Brett Gorvy, chairman and international head of postwar and contemporary art at Christie’s, is to leave after a 23 year career at the auction house. Gorvy will become a partner at gallery Dominique Lévy, which will be renamed Lévy Gorvy. The New York Times notes that under his leadership Christie’s achieved the three highest record prices at auction: $179.4 million for Picasso’s Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’) in 2015; $170.4 million for Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu Couché (Reclining Nude) that same year; and $142.4 million for Francis Bacon’s triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud, in 2013.
Gorvy told the newspaper: ‘At the age of 52, you have one more opportunity. Even though I hate change, there’s a certain moment when you know in your heart that the time is right. You look at the Roger Federers. At what point do you basically take it to another level?’
Dominque Lévy currently has galleries in New York, London and Geneva.
7 December 2016
