A Gagosian Retrospective

Larry Gagosian, who knows more than anyone about selling overpriced trophy assets to very rich men, is being displaced at his 980 Madison flagship gallery by Bloomberg Philanthropies, which bought the property for $560 million. It’s a fitting end to one era—and a fascinating start to another.

When Gagosian opened the galley in 1989, he was able to show Cy Twombly’s Bolsena paintings, made 20 years earlier and provoked by the Apollo missions to the moon. After that, as Gagosian pioneered the concept of a single art gallery with globe-girdling outposts, he would continue to call on Twombly to inaugurate his new gallery spaces. Photo: Rose Hartman/Getty Images

Marion Maneker

February 2, 2025

It’s hard to know what Larry Gagosian must be feeling as he closes out his 36-year run upstairs at 980 Madison Avenue. The building, which was designed specifically for the Parke-Bernet auction house, was described by The New York Times in 2006 as “the Grand Central Terminal of the art world, where dealers, collectors, curators, appraisers, and just plain voyeurs took in the great auction-dramas of the mid 20th century.” In 1987, then already owned by Sotheby’s, Parke-Bernet moved to its current location on York Avenue. Meanwhile, Gagosian and other galleries started to move in at 980 Madison—and for the next three and a half decades, the building remained a veritable hub for the art market.