Andrew Fabricant is out as chief operating officer at Gagosian, according to an email from gallery founder Larry Gagosian that was obtained by ARTnews. Fabricant’s wife, Laura Paulson, who has led the gallery’s art advisory since 2019, is also not on staff anymore.
“Andrew Fabricant and Laura Paulson are no longer with the gallery,” Larry Gagosian said in his email. “At this moment in the gallery’s evolution, we arrived at the point where I decided it was time for us to part ways. We are grateful for their contributions over the past several years and wish them well.”
News of Fabricant and Paulson’s ouster was first reported on Thursday by Bloomberg.
Fabricant first began working with Gagosian in the 1980s. After 15 years there, he left to pursue jobs at other galleries before rejoining Gagosian in 2018. The following year, he was made chief operating officer overseeing the administrative and operational sides of gallery.
In 2022, he joined the flashy board of directors compiled by Gagosian that included members from the real estate, tech, film, and television industries, including Delphine Arnault, executive vice president of Louis Vuitton, who also sits on LVMH’s board of directors and its executive committee.
At the time, Larry Gagosian said that his “goal in assembling a Board of Directors was to raise the bar on the gallery’s strategic thinking and vision for the future.” Gagosian, who is now 78 years old, has no known succession plan, and the news spurred some to believe that Fabricant could be an heir to his gallery empire.
This is the second high-profile change at the gallery in the past month. In late May, ARTnews reported that Sotheby’s star specialist Brooke Lampley left the auction house to join Gagosian in the fall as a senior director.
In an email sent to the gallery’s staff, Gagosian said, “I plan to continue our advisory arm with some changes. I see a lot of potential in the development of that business alongside our core gallery operations and will be sharing more about those plans in the near future.”
