60 Minutes recently aired a profile of gallery owner Larry Gagosian and how the 80-year-old art dealer navigates the “brutal business” while overseeing 18 locations around the world.
The seven-minute segment aired on CBS on February 23. Early on, the newsmagazine features Gagosian placing the record-setting winning bid for Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn (1964) for $194 million at Christie’s New York.
“That must have been a crazy moment,” said CBS correspondent Anthony Mason.
“When you’re bidding at that level, it’s just your adrenaline, you know,” Gagosian replied. “It’s very exciting.”
The profile notes Gagosian’s Armenian ancestry, lack of art background, and well as how he spotted Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1981, immediately buying three works.
“I sadly sold them all,” he said with a laugh. “I wish I still owned them.”
Mason brought up a comment by Arne Glimcher, founder of Pace Gallery, about how the current art market has nothing to do with art: “iI’s just about how fast one can make money.”
“There’s a certain truth to what he’s saying, but I don’t think it’s just about money at all,” Gagosian replied. “If people didn’t love art, you know, I think they wouldn’t buy it at that level. I don’t think it’s just an asset class and it’s not just about money. It’s just gotten more expensive to buy really great art.”
Gagosian, turning 80 in April with no announced succession plan, had this to say about slowing down from the business: “There’s no real finish line.”
Asked whether the gallery’s empire could exist without the namesake art dealer, Gagosian didn’t have an answer. “That’s the question,” he said. “I don’t want to think it’s an impossibility; I think it’s a serious challenge, but I’m not ready to pass the reins. I enjoy it too much.”
