Now even the mega galleries are in crisis. Pace Gallery cuts both staff and artists from its stable: "The system no longer works"

Pace Gallery, one of the world's largest and most influential art galleries, has announced a major downsizing: it will cut 20% of its staff (50 out of 250 employees) and reduce its artist roster by 50, from 130 to approximately 80 represented artists and estates. CEO Marc Glimcher stated that the current gallery model is not just in crisis but "impossible to repair," citing excessive commercialization, corporate impersonality, and unsustainable overhead from multiple global locations and dozens of art fairs. The cuts come amid a broader 2025 downturn for commercial galleries, contrasting sharply with recent high-value auction sales in New York, highlighting a disconnect between the primary and secondary markets.

This move matters because Pace Gallery was one of the key players—alongside Gagosian, David Zwirner, and Hauser & Wirth—that drove the mega-gallery expansion model over the past decade. By publicly admitting that model is broken, Glimcher signals a potential structural shift in the art world, where even the most powerful commercial galleries are forced to shrink. The announcement underscores growing pressures on galleries from geopolitical instability, inflation, high interest rates, and more selective collectors, and may foreshadow further consolidation or downsizing across the sector.