logo
Gallery owner Larry Gagosian on the art world's "blood sport"

Gallery owner Larry Gagosian on the art world's "blood sport"

CBS News23-02-2025

On any night, he can have art openings in Paris, in London, or at his flagship gallery in New York. With 18 galleries around the globe, Larry Gagosian has more exhibition space than most museums. His annual revenues are estimated at over a billion dollars, which (as The New Yorker put it) may make Gagosian "the biggest art dealer in the history of the world."
In 2022, when Andy Warhol's "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" set an auction record for a 20th century artist at Christie's, the winning bidder was Larry Gagosian. The final price, with fees: $195 million.
I asked, "That must have been a crazy moment?"
"When you're bidding at that level," Gagosian said, "your adrenaline is … it's very exciting."
"It's a brutal business."
"It's a blood sport."
"What do you love about this most?" I asked.
"I love the challenge," Gagosian smiled. "I love winning."
Gagosian represents more than 100 artists, and shows the works of Picasso, Warhol, and de Kooning. His clients include billionaire mega-collectors like New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, music mogul David Geffen, and cosmetics heir Leonard Lauder. Gagosian said, "That's why New York is such a great city for an art dealer, because you have all these super-competitive rich guys trying to (you know, in a certain way) outdo each other – 'I got one.' 'Oh, I got one better.'"
Gagosian, who grew up in an Armenian family in Los Angeles, never had any formal art training. In the 1970s, he was working as a parking attendant. Then he saw somebody selling posters on the street. "I saw that and I said, 'Jeez, I could do that.' And so, I bought basically the same posters, I literally paid a dollar apiece, and then put a little aluminum frame on them and put 'em on a peg board and tried to get as close to twenty bucks as I could, which is a pretty good profit margin."
He built it into a business, and started having shows. In 1981, a young New York artist caught his eye: Jean-Michel Basquiat. Gagosian bought three of his paintings on the spot. "And sadly, I sold them all. Wish I still owned them!"
He'd give Basquiat his first West Coast exhibition, which put Gagosian's gallery on the map. "It was a big deal in L.A.," he said. "We did the show and it was, like, mobbed. The buzz was – I'd never experienced anything like that in my gallery."
But Gagosian knew that New York was the center of the art world, and in 1985, he relocated.
How was he received in the New York art world? "They didn't like me," he said. "I guess they thought I was gonna, you know, cause some trouble."
"Well, you kinda did!" I said.
"I'd rather not go into that litany, but I was roughed up quite a bit by competitors, I think very unfairly."
He earned a nickname, "Gogo," which he says actually started when he was young. "When I was kid, my friends had a hard time pronouncing my name, Gagosian. And that's really where it started. But then it became, people associate it with something else."
But Gagosian made an important ally, the esteemed dealer Leo Castelli. On a walk together one day, Castelli stopped a non-descript man in the street: "And so I said, 'Well, who was that?' 'Oh, that's Si Newhouse.' And I'll never forget his very words: 'He can buy anything.'"
Newhouse, who owned the Condé Nast magazine empire, would become Gagosian's first big client. At Sotheby's 1988 auction of Jasper Johns' painting "False Start," they sat side-by-side: "He didn't want to be seen bidding," said Gagosian. "So, he would literally nudge me when he wanted to bid. And I bid, I think it was $17 million. And he got the painting."
It was a record for a living artist at the time. "It was, you know, like, jaw-dropping," Gagosian said.
But that price seems almost quaint today.
I asked, "Do you think there's a billion-dollar painting out there?"
"Maybe; I don't see why not," Gagosian replied. "A young artist, if he's really talented, can sell for a million dollars."
I asked Gagosian about the comments of one of his former rivals, Arne Glimcher of Pace Gallery, who said five years ago, "This market has nothing to do with art. It's all about how fast one can make money."
"You know, there's a certain truth to what he's saying," Gagosian said, "but I don't think it's just about money at all. I don't think, if people didn't love art, you know, I think they wouldn't buy it at that level. I don't think it's just an asset class. And it's not just about money. It's just gotten more expensive to buy really great art."
"Do you think in any way it distances ordinary people from loving art?"
"No. I think it actually makes art seem more interesting. Wow! Somebody spent X amount of money for a painting? Wow, that's fascinating!"
Gagosian – who's had some high-profile romances, is single, and has no children – is still energized by the hustle. "I guess to a degree I thrive on it," he said. "It gives you something to go for."
"Why do you thrive on it?"
"Cause I'm tenacious. And because I like to win."
"What's the win for you?"
"The win is to keep it going. The win is to survive at the top. There's no real finish line."
But there is, of course. Gagosian turns 80 in April. And the man who GQ magazine called "The closest thing the art world has to a Caesar," still has no plans of succession for his empire.
So, can there be a Gagosian without Gagosian? "I don't know; that's the question," he said. "I don't want to think it's an impossibility. I think it's a serious challenge. But I'm not ready to pass the reins. I enjoy it too much."
I asked, "Are you ever gonna be, do you think?"
"No."
"Well, there's no time to rest, really. It's overrated!" he laughed.
For more info:
gagosian.com
Images © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York
Images courtesy Gagosian
© Jean Pigozzi, courtesy Gagosian
© Cy Twombly Foundation, courtesy Gagosian

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Over 300 Pieces of Princess Diana's Dresses, Handbags, and More Are Heading to Auction
Over 300 Pieces of Princess Diana's Dresses, Handbags, and More Are Heading to Auction

Yahoo

time10 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Over 300 Pieces of Princess Diana's Dresses, Handbags, and More Are Heading to Auction

There have been many Princess Diana-related auctions held over the years—Lady Di herself auctioned off than 79 of her dresses at Christie's in 1997, in fact—but the sale taking place at Julien's Auction later this month may be the biggest yet. The auction house claims the event will include the largest collection of the late royal's fashion to ever go under the hammer. Taking place at the Peninsula Beverly Hills on June 26, Princess Diana's Style & A Royal Collection will spotlight more than 300 extraordinary items of royal provenance. Included in the lots are some of the most memorable dresses, suits, and accessories ever worn by the Princess of Wales—many of which have never before appeared at auction, according to Julien's. More from Robb Report From Pappy Van Winkle to Macallan: An Epic Single-Owner Whiskey Collection Is Heading to Auction Art Dealer Barbara Gladstone's Elegant Manhattan Row House Lists for $12 Million Airstream's Newest Luxury Trailer Feels Like a Frank Lloyd Wright Home Inside Diana became a style icon soon after being thrust into the spotlight in the 1980s due to her high-profile relationship with Prince Charles. Her fashion evolved from modest and traditional to elegant and bold as she navigated her life in the public eye. She worked with many different designers, as illustrated by the diverse pieces on offer at Julien's. One of the auction highlights is a silk floral day dress designed by Belville Sassoon (pictured top). Expected to fetch between $100,000 and $200,000, the frock was a staple in Diana's wardrobe and was donned for many official visits and public appearances. It was actually dubbed the Caring Dress, as the princess often wore it to see patients in hospitals, according to designer David Sassoon. Another standout is a custom cream evening gown that Catherine Walker designed for Diana for her 1986 royal tour of Saudi Arabia. The elegant gown, which is expected to hammer down for between $200,000 and $300,000, features a high neckline and long Guinevere-style point sleeves to accommodate local dressing customs. At the other, more daring end of the spectrum is a two-piece Bruce Oldfield set that Lady Di wore to Royal Ascot in 1987. Oldfield began designing for the princess in the mid-1980s with more daring fashions, leading the press to dub her 'Dynasty-Di.' This silk ensemble carries a pre-sale estimate of $100,000 to $200,000. Accessories will abound at the auction, too. Highlights include Lady Di's stylish John Boyd hat (estimate: $20,000 to $40,000) and her coveted Lady Dior lambskin handbag (estimate: $20,000 to $30,000). That is just a taste of 300 rarities on offer. 'Princess Diana's legacy lives on not only through her humanitarian work but also in the timeless elegance of her style, which continues to inspire the world,' Martin Nolan, cofounder and executive director of Julien's Auctions, said in a statement. 'This unprecedented collection offers collectors and admirers a rare opportunity to own a piece of royal history and pay tribute to one of the most beloved figures of our time.' In keeping with Diana's philanthropic spirit, a portion of the proceeds from the auction will benefit Muscular Dystrophy UK. Bidding and registration are now open online. The live auction will take place in the Peninsula's Verandah Ballroom, with guests served Champagne and the hotel's signature afternoon tea, naturally. Click to see photos of the key auction lots. Best of Robb Report The 10 Priciest Neighborhoods in America (And How They Got to Be That Way) In Pictures: Most Expensive Properties Click here to read the full article.

This 40-year-old bottle of wine worth $180,000 is up for sale
This 40-year-old bottle of wine worth $180,000 is up for sale

New York Post

time14 hours ago

  • New York Post

This 40-year-old bottle of wine worth $180,000 is up for sale

Wine enthusiasts and collectors, get your paddles ready. Christie's is hosting its first wine auction since 2022 on June 12, brought to you by billionaire businessman, private collector and America's Cup winner, Bill Koch. The three-day event features 1,500 lots comprising nearly 8,000 bottles of historic vintages from his private collection, which has a low estimate of $15 million, but could exceed $21 million. Bordeaux and Burgundy make up the lion's share, and at the heart of the collection is more than 750 large-format bottles — including over 45 Jeroboams (three liters) and Methuselahs (six liters) from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. In fact, the revered wine producer makes up the entirety of the top 10 by value list, with number one — a 1985 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Côte de Nuits Grand Cru — seeing a high estimate of $180,000. 'A Chicago wine dealer brought this bottle to my attention in 1988. He acquired it from Europe,' Koch told The Post, referring to himself as a wine 'geek.' 6 Bill Koch said he's amassed some 43,000 bottles across his cellars at his estates in Palm Beach, Cape Cod and Aspen. Christie's Images LTD.2025 'I have loved large-format bottles because they take longer to mature,' he explained. 'It has to do with surface space and oxygen. The larger the bottle, the less exposure to oxygen, the better the wine ages. But putting aside my geekiness, this wine is one of the vintages my wife loves to drink. She has great taste. It was an excellent year for Burgundy.' Indeed, 1985 was a great year for wine, but this is also a big one. A methuselah holds six liters — or eight standard bottles. '$120,000 divided by 203.2 ounces equals $590-plus per ounce,' said Joe Czerwinski, The Wine Advocate's Wine Reviewer for Canada, Napa Valley and New York State regions. 'That's the low estimate, which doesn't include the buyer's premium. If it goes to the high estimate, you're talking upwards of $900 per ounce.' 6 Experts told The Post the auction will dazzle wine enthusiasts. Christie's Images LTD.2025 Jhonel Faelnar, beverage director for NAEUN Hospitality, which includes New York City's Atoboy, Naro and two-Michelin-starred Atomix, believes it to be one of the best vintages ever produced. 'Romanée-Conti is, of course, one of the most storied vineyards in Burgundy and in the world, coming from one of the most hallowed producers of Pinot Noir ever to exist,' he said. 'I would certainly like to drink this bottle, were I to have the chance to.' He said the $180,000 price is worth it — for 'the people who can afford' it. 'These wines are pieces of history, and it's a special moment to encounter these, especially if you can be a part of opening and tasting them,' said Faelnar. While the collection features a variety of price points — the 1929 Château Haut-Brion going for $2,000 to $3,000 caught Faelnar's attention — he said some may be too rich for one's blood. 6 'These wines are pieces of history, and it's a special moment to encounter these,' Jhonel Faelnar said. Christie's Images LTD.2025 'You're bidding for a piece of art at this point — one you can potentially imbibe and ingest,' Faelnar said. 'Oftentimes, they can be disappointing in the glass — they are, after all, hundred-year-old bottles of wine. But the anticipation that it might be every bit as amazing as one can hope for, fuels every collector's hopes and folly.' Six magnums of the 1982 Château Mouton-Rothschild are also up for the taking for a tune of $9,000 to $14,000. This particular vintage unlocks a core memory for Koch, sharing it with Will Smith's agent, Jim Lassiter. (Yes, that Will Smith.) 'He came to my house with Steve Tisch and David Bloomfield of Escape Artists,' he recalled. 'They had purchased the movie rights to the book 'Billionaire's Vinegar' [and] were looking for my participation and investment capital. The superb wine was the only thing we agreed on that evening.' 6 Koch referred to himself as a wine 'geek' and keeps a massive collection across residences. Pictured here is his Palm Beach cellar. Christie's Images LTD.2025 Koch said his chemical engineering background helped influence his wine collecting. At one point, he had upwards of 43,000 bottles across his cellars at his estates in Palm Beach, Cape Cod and Aspen. He views the auction as a gift that keeps on giving — it's a part of a wine collection that he's spent half a century curating. 'These bottles reflect my taste, my interest in history, my passion for collecting and my respect for the care and work that goes into developing great wines, year after year,' he said of his lot, now at 21,000 bottles. 'I have some of the world's best wines, stored in a state-of-the-art cellar and more carefully researched and vetted than any collection I know of. I am enormously proud of it.' 6 'I just don't think we will see many more collections like this come to market again,' said Adam Bilbey, Christie's Global Head of Wine and Spirits. 'This is a chance to be part of vinous history.' Christie's Images LTD.2025 'I just don't think we will see many more collections like this come to market again,' said Adam Bilbey, Christie's Global Head of Wine and Spirits. 'This is a chance to be part of vinous history.' Koch told The Post that after the sale, he will 'still have about 12,000' bottles in his cellar, but doesn't 'expect to add to that.' 'As for the ones I am parting with, which include 45 large-format bottles, it would take two lifetimes and a daily regime of parties to go through them all. It's time for others to enjoy them.' 6 'I have some of the world's best wines, stored in a state-of-the-art cellar and more carefully researched and vetted than any collection I know of. I am enormously proud of it,' Koch said. Christie's Images LTD.2025 The top 10 wines at The Cellar of William I. Koch: The Great American Collector auction, by value: 1985 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Côte de Nuits Grand Cru Methuselah: Low Estimate: $120,000; High Estimate: $180,000 1991 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Côte de Nuits Grand Cru Methuselah: Low Estimate: $110,000; High Estimate: $170,000 1999 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Côte de Nuits Grand Cru Methuselah: Low Estimate: $100,000; High Estimate: $160,000 1996 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Côte de Nuits Grand Cru Methuselah: Low Estimate: $100,000; High Estimate: $160,000 1999 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche Côte de Nuits Grand Cru Methuselah: Low Estimate: $80,000; High Estimate: $120,000 1990 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Côte de Nuits Grand Cru Jeroboam: Low Estimate: $70,000; High Estimate: $100,000 1985 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Côte de Nuits Grand Cru Jeroboam: Low Estimate: $48,000; High Estimate: $70,000 1985 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Côte de Nuits Grand Cru Jeroboam: Low Estimate: $48,000; High Estimate: $70,000 1985 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Côte de Nuits Grand Cru Jeroboam: Low Estimate: $48,000; High Estimate: $70,000 1995 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Côte de Nuits Grand Cru Jeroboam: Low Estimate: $45,000; High Estimate: $65,000

Susan Choi Recommends a Book So Engrossing It Made Her (Almost) Lose Her Luggage
Susan Choi Recommends a Book So Engrossing It Made Her (Almost) Lose Her Luggage

Yahoo

time17 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Susan Choi Recommends a Book So Engrossing It Made Her (Almost) Lose Her Luggage

"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Welcome to Shelf Life, books column, in which authors share their most memorable reads. Whether you're on the hunt for a book to console you, move you profoundly, or make you laugh, consider a recommendation from the writers in our series, who, like you (since you're here), love books. Perhaps one of their favorite titles will become one of yours, too. What began as a short story in The New Yorker is now Susan Choi's sixth and latest novel, Flashlight, about a man who goes missing—and the resulting trauma for his family. Like the family in the book, Choi lived in Japan for a short period during her childhood. (Nor is this the first time she's shared autobiographical details with her characters: Her father was a math professor, like a character in 2003's A Person of Interest; she went to graduate school, the setting of 2013's My Education; and she attended a theater program in high school, as do the protagonists in 2019's National Book Award-winning Trust Exercise, for which she wrote at least 3 different endings.) Her second novel, 2004's American Woman, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and adapted into a film, and she has also written a children's book, Camp Tiger. Choi teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, yet one literary goal remains elusive: 'Trying to read 50 books a year,' she says. 'I've never achieved the goal and some years I don't even come close, but I love trying.' The Indiana-born, Texas-raised, New York-based bestselling author studied literature at Yale University; was once fired from a literary agency for being too much of a 'literary snob'; was a fact-checker at The New Yorker and co-edited Wonderful Town: New York Stories from The New Yorker with editor David Remnick; won an ASME Award for Fiction for 'The Whale Mother' in Harper's Magazine; and has two sons. Likes: theater; fabric stores; kintsugi; the Fort Greene Park Greenmarket; savory buns; flowers. Dislikes: being on stage; low-hovering helicopters. Good at: rocking her gray hair. Bad at: cleaning menorahs; coming up with book titles. Scroll through the reads she recommends below. It's not exactly a missed-the-train moment, but I was re-reading Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov while waiting on a train platform [once], and when the train pulled in I stood up, still reading, boarded the train, still reading, and sat down, still reading…until at some point, after the train pulled away, I realized that I had left my luggage on the platform. Philip Roth's Everyman. I never would have thought a novel about the bodily decline and eventual death of a hyper-masculine Jewish guy who mistreats many of the women in his life—a lot like Philip Roth—could make me literally heave-sob at the end. But this is why Roth is such an incredible writer: He makes us feel enormous compassion for people we don't even like. Jenny Erpenbeck's Visitation, which kaleidoscopically compresses the stormy history of 20th-century Germany into barely a hundred pages, while holding the focus steady on a single plot of land. It's one of those books that makes you want to write. All of Proust. Or even just some decent amount of Proust. I love the prose but also find it so exquisite it's almost unbearable to continue reading for any length of time, at least for me, which makes me feel like a total failure as a reader. I might have to set aside a year of my life just to read Proust. Sarah Moss's Ghost Wall is impossible to put down, and it's also so tensely coiled from the very beginning that reading it I sometimes forgot to breathe! In some ways it's a 'small' story—about a girl and her parents doing a crazy-seeming reenactment of prehistoric life in the English countryside—but then it turns out to be about the biggest things, like what it means to be a people, or a nation, or even human. Rachel Khong's Real Americans, which I am so riveted by that as soon as I finish these questions, I'm picking it back up. It's a story about three people who, despite how deeply they feel for each other—and how deeply we feel for them—cannot manage to be a family. My heart is already half-broken and I'm only halfway through it. Paul Beatty's The Sellout. I was sitting on the beach in Maui (the one time I have ever been to Maui), reading that book instead of swimming, and a stranger came up to me to ask what it was because apparently I was laughing so hard I'd attracted general attention. In Francisco Goldman's The Ordinary Seaman, two young guerilla fighters, boy and girl, fall madly in love and start having trysts in the back of an ambulance. The girl also has a pet squirrel that she's been carrying around in her bra, and, during the trysts, the squirrel runs frantically around the back of the ambulance. These are some of the funniest, wildest, most heartfelt sex scenes ever put on paper. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I read it every few years because it feels new every time and, at the same time, it feels so familiar, like returning to a favorite place. I love every single sentence in it, even the sentences that are totally over-the-top (and there are a lot of them!) because they remind me that Fitzgerald was actually a fallible human being, capable of writing very over-the-top sentences sometimes. Sigrid Nunez's A Feather on the Breath of God shocked me the first time I read it because it really felt like the book was looking at me, like it knew exactly who I was. The protagonist has, like me, a real culture-clash background, and up to the point in my life when I read the book—the '90s—I'd never encountered that in fiction, so it was very emotional when I finally did. Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie. Just read it. You'll thank me. Renee Gladman is one of my absolute favorite living writers/artists, yet I was totally unaware of her until maybe six years ago when I was recommended her work by an employee—I am so sorry I don't know his name—at my local indie bookstore. Now it feels unimaginable to me that I ever lived my life without Renee Gladman! Everything by Ali Smith, and Ali Smith herself. She is such a brilliant, compassionate, elating observer of us humans and the strange things we do. The London Library. A friend who's a member showed it to me a few years ago, and I never wanted to leave. Maybe they'll set up a hammock for me! PEN America, because they support freedom of expression, which none of us can take for granted anymore.$14.40 at at at at at at at at at at You Might Also Like The 15 Best Organic And Clean Shampoos For Any And All Hair Types 100 Gifts That Are $50 Or Under (And Look Way More Expensive Than They Actually Are)

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store