the art world's biggest shark
how larry gagosian went from dropout to billion dollar dealmaker
have you heard the story of gogo?
there’s
fraud
oligarchs
lavish parties
masterful marketing
lawsuits, lots of lawsuits
and a whole lot of morally ambiguous decisions
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don’t recognize the name?
you might know him as larry gagosian.
billion-dollar art dealer.
he and i are ol’ pals though.
so i’ll be referring to him as gogo.
more on the nickname soon.
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“larry is in a position that no one has ever been in the art business.”
“he’s the guy”
david geffen (billionaire hollywood mogul and longtime client)
but it hasn’t always been this way.
if i weren’t doing what i do, i would be unemployed.
larry gagosian
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see, gogo was a pretty shit student.
he dropped out of college twice.
before graduating after 6 years.
he figured, what’s the hurry?
this was the 60s.
there were women to be chased.
pot to be smoked.
his father felt his prospects were so bleak, he once said,
if you just do something with your life i’ll buy you pot.
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which is to say, his entry into the art market was a total fluke.
while working as a parking attendant in westwood.
he saw a fella selling cheap posters on the sidewalk.
it looked like the guy was doing good business,
so gogo ⌘C + ⌘V’d it.
completely ripped it off.
even stole the guy’s supplier.
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but he made one change.
adding frames.
his prints went from $15 a pop, to $50.
not bad.
the power of perfume on a pig.
and so his art career began.
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first, let’s talk parties
despite being chummy with ol’ gogo
i’ve yet to be invited to one of them (must have my old address?)
but if you’re lucky enough to enter his orbit (and stay in his good graces)
you might gain access to the yearly swirl of “larry parties”.
these aren’t your standard parties.
the guest lists are curated by him, with meticulous detail.
too many billionaires and it feels like davos.
too many models and you’re leaving money on the table.
it’s a balancing act he’s perfected in his 50 years in business.
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here are just a few off his annual line-up:
new year’s bash in st. barts
pre-oscar’s party @ LA estate
memorial day party @ hampton’s estate
star-studded art basel dinner in switzerland
one-night-only exhibition at casa malaparte in capri
related: larry gagosian didn’t show up to party at his own house, bunch of celebrities did
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ace the ratio of billionaires / celebrities / models &…
you’ve got a great party
how lavish are these parties?
so extravagant that his rivals admit with a mixture of envy and genuine confusion—they don’t understand how he affords them.
overhead is the mother of invention
larry
let’s be clear.
these aren’t done out of the kindness of gogo’s heart.
his celebrated guests are there to have fun, but not gogo.
gogo is there to work.
the guy is always working, even when he’s having fun. this motherfucker works 24/7.
tico mugrabi, billionaire collector (more on the mugrabis soon)
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which leads us to the nickname he earned early in his career:
gogo
GO, GO
he’s a shark.
keep moving or die.
on the topic of self-reflection, he says:
i avoid it — it’s how you “lose your edge”.
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here’s the thing with the art market.
it’s notoriously opaque.
that’s part of its appeal.
the ~mystique~ of it all.
and gogo is the grandmaster of mystery
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one morning at his hampton’s estate
his live-in girlfriend awoke to the roar of chopper blades
gogo slides out of bed & goes—
oop, gotta run babe!
what?? where?
to see a collector.
a collector? who???
yeah.. can’t say.
sorry, gotta go!
80% of art deals happen out of the public eye
mostly at exclusive soirées like the ones mentioned above.
the only time we get a glimpse into that world is when a piece goes to auction.
or there’s a divorce.
divorces are the best.
more on that shortly.
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first, let me intro you to the mugrabi family.
long time clients of gogo’s.
they happen to like warhol.
like, REALLY like warhol.
so much so that they’ve cornered the market.
they own so many warhols, they effectively control pricing.
the man with 800 warhols (wsj, 2008)
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if you were them, what would you do?
i’d want number go up.
which they’ve done — very successfully.
with a little help from their pal.
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any time a work (that they don’t already own) goes to auction,
they conspire with gogo to ensure the piece doesn’t sell for below so and so many million dollars.
bidding it up,
buying it themselves if necessary.
thus, keeping the price artificially high.
and ensuring the value of their warhol collection continues to climb.
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some call this price manipulation.
they’d call it good business.
good business is the best art.
andy warhol
ahh right — divorces
one of the mugrabi’s has been a recurring presence in page 6 recently.
how’d he get there?
psychedelic mushrooms and a little ketamine.
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following a night of entertaining + $800 bottles of wine
ms. mugrabi, waltzed downstairs at 6am.
on the couch she discovers her husband
and an attractive brunette
laying naked on the couch under a bath towel.
wooof.
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apparently ms. mugrabi stewed on this one for a few days.
then confronted the woman.
(who was still staying at their home)
the attractive brunette claimed “nothing happened”
then blamed their behavior on a concoction of shrooms and keta.
which i find to be a perfectly valid excuse.
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the fun doesn’t end there.
here are a few of the subsequent headlines:
art billionaire accused of ‘charging’ at wife over keith haring statue
socialite libbie mugrabi arrested for menacing ex-housekeeper with mop, breaking her phone: cops
libbie mugrabi claims billionaire ex asked about a hitman to ‘kill’ her
the gagosian price
gogo’s brand as a dealer is so strong—it rivals that of the world-class artists he represents.
remember that trick he came up with at the start?
adding a frame to a cheap poster
and charging triple.
well he’s still doing it.
just this time—
he is the frame.
simply by passing through his hands
a work appreciates in value.
there are never any bargains, but it’s all on a reasonable basis.
leon black (billionaire, former MoMA trustee, & jeffrey epstein associate who is accused of raping an autistic teen)
sidenote: very few works actually “pass through” gogo’s hands. artwork is often stored in freeports to avoid taxes. when they sell to a new collector the only movement that occurs is a whole lot of zeros and an update of the freeport’s records.
when a collector buys from gogo, what they’re really buying is gogo’s cachet, says dealer, richard polsky
you cannot underestimate the egos of the people who buy from gagosian. most would rather overpay to be part of his world, and he counts on that mystique to draw clients to him.
see, what gogo is offering collectors is the ability to buy a tiny sliver of larry.
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it’s incredible.
he inverted this thing where normally the art dealers were trying to emulate their clients.
larry’s clients are trying to emulate him.
loïc gouzer, former co-chairman at christie’s
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somewhere along the way, gogo went from servant to masters of the universe, to becoming one himself.
as you know, gogo throws the best parties.
but he didn’t always have the means to.
so how’d he manage to rub shoulders with elites before becoming one himself?
simple.
by crashing their parties
he was known to show up to exclusive parties, uninvited and shmooze.
but he’d do more than shmooze.
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he’d case the place.
excusing himself for a bathroom break, he’d sneak off
scoping the artworks housed in the residences he crashed.
though he’s known to have a near-photographic memory,
he left nothing to chance.
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after spotting a worthy piece, he’d whip out his polaroid camera and take a photo of the work.
the following day he’d hit “the horn” as he likes to call it
ringing his rolodex of collectors
asking if they’re interested in purchasing a warhol, picasso, renoir or whatever coveted piece he has glimpsed.
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thing is — these pieces weren’t for sale.
not yet at least.
once he found a buyer for the piece
he’d dial his host from the night before
offering them a price that they couldn’t refuse
thereby he was able to sell pieces that weren’t for sale.
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this taught gogo a powerful lesson:
a true dealer knows everything has a price
& the best way to raise the price of something
is to say its not for sale.
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in his new yorker profile gogo insists he does not “sell art out of my house,”
then shortly after, admits that he actually has.
reading his profile, i couldn’t help but think
this motherfucker has created the ultimate shoppable experience
but unlike your favorite influencer, you can’t to buy into his lifestyle for the cost of a $150 our place cookware set.
no, you need to be a billionaire, or close.
take the case of bernard arnault, ceo of lvmh
who while visiting larry’s home, he expressed enthusiam for some art on display,
i told him, ‘everything here is for sale. don’t be nervous. you want to buy the chair? you can buy the chair. you want to buy the painting? just ask! it’s all for sale.’
gogo
right, i probably should have mentioned this earlier
*these are (mostly) allegations
gogo, please don’t sue.
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pull up his wikipedia and you’ll find it chock-full of accusations.
a few of them have stuck.
like the felony he caught back in 1969 for fraud charges.
but there are many other instances that have been settled… more quietly.
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when he spoke with the new yorker, gogo told the reporter to talk to anyone.
except for maybe his exes.
skip those.
when the reporter said it would be his journalistic duty to speak with them.
he responded,
i hope you have a good legal department.
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as his profile has risen he’s largely cleaned up his act.
at least as far as the law is concerned.
but in terms of morality?
well…
gogo doesn’t bother with drawing ethical lines.
at the moment, oligrachs are off-menu due to sanctions.
but that still leaves plenty of unsavory types for gogo to do business with:
sam waksal, who pleaded guilty to securities fraud, bank fraud, obstruction of justice, and perjury
peter m. brant, who served six weeks in federal prison on charges related to tax documents, then celebrated his release with a dinner at gagosian’s house
steve cohen, whose hedge fund pleaded guilty to so much insider trading that it had to pay a $1.8-billion fine.
oh right, and of course leon black
who’s alleged of doing something so repugnant that i won’t mention it again
the cost of success
study enough of these captains of industry
and you realize their success comes at a cost.
here’s one:
among the 10 richest men in the world
there are 13 divorces.
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sooo, would i want to be gogo?
nah.
i’m straight.
-t