The international gallery Almine Rech has closed its space in London’s Mayfair and put its UK business into voluntary liquidation. Filings to Companies House confirm that the London branch, recently re-registered as LG Realizations 2025, went into liquidation in August, a decision that a gallery statement says “was a technical step to restructure a lease that no longer aligned with our plans”.
The Companies House filing puts the London gallery’s deficit at £6.3m though the majority of this (£6m) relates to intercompany and shareholder loans. Almine Rech's eponymous founder tells The Art Newspaper she does not know if the outstanding amount includes money owed to the unnamed landlord. Otherwise, the statement underlines, "the gallery has no unpaid obligations to artists, employees, or suppliers".
Rech, who runs galleries in New York, Paris, Brussels, Shanghai, Monaco and Gstaad, opened in London in 2014, moving to the Broadbent House space in 2016 to great fanfare with a solo show of Jeff Koons.
Since then, London’s galleries and auction houses have suffered from the effects of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic, and Rech’s closure this summer coincides with a nervous time in the art market. London nonetheless remains “so important” she says, adding that “we will open something [there] soon,” though she does not give further details. When asked if any redundancies have been made, Rech answered “actually, we’re hiring people” in London.
Rech acknowledges that “the world is in a strange position” but says “we continue positively and our clients are supportive”. She reports a successful Frieze Seoul in early September and says that the gallery’s current exhibition of hyper-real paintings by the Canada-born Chloe Wise, which opened in Tribeca mid-month, “is already sold out”.