This article is part of the Artnet Intelligence Report: Year Ahead 2026. Drawing on in-depth analysis of the past year’s market performance, the latest edition offers a data-driven snapshot of the art world today—from recent auction results to the artists shaping the global conversation.
It was intriguing to learn that you’re planning a new secondary-market gallery in New York with two other industry veterans, Marc Glimcher and Emmanuel Di Donna. Why launch now, when parts of the gallery system appear to be under pressure?
It’s early days, but we’re super excited, and I think it’s a good moment. The markets have stabilized and are picking up, which should be a tailwind. People aren’t exuberant, but they’re more optimistic than they’ve been over the last couple of years, especially in the secondary market, which I think is quite a good backdrop.
We come at it from a fresh start. Some historic galleries have significant overhead and scale. We’re not trying to be all things to all people, we’re not looking to have 10 spaces, and we’re not looking to replicate models that have come before. The three of us bring collective expertise that makes sense at this moment. It feels like the right time to start something greenfield, where it might not have been five or 10 years ago.
Private auctions have emerged as a notable format in recent years. What can you tell me about these “dark” sales?
They’ve been a successful innovation because they blend discretion with urgency. That was born out of the Covid moment—how do you create excitement and a deadline?
In a way, auctions are similar to art fairs or gallery shows: They create a moment. At the upper end of the market, there appears to have been strong competition in private auctions. I’m not sure how many the industry can do in a year, but it appears that they’re working. Being invited to something special, having the opportunity to bid on rarefied, unique, hard-to-replicate material, coupled with a sense of competition—I understand why that appeals to both consignors and buyers.
Installation view, “Agnes Martin: Innocent Love,” 540 West 25th Street, New York, NY 10001. November 7 –December 20, 2025. Photo: courtesy Pace Gallery.
The art market has traditionally operated on high margins and relatively low volume. In a period of correction, what has to change?
Every dealer has their own way in which they do things. Some are lower volume and higher margin, and some are higher volume and lower margin. I’ve always been of the view that volume begets volume, if you’re doing the best for sellers and buyers.
There is something about transparency entering the world, and negotiated commissions, which is leading to not necessarily compressed margins but certainly not oversized margins. Intermediaries certainly have absorbed some of that margin. Buyers and sellers, in a market with less depth of bid, have been able to negotiate harder.
The question will be, as the market recalibrates higher and competition increases, what those spreads look like. But I do think we’re moving toward a world of a more constant margin. We’ve seen that in every other business, and I don’t see why it wouldn’t happen here, despite the fact that it is slightly more opaque than other trading industries.
You can either hold the line on margin and not do a deal or do a deal at a lower margin and hope to do it at a better margin down the road. I do think that sellers and buyers appreciate the liquidity and the fluidity of doing deals versus not doing deals, which has always been my view.
What do you see as the risks of introducing a more fluid resale expectation to the market?
I don’t think we’ve seen an increase in that kind of velocity at this moment. I actually think the fluidity has slowed as opposed to increased, as the market has gone more traditional in its taste and there’s been less exuberance in buying and selling of the hot new thing.
I think at this moment buyers are being more thoughtful and disciplined. To be fair, it’s quite hard to find great objects, whether sellers just don’t feel the urge or are well enough capitalized that they don’t need to sell them at this moment in time. So I think we’ve actually had a bit of a less fluid market, which seems to be turning.
Installation view of “Enchanted Reverie: Klee and Calder” at Di Donna Galleries, New York.
Courtesy Di Donna Galleries, New York. Photo: Tom Powel. © 2026 Calder Foundation,
New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
How does data actually circulate within a private sales network?
It’s always been reasonably proprietary. Everyone has their own set of data. Some clearly is public and everyone gets to see, and other information is market intelligence—sometimes true and sometimes false—that builds a mosaic. We’re always trying to gather as many data points as possible to create a broader picture.
And I don’t think the split between private and public data is dramatically different than it has been historically. To the contrary, there’s probably more public data accessible to more people than there has ever been.
Each seller has a different appetite for risk and publicity. At certain points in the cycle, being public is helpful in achieving the best price outcome. At other moments, when markets are choppy, there’s less appetite for publicity. As the cycle shifts, so does that appetite.
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