Almine Rech will close its gallery in London’s Mayfair district, Melanie Gerlis reported in the Art Newspaper on Friday. The space had been open for more than a decade, mounting shows for artists such as Javier Calleja, Chloe Wise, Jeff Koons, Esther Mahlangu, and many more.
Dealer Almine Rech, who founded her gallery in 1997 in Paris, told Gerlis that London remains “important” to her operation and that she “will open something” in the city in the future, without providing further specifics.
Gerlis also reported that Almine Rech’s London branch was put into liquidation. She referred to Companies House filings that suggest the gallery has a £6.3 million deficit. Rech said she did not owe money to artists, workers, or suppliers, and that the liquidation filing was “a technical step to restructure a lease that no longer aligned with our plans.”
Rech’s gallery will continue to operate the remaining eight locations, two of which are sited in Paris. The remaining six are spread across New York, Brussels, Shanghai, Monaco, and Gstaad.
Her gallery opened in London in 2014 on Savile Row before moving two years later to Grosvenor Hill, placing Almine Rech next door to Gagosian, which continues to operate its space there. (Gagosian, for its part, closed another of its London galleries in 2023 after 19 years.)
Earlier this year, dealer Almine Rech told ARTnews that she had lost some of her London collectors after new tax rules were instituted in the UK. “Once people go away and settle somewhere else, usually they don’t come back—when money leaves a place, it is not good,” she said. She also added, “I believe the UK has a strong capacity to react.”
To what extent Brexit may have played a role in Rech’s decision was unclear based on Gerlis’s report. But in 2023, some London dealers told ARTnews that the British art market remained strong, even as the one in France grows in prominence.
The last exhibition staged at its London gallery, a Gregor Hildebrandt solo show, closed on July 26.
