It was impossible for any art dealer who wasn’t in a coma last month to miss the recent news that world-renowned Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei was beaten by Somerset art dealers Iwan and Manuela Wirth to be named as the most powerful figures in the art world.
They’re only the second art dealers to top ArtReview magazine’s annual Power 100 list in its entire 14-year history. The only other art dealer to have made it was Larry Gagosian, who occupied first place in both 2004 and 2010. Last year’s winner, Tate chief Sir Nicholas Serota, slipped to the number five slot this year.
Ai Weiwie, who appeared in London in September to promote the launch of a retrospective of his work at the Royal Academy, found himself displaced to the number 2 slot by the 16-member international jury.
When you consider that the Wirths (who are co-presidents of Hauser & Wirth and opened multi-purpose art centre Hauser & Wirth Somerset in the town of Bruton last year) have galleries in London, Zurich and New York, it’s not difficult to see how they reached the coveted premier position in the list. They’ll be opening a new gallery space in Los Angeles next year.
According to ArtReview:
“The Wirths' increased influence stems in part from what they have done to change the model of selling and promoting art.”
"As big art dealers are becoming ever better at selling art for high prices, and as collectors want to see themselves as more than just anonymous purchasers, the husband-and-wife-team understand that selling art objects isn't the whole story - the well-off want to be sold a lifestyle.”
We thought it timely to run this story here on the Unbolted blog, partly because Iwan and Maneula Wirth are enviably among the privileged few in the art dealership world able to borrow substantial amounts to finance new art acquisitions on the back of their impressive repertoire of valuable art assets. But we think every art dealer and collector should have access to secured asset loans, no matter how “small fry” they might appear in comparison to the Big Fish.
If you’re an art dealer seeking to purchase an unmissable work that your current liquidity situation won’t permit, we might be able to help. We use cutting-edge technology to run a unique peer-to-peer lender platform that minimises risks to out lenders and borrowers alike. That’s because we have no need for credit checks: if you have a valuable piece of fine art you can stand as security for the loan, our expert partners will evaluate it and give you up to 70% of the value and we’ll release the funds to you. Fast!
We know that smaller art dealers often don’t have the steady, stable incomes of salaried professionals but we also firmly believe that credit checks should not be a barrier to people who might be cash poor but are also asset rich. Like many small art dealers. Your asset is your security and our lenders’: if you’re unable to repay when the loan matures, we’ll sell it at auction, recovering only the amount we agreed with you at the start of the loan. Any excess will be returned to you. If you’re interested, just apply online.
