Show Me The Money: Gallery And Auctioneer Accounts Reveal Reality Of A Tough Market The Art Newspaper International Art News And Events

(MENAFN- USA Art News) UK Art Market Accounts Reveal a Split Year for Mega-Galleries and Auction Houses A new round of UK filings is offering an unusually granular look at how the upper tier of the art trade is absorbing a softer market: several blue-chip galleries reported shrinking revenue or sharply reduced profits, while one of London’s best-known dealers posted a notable jump in earnings. Auction houses, meanwhile, appear to be contending with the familiar squeeze of high operating costs and pressured margins. Among the galleries reporting a downturn was Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery Ltd. Its 2024 accounts show turnover of £36.4 million, down from £49.6 million in 2023. In the director’s report, Thaddaeus Ropac attributed the lower turnover to“an increasingly difficult period across the art market as it reacts to current uncertainties around economy, tariffs and socio-political upheavals.” He also pointed to“decreasing gross profit margins and increasing overheads across the industry.” Despite the contraction, the business remained profitable. The gallery reported profits of £1.8 million after tax for 2024, compared with £7 million the year before. Net assets stood at £7.9 million at the end of 2024, down from £13.2 million in 2023. The company also paid a dividend of £7.1 million to shareholders during the year (down from £9.4 million in 2023). Even as the market cooled, Ropac continued to expand its footprint. The gallery opened a space in Milan last September and, in February, announced plans to enter the US for the first time with a project space in New York. Other major international dealers with UK entities also reported profit pressure. Hauser & Wirth’s UK arm saw pre-tax profits fall by almost 90% in 2024, a decline the business attributed to“lower secondary market sales.” At David Zwirner, after-tax profit dropped from £2.5 million to £41,180. The accounts cite a fall in turnover, partially offset by a lower valuation of unsold stock: £326,000 in 2024 versus £2.5 million in 2023. Not every balance sheet pointed downward. White Cube, which files under the name Modern Collections Ltd, reported a rise in both turnover and profit in its most recent accounts. For the year ended March 31, 2025, turnover increased to £15.3 million from £10.6 million in 2023–24, while profit after tax rose to £5.2 million from £1.6 million. The filings also underscore how intricate gallery corporate structures can be. On June 30, 2025, Modern Collections LLP - the company’s immediate parent undertaking, registered in British Columbia, Canada - was dissolved. The ultimate controlling party remained J.M. Jopling, but the new immediate parent undertaking became Mansmoor Ltd, a company set up in 2009. One of the more striking details in the White Cube accounts concerns a major write-down tied to inventory rights. Modern Collections reduced the £27.2 million cost of its contractual right to sell a designated body of art by £17.8 million, leaving a net book value of £9.4 million as of March 31, 2025. The gallery declined to say whether the works relate to a single artist, or whether the devaluation reflects sales of the works or a shift in market value. The accounts also show the group holding £53.3 million worth of art in stock. Auction houses, too, have been filing their 2024 UK accounts, and the numbers suggest that scale does not automatically translate into conspicuous profitability. The four largest international auction houses operate through structures ultimately owned by offshore parent companies, making direct comparisons difficult. Still, the filings point to the realities of a high-cost business model in a period when premiums are under pressure. Bonhams’ owner, Vantage Bidco Ltd, filed its first set of consolidated accounts for 2024 at the end of December. The filing followed a change in ownership: the auction house was taken over by one of its lenders, Pemberton Asset Management, via a debt-for-equity swap in October 2025. (Bonhams’ previous owner, the private equity firm Epiris, acquired the company in 2018 using a loan from Pemberton.) Vantage Bidco’s accounts note that the company owed £207.3 million to Pemberton, with interest set at 6% above SONIA, the Bank of England’s benchmark interest rate - a reminder that, behind the theater of the rostrum, the auction business can be as much about financing as it is about taste. Taken together, the filings sketch a market recalibrating in real time: dealers managing slower turnover and inventory risk, while still pursuing strategic expansion, and auction houses navigating debt and cost structures that can quickly erode headline-grabbing sales totals.

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