Larry Gagosian

Working in concert with collectors including Douglas S. Cramer, Eli Broad, and Keith Barish, he developed a reputation for staging museum-quality exhibitions of contemporary art.

[1][3] He worked briefly in a record store, a bookstore, a supermarket, and in an entry-level job as Michael Ovitz’s secretary[4] at the William Morris Agency,[5] but got his start in the art business by selling posters near the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles.

In 1978, he opened his first gallery, on La Brea Avenue in West Hollywood, and began showing young Californians (Vija Celmins, Chris Burden) and new New Yorkers (Eric Fischl, Cindy Sherman, Jean-Michel Basquiat).

It was Castelli who introduced Gagosian to Charles Saatchi and Samuel Newhouse Jr.[7] In his first New York appearance, in 1979, he presented David Salle's first exhibition in a loft at 421 West Broadway,[8] in collaboration with dealer Annina Nosei.

[10][8] In the early 1980s, Gagosian developed his business rapidly by exploiting the possibilities of reselling works of art by blue-chip modern and contemporary artists, earning the nickname "Go-Go" in the process.

On 10 May 2022, Gagosian bought one of the four Shot Marilyns paintings by Andy Warhol, for a record breaking $195 million, making it the most expensive piece of 20th century art to change hands in a public sale.

[8] In 2010, internet pioneer David Bohnett sold his 5,700 square foot Holmby Hills compound, originally designed by A. Quincy Jones for Gary Cooper, to Gagosian for $15.5 million, according to public records.