The Tamesis
Lévy Gorvy Dayan is launching a new way to sell high-value art, but gallery co-founder Brett Gorvy is quick to cool down on the idea. The gallery’s new platform, LGD Hammer, isn’t about reinventing the market. “We are not inventing a new paradigm, but it yes A development,” he said.
He said the platform understands recent changes in the market. Private sales have slowed. Collectors need time to observe, think and negotiate. The offers keep coming. “There’s no urgency,” Govey said. Even great pieces can sit quietly while buyers watch.
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Auctions still do the opposite. They create a moment: you either show up and bid, or you don’t. This pressure is even more important now because the market has been resetting over the past few years. Auction houses relied on lower estimates to drive circulation of works, and the results were solid. Strong clearance rates and a series of clean sales put sellers back in the competition.
Now, LGD Hammer wants to bring that pressure into the gallery environment. Rather than entering a work into a crowded evening sale, a gallery offers a painting to a small group of buyers at a set time. Dominique Lévy, co-founder of the New York gallery, will serve as auctioneer, drawing on her years of experience at Christie’s to oversee the sale.
The first work is by Willem de Kooning milkmaid (1984), estimated at $10 million to $15 million. This selection says a lot about the state of the market, as collectors have begun to turn to artists with long track records and deep institutional support. De Kooning fits that bill, with his market holding steady across multiple regions, with steady demand in Asia, Govey said. Price range is also important, as works in the $10 million to $20 million range are still in circulation.
The work is presented more like an exhibition than an auction. milkmaid It will be shown independently in the gallery’s Upper East Side space during the auction period, May 2 to May 16, by appointment only. “We’re not in 2021, where people are buying things they can’t see,” Govey said.
The auction will take place on May 16, with bidding taking place by phone and participants following online to view works by Levi and de Kooning in real time. Bidders will, of course, remain anonymous.
Gorvy is careful not to see the platform as a direct response to platforms like Fair Warning, which also offers works up for auction one at a time. Gorvy said LGD Hammer is built around the slower experience of viewing works in a gallery, where context and time need to be considered before bidding pressure comes.
Buyers, for their part, are more cautious than they were a few years ago. They want to see the work in person and they want context. They want to be happy with that number. But they still respond to competition, which is one thing LGD Hammer hopes to take advantage of.
