Victor Custot is the first to say he is still learning from his father, Stéphane. But if succession at Waddington Custot is now formally underway, instinct does not seem to be the issue.
Long before the 32-year-old imagined a future in the art world, before the title of board director, before the Sotheby’s degree, and before the daily mechanics of gallery life, Victor had already made a sale.
Visiting Stéphane at Art Basel Miami Beach during a break from his life as a tech entrepreneur in Canada, a young Victor got talking with an American collector about a Barry Flanagan sculpture on the stand.
“Maybe because Victor has some charm, the collector kept talking to him,” Stéphane said fondly, on a video call from Hong Kong. “At the end of all that, Victor sold him the big Flanagan sculpture.”
It’s an origin story that feels fitting for a gallery like Waddington Custot: instinctive and threaded through with history. It is one of London’s most storied commercial galleries, a mainstay of Cork Street, the city’s iconic gallery row. Its roots stretch back to 1958, when the dealer Victor Waddington founded The Waddington Galleries with his son Leslie. Few London galleries can claim that kind of lineage. Fewer still have managed to carry it forward without losing their spark.
Now the gallery is entering another defining chapter. As Waddington Custot prepares to open a new space in Paris, it is also beginning a formal generational transition, with Victor Custot stepping into the business his father, Stéphane, helped define. The gallery is expanding its footprint just as it starts to test how legacy is carried forward.
How Waddington Custot became one of London’s most storied commercial galleries
The gallery’s current iteration, Waddington Custot, was formed in 2010 when Stéphane—already a formidable dealer and founder of the PAD design art fairs—joined forces with Leslie. Stéphane had been looking for a London space to expand his business; Leslie was looking for a partner. “It was an opportunity,” Stéphane said. “A great one.”
This meeting of minds sharpened the gallery’s identity. Leslie brought with him a programme shaped by iconic modern and post-war names—selling “[Pablo] Picasso, [Jean] Dubuffet, Peter Blake and Barry Flanagan,” Stéphane recalled. “I thought it was fantastic, because I was a modern dealer, so thanks to Leslie, I learned a lot about contemporary art.”
Site aléatoire avec 2 personnages 29 mars 1982, 1982
Jean Dubuffet
Waddington Custot
That exchange still defines the gallery today. After Leslie’s passing in 2015, Stéphane took full ownership, preserving the Waddington legacy while extending its international ambitions. The program has continued to offer a mix of modern and established contemporary art, treating the two categories as part of the same conversation.
Victor joined the family business in 2023, following Stéphane’s path to Sotheby’s for an MA degree in art business and immersing himself in everything from shipping to sales. He speaks deferentially about his place in the gallery. “My role is just to learn as much as I can,” he said. “I think you need to be very well-rounded.”
One of Stéphane’s main pieces of advice has been “to be very humble,” and Victor has taken it to heart. Asked how he hoped to make his mark on the gallery, he answered cautiously. His tastes are “quite classic for someone my age.” His focus for now is on realizing his father’s vision. And a new chapter is what the gallery is opening—literally—in Paris.
Waddington Custot’s Paris expansion
The Paris move was not, Stéphane notes, part of some master plan. But when gallerist Pascal Lansberg called to offer him first refusal of a “dream” space on Rue de Seine opposite La Palette—the legendary left bank café frequented by Paul Cézanne and Picasso—it was too good to turn down.
It will open this week with “The Nabi Shock,” a landmark exhibition devoted to a movement at the heart of the gallery’s expertise. It will bring together modernist painters including Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Paul Sérusier, and Édouard Vuillard, alongside contemporary artists such as Etel Adnan, Ian Davenport, Marcel Dzama, and Fabienne Verdier. “This is really the DNA of the gallery,” Stéphane said. “It shows how modern art influenced and still influences the young artist and the contemporary artist.”
A new chapter for the family business
Nijinski Five, 2005
Barry Flanagan
Waddington Custot
Indeterminate Line, 2023
Bernar Venet
Waddington Custot
While London remains its historical core and the gallery’s location in Dubai, opened in 2015, reflects Stéphane’s appetite for opportunity and his confidence in the Middle East (which he still maintains), Paris presents a renewed statement of intent.
One of Victor’s other immediate priorities is bringing a younger audience into the gallery through events, talks, and workshops. He talks about the central locations of the gallery’s spaces in London, Paris, and Dubai as crucial. “It is meant to be alive,” he said. He wants people to come not only to look, but to learn, to spend time, to enjoy themselves. “We should be one of the places that people want to come to learn and to have fun.”
Extending the gallery’s relevance without thinning out its seriousness may be Victor’s main task. It’s too early to see how the gallery will evolve as Victor grows into his role, but the shape of his trajectory is clear: a historical gallery opening into a new city at the moment its future is being formed.
“Let's see how long I will stay,” Victor said. “But right now, it looks like I want to be there for the very long term.”
