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Copyright © 2026 All Rights Reserved
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Copyright © 2026 All Rights Reserved
In 1990, Emmanuel Perrotin opened his first gallery in his own apartment in the Marais — 60 square metres, no marketing budget, no investors. Thirty-five years later, Galerie Perrotin counts thirteen spaces in nine cities, from Paris to Seoul by way of Los Angeles. This trajectory is exceptional, ce
In June 2024, David Zwirner publicly announced he was reducing his presence at international fairs, citing operational costs that had become "unsustainable" for most galleries. The news shook the industry: if one of the three most powerful galleries in the world was questioning the fair model, what
In 1912, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler signed an exclusivity contract with Picasso that would redefine the relationship between a dealer and an artist for decades to come. This document was not merely a commercial agreement — it was a pact of mutual trust, a promise that Kahnweiler would defend Picasso's
In 2023, the online art market represented approximately 11 billion dollars according to the Art Basel/UBS report — nearly 18% of the global market. Yet when you ask gallery owners about their actual results, the picture is considerably more nuanced: the vast majority of galleries present on digital
In 2023, the Art Basel/UBS report confirmed what many independent gallerists had sensed for years: 1% of galleries worldwide capture around 50% of the art market. Meanwhile, Gagosian operates across 19 spaces on three continents, Hauser & Wirth has transformed a Somerset farm into a cultural destina
The dealer considering presenting their works online faces a structural question that conditions their entire digital strategy: should they join a generalist platform that sells everything, including art, or a platform specialising in art and galleries. This choice is far from trivial. It determines
The dealer who entrusts the presentation of their works to an online platform entrusts far more than images and prices. They entrust the reputation of their gallery, the careers of their artists and the relationship with their collectors. This delegation of trust implies a level of standards that to
The dealer who decides to extend their visibility online faces a landscape of platforms that has expanded considerably in recent years. The 2023 Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report identified a growing ecosystem with platforms of very different natures and positionings. All promise visibility, acces
The online art market surpassed 11 billion dollars in 2023 according to the Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report, representing a substantial share of the global market. Yet many dealers continue to perceive the digital realm as a threat rather than a lever. This reluctance rests on a set of misconcep
The dealer who views an online presence as competition for their physical space is making a reasoning error that costs them visitors, collectors and sales. Art market data demonstrates the opposite of this intuition: a gallery visible online attracts more visitors to its walls than one that remains
The debate between physical gallery and online sales is a false dilemma. The galleries that succeed in 2026 are neither exclusively physical nor exclusively digital: they are hybrid. They combine the irreplaceable power of the physical space with the geographically unlimited reach of the online mark
The online art market is no longer in its infancy. Collectors who buy on the internet are no longer curious pioneers: they are demanding buyers whose expectations have been shaped by years of digital practice across every domain of their lives. They compare, evaluate and decide with increasingly pre
It is tempting to view the absence of an online presence as a saving. No website to maintain, no platform subscription, no time spent updating digital content. On the surface, the gallery that remains exclusively physical saves money. In reality, it loses money. The cost of online invisibility is a
There persists in the art world a belief that online selling is fundamentally incompatible with the nature of the art market. A work of art, the argument goes, requires a physical relationship, human mediation, a spatial context that the screen cannot reproduce. This belief contains a grain of truth
The art world has long operated on an implicit principle: the physical encounter with the work is irreplaceable, therefore the gallery needs nothing beyond its walls. That principle remains true in its essence. Nothing replaces standing before a canvas, perceiving a sculpture in space, sensing the t
The dealer considering joining an online marketplace asks a legitimate question: concretely, what will happen? The enthusiastic testimonials from platforms and marketing promises are not enough to reassure a professional accustomed to evaluating opportunities with pragmatism. What the dealer wants t
The art market is undergoing a structural transformation whose effects are already visible but whose full scale is not yet measured. Some galleries have begun their digital transition and are starting to reap the benefits. Others observe the movement cautiously, waiting to see whether the trend conf
The dealer examining a marketplace's pricing schedule sees a commission percentage and instinctively compares it to the price of a gallery sale, where the full margin is retained. This comparison is misleading because it opposes two situations that are not equivalent. A gallery sale is not free: it
The fear of additional workload is one of the most frequent objections when a dealer considers developing an online presence. A gallery's daily life is already full: preparing exhibitions, supporting artists, maintaining collector relationships, managing shipments, preparing for fairs, keeping accou
This sentence comes up in almost every conversation with a dealer who hesitates about developing an online presence. It is spoken with sincere conviction, grounded in years of practice and intimate knowledge of one's clientele. The dealer knows their collectors. They have watched them hesitate befor
This question haunts many dealers, particularly those whose positioning relies on exclusivity, scarcity and a privileged relationship with a selected clientele. If the prestige of a gallery is founded on the idea that not everything can be easily bought, that access to works is a privilege reserved
The fear of cannibalisation runs deep among many dealers. If collectors can view and buy works online, why would they still visit the gallery? If a work is visible on a screen, does the magic of discovery in a physical space not evaporate? And if sales shift to digital, what becomes of the physical
Among all the objections dealers raise about going digital, the question of time is probably the most sincere. The dealer is already a professional whose days overflow: managing the space, maintaining relationships with artists, following up with collectors, preparing exhibitions, attending fairs, h
When a dealer considers joining an online marketplace, the most frequent concern is neither cost nor logistics. It is the fear of losing control over their image. And this concern is well founded. An art gallery is not a business like any other: it carries an identity, a curatorial vision, a positio