroe: Magnum’s print sale – in pictures

Magnum Photos, in partnership with The Photographers' Gallery, is holding a print sale titled 'Odyssey' featuring works from over 100 of its photographers. The sale includes iconic images from artists like Eve Arnold, Alec Soth, and Chris Killip, with themes ranging from personal journeys and American life to global migrations and cultural rituals. The event runs until March 29, 2026.

Renowned Gallery Air de Paris Bankrupted, Closing This Week

Air de Paris, the Paris gallery known for its punk ethos and commitment to cutting-edge Conceptual art, will close this week after 36 years and more than 400 exhibitions, amid bankruptcy proceedings. Founded in Nice in 1990 by Florence Bonnefous and Edouard Merino, the gallery was named after Marcel Duchamp’s 50cc of Paris Air and became legendary for its inaugural show, “Les Ateliers du Paradise,” which featured artists living in the gallery and later influenced critic Nicolas Bourriaud’s theory of relational aesthetics. The gallery moved to Paris in 1994 and later to Romainville in 2019, showing artists such as Paul McCarthy, Raymond Pettibon, Liam Gillick, Pierre Huyghe, and Dorothy Iannone.

Sotheby's auction: Modern & contemporary art

Sotheby’s is holding its Modern and Contemporary Art auction during Singapore Art Week, featuring rare works that have not been publicly available for decades. Highlights include Walter Spies’s *Die Schlittschuhlaufer (The Ice Skaters)*, estimated at $980,000–$1.8 million, and Raden Saleh’s *The Eruption of Mount Merapi, by day*, appearing at auction for the first time after being held in a private European collection for over a century. Other notable lots include works by Pacita Abad, Marc Chagall, Zao Wou-ki, Mai Trung Thu, and David Hockney. Public exhibition runs January 22–25 at The Singapore Edition, with the live auction on January 25.

Comment | What the art market doesn’t allow, branded content does for Tom Sachs

Tom Sachs has signed with The Lede Company, a US public relations firm, for agency representation, while Thaddaeus Ropac continues to represent him for gallery and fine art inquiries. This arrangement highlights Sachs's expanding activities beyond the traditional art market, including collaborations with Nike and Levi's, such as a Nike app promoting the Mars Yard 3.0 trainers. The announcement came in August, amidst other art-world movements like Jeff Koons's return to Gagosian from Pace Gallery.

Stephen Friedman Gallery goes into administration after 30 years

Stephen Friedman Gallery, a prominent London-based contemporary art gallery, has entered administration and closed its doors after 30 years in business. The gallery had recently expanded, opening a new space in New York and moving to larger premises in London, but financial strain from construction costs, rent, and a downturn in the art market led to its collapse. The gallery's closure was confirmed just as Art Basel Qatar opened, where its planned solo booth was taken over by the represented artist's estate and another gallery.

From politics to painting: works by Albanian prime minister Edi Rama are new art fair favourites

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, a trained artist who studied at Tirana's Academy of Fine Arts and worked in Paris before entering politics, has been added to the roster of Berlin gallery Société. The gallery debuted his colorful pen-and-oil drawings and painted bronze sculptures at Frieze London in October 2025 and Art Basel Paris, where around half of the drawings sold. Rama, who has exhibited at the Centre Pompidou and twice at the Venice Biennale, continues to create art while serving his fourth term as prime minister.

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Daniel Humm, the chef behind Eleven Madison Park, has curated a selection of artworks for Sotheby's Contemporary Curated sale, drawing parallels between composing a meal and assembling an exhibition. In an interview with CULTURED, Humm discusses his approach, which was influenced by a transformative encounter with Claude Monet's Water Lilies at the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris, and his selections include works by Roni Horn, Alex Katz, Keith Haring, and Sarah Crowner.

Comment | The market grew in 2025 but ‘interest in art is waning’

The global art market saw a 4% growth in 2025 according to the latest Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report, yet the industry remains on edge. Despite the headline increase, the report reveals a sharp decline in the average number of buyers per gallery—reaching its lowest level since 2021—and rising operational costs for shipping and logistics. Protectionist trade policies and geopolitical instability, particularly escalating conflicts in the Middle East affecting oil prices, continue to strain the contemporary sector.

Is A Random Unknown Artist More Valuable Than Picasso? AI Thinks So.

An experiment using a custom AI model to evaluate artistic value independent of market context found that the model assigned a seven-figure price to an unknown street artist's work while valuing a Picasso at under $1,000. The project, run by an art journalist with a data scientist and an AI expert, trained a Fine Art Large Vision Model on millions of images and price data. Without metadata like artist name or gallery affiliation, the model's predictions were technically interesting but commercially useless; only when those market signals were added did predictions align with real auction outcomes.