(Bloomberg) — Five years after being made its chief operating officer, Andrew Fabricant has been forced out of Gagosian gallery. Laura Paulson, who has been head of Gagosian’s art advisory business since 2019 and is married to Fabricant, has also left. Neither Fabricant nor Paulson immediately responded to requests for comment.
“Andrew Fabricant and Laura Paulson are no longer with the gallery,” wrote the company’s founder Larry Gagosian in an emailed statement. “At this moment in the gallery’s evolution, we arrived at the point where I decided it was time for us to part ways. We are grateful for their contributions over the past several years and wish them well.”
Fabricant, one of several senior leaders at the gallery, was speculated to be a candidate to succeed Gagosian. Even as Gagosian, 79, has remained heavily involved in his gallery, Fabricant managed the administrative and operational side of the company.
His departure now throws the gallery’s long-term future into question. In his emailed statement, Gagosian said that while he valued his contributions, it was never his intention for Fabricant to succeed him.
Fabricant began his career with Gagosian in the early 1980s and worked for the dealer for 15 years, at which point he left to work for other galleries. He was rehired in 2018 and became COO in 2019.
Paulson worked at Christie’s for 28 years and eventually became its global chairman of 20th century art. She left the auction house in 2017.
The advisory arm, where she did appraisals for clients and helped them buy and sell works on the primary and secondary market, was ostensibly separate from the main gallery business—she had her own office, staff, and email address. Her departure puts the advisory’s future in question, although a gallery spokesperson wrote that “the gallery plans to continue the advisory business with some changes.”
The Gagosian gallery empire, founded in 1980, is considered the world’s largest, with 19 locations in seven countries.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
