Christie’s International has announced that it is closing its Haunch of Venison galleries in London and New York in March. New York will close when its current group show, How To Tell The Future From The Past, finishes on 2 March; London will close following the Jose Parla show, which ends on 28 March.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Emilio Steinberger, Haunch of Venison’s senior international director, said: “The proposal is for Haunch of Venison to evolve into Christie’s private sales. Private sales at Christie’s have been growing exponentially and the decision was made that’s where the focus should be.”
Named after the London courtyard in which it was based, Haunch of Venison was founded in 2002 by Harry Blain and Graham Southern. It was bought by Christie’s in 2007. In 2010 the Berlin branch of the gallery was closed and in the same year Blain and Southern left to set up a new gallery, BlainSouthern, taking with them artists such as Bill Viola and Matt Collishaw.
Artists represented by Haunch of Venison include Richard Long, Nathan Coley, Nicolas Provost, Jamie Shovlin and Simon Patterson.
A statement issued by the gallery said: ‘The focus for Haunch of Venison going forward will be exclusively on sales in the secondary market, and we will cease to represent artists following the close of current exhibitions in New York and London in March 2013.’
The gallery would not comment on staffing matters or job losses due to the move, but redundancies are expected.
More on a-n.co.uk:
Haunch of Venison – Exhibition reviews on a-n Interface
Knowledge bank: Markets – What is the commercial climate for fine and applied arts? How important are galleries, corporate collectors and art fairs? Artists seeking to make a living from their work have to think carefully about how best to develop sales opportunities for their work.
