Guy Wildenstein has stepped down from the office of president at the internationally known gallery Wildenstein & Co. after some 35 years in the post.
Wildenstein, 80, will be replaced by his son David, 46, who has been vice president in charge of the investment division and the real estate portfolio. His daughter Vanessa, who directs the London gallery, will be vice-president and director of the New York location.
Wildenstein also headed the Wildenstein Institute, which partnered with the Hasso Plattner Foundation, of Potsdam, to publish catalogues raisonnés on artists including Paul Gauguin, Jasper Johns, and Claude Monet. The Institute makes its catalogues freely available online.
“Under his leadership, Wildenstein & Co. helped shape countless private collections and continued to enrich the holdings of major museums in the US and around the world,” the gallery said in a statement to the Art Newspaper, which first reported the news. The gallery also highlighted the way Wildenstein diversified the company, which “now also has a meaningful investment division which focuses on real estate and private equity investments.”
Nathan Wildenstein, a tailor by profession, founded the gallery in 1875, after an aristocratic client asked him to sell an Old Master painting for her. Wildenstein deals in artworks from the 17th century to the present, historically focusing on French Impressionists and Old Masters. The gallery participates in top fairs including TEFAF Maastricht and Frieze Masters.
Wildenstein was found guilty of tax fraud in 2024 after a years-long legal saga in which he was accused of hiding masterworks in his collection from tax authorities as a scheme to avoid hundreds of millions of euros in inheritance taxes. He received a four-year prison sentence, half of it suspended and half of it to be spent under house arrest, and was ordered to pay a 1 million euro fine (about $1.08 million at the time of sentencing). He had been acquitted of tax fraud and money laundering in 2017, but a French appeals court overturned that decision in 2021. Prosecutors said the Wildenstein family pulled off “the longest and most sophisticated tax fraud” in the history of modern France.
“Serving as President of Wildenstein & Co. has been the greatest honour of my life,” Wildenstein told the Art Newspaper. “I am incredibly proud to have stewarded one of the world’s great art galleries and dealerships. Throughout my tenure, I have enjoyed the loyal support of some truly gifted colleagues, and I am gratified by what our team has accomplished together.”
Wildenstein told the Art Newspaper that the conviction “has nothing to do with his decision to step down, which is dictated by his confidence that the company is well positioned for continued success under the leadership of David and Vanessa.”
