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Gagosian Hires Art Dealer Fabricant After He Exits Rival Gallery

Gagosian Hires Art Dealer Fabricant After He Exits Rival Gallery

(Bloomberg) -- Gagosian Gallery, the world’s biggest, hired veteran art dealer Andrew Fabricant shortly after his departure from rival Richard Gray Gallery.

Fabricant, 63, will start in September and be based in New York, Gagosian said Wednesday in an emailed statement that didn’t elaborate on his new role.

Gagosian Hires Art Dealer Fabricant After He Exits Rival Gallery

The move is a homecoming for Fabricant, who began his professional career with Gagosian in Los Angeles in 1983. Four years later, he transferred to New York to work at the gallery’s new Chelsea location. At 6-foot-2, he’s a ubiquitous presence at auctions, typically sporting thick-rimmed glasses and a pinstripe suit as he snaps up works by blue-chip artists such as Andy Warhol and Christopher Wool.

“Gagosian’s global platform and broad embrace of both historical and contemporary artists was inspirational and important to me in this decision,” Fabricant said in the statement. “The gallery’s international profile has influenced and informed the tastes and interests of both a seasoned and new generation of collectors.”

The gallery, founded by Larry Gagosian almost four decades ago, has 16 exhibition spaces in the U.S., Europe and Asia and a client list that includes billionaires Steve Cohen and Leon Black. It represents major living artists such as Brice Marden, Ed Ruscha and Anselm Kiefer and has staged museum-quality exhibitions by Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet and Robert Rauschenberg.

Fabricant left Richard Gray at the end of June after 22 years there, said gallery partner Paul Gray. Most recently, Fabricant was the director of its New York branch, conducting private transactions and advising clients on deals for modern, postwar and contemporary artworks. In December, its $35 million painting by Willem de Kooning was among the most expensive offerings at Art Basel Miami Beach.

“He was a big contributor,” Gray said of Fabricant. “I’m sorry to see him go.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Katya Kazakina in New York at kkazakina@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Peter Eichenbaum, Dan Reichl

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