Pace Gallery, Emmanuel Di Donna, and David Schrader have announced a joint venture to launch Pace Di Donna Schrader Galleries (PDS), a new entity focused on secondary market sales. The partnership, revealed on the eve of Art Basel Miami Beach, will operate from a new headquarters on Manhattan's Upper East Side, with equal partnership among the three. PDS will leverage Pace's global network of galleries in cities including Los Angeles, London, Geneva, Berlin, Seoul, and Tokyo. Di Donna, founder of Di Donna Galleries and former Sotheby's vice chairman, brings expertise in Surrealist, Modern, and post-war art; Schrader, a former Sotheby's head of private sales, adds auction-house experience. The venture is set to begin operations in early 2025, with Di Donna's team moving to the new space in summer 2026.
The formation of PDS reflects broader trends in the art market: a softening of speculative contemporary sales, rising demand for blue-chip 20th-century works, and a wave of gallery closures prompting consolidation. By pooling resources and expertise, the partners aim to address rising overheads and narrowing margins while offering an alternative to auction-house private sales, which now account for over half of blue-chip transactions. Marc Glimcher, Pace's CEO, framed the move as a necessary evolution for a business "crammed up between expanding operating expenses and narrowing margins." The venture signals a strategic shift toward institutional-scale secondary-market dealing, potentially reshaping how galleries serve consignors and collectors.