LONDON is to get a new art gallery, housed in a former Dairy in Bloomsbury, near the British Museum.
Popular on LondonNet
Set up by Frank Cohen, the Glyn Webb Home Improvement Stores billionaire, and Danish art collector Nicolai Frahm, the gallery is to open in April with a show by Swiss artist John Armleder (see photo). Cohen and Frahm intend entry to their gallery to be free.
“We think that art should be for everyone,” said Cohen.
Cohen is second only to Charles Saatchi in the league table of British art collectors, with major holdings of works by LS Lowry as well as the Young British Artists. He’s also known as a backer of contemporary Chinese and Indian art.
On top of its cultural attractions, the gallery will also be a shop window for what Cohen and Frahm believe to be a rising art market fuelled by the new global super-rich.
“In London, where you used to have no collectors, it’s an incredible thing to see,” Frahm told the Guardian.
“So the prices will keep going up because there are very few great art pieces available.”
