Marlborough Gallery to Cease Operations After Nearly 80 Years

The Marlborough Gallery, which operates outposts in New York, London, Madrid, and Barcelona, is ending its run after nearly eight decades in business. The venerable gallery will by June stop representing artists and estates and will end its exhibition programming; all remaining inventory is expected be sold off, with part of the proceeds going to not-for-profit organizations supporting contemporary artists. No reason was given for the closure, which follows on afamily dispute, the Covid-19 crisis and the attendant fiscal crunch, and the defection of Frank Auerbach and Paula Rego, two of the gallery’s star artists.

“After long and careful consideration, we made the decision that now is the time to sunset our nearly 80-year-old firm,” said Franz Plutschow, a member of the gallery’s board of trustees, in a statement. “We are profoundly grateful to all the artists who have been at the heart of Marlborough Gallery and integral to its storied legacy. We are indebted to our expert and dedicated employees, including those who will continue to work with us as we now wind down the business. As we do so, we are mindful that the extraordinary breadth and depth of our inventory testifies to the relationships formed over the decades with some of the most important artists of the modern era.”

Considered one of the first megagalleries, Marlborough Fine Art was founded in London in 1946 by Frank Lloyd and Harry Fischer, Austrian immigrants to Britain who had met as soldiers in the British Army’s Royal Pioneer Corps during World War II. David Somerset soon joined their operation, and Marlborough Gallery opened in New York in 1963. First known for showing French Impressionist and post-Impressionist painters, Marlborough focused in succession on German expressionists, postwar British contemporary artists, and Abstract Expressionists.

The gallery, which in 2019 consolidated its program, had toyed with closing back in 2020, after the board fired then-president Max Levai, accusing him and his father, Pierre Levai, a nephew of Frank Lloyd, of mismanagement. The junior Levai and Marlborough sued each other, though the suits were eventually dropped.

Apart from the thousands of artworks it owns, including works on paper, photographs, and paintings collectively estimated to be worth some $250 million, the gallery will sell its real estate holdings in the United States, England, and Spain.