The Swiss mega gallery Hauser & Wirth, which has spaces in London and Somerset as well as Los Angeles, Paris and Hong Kong, has been cleared of breaching Russian sanctions in connection with the sale of a work of art by George Condo.
The gallery was first charged in November 2025, alongside the shipping company Artay Rauchwerger Solomons, after selling Condo’s work on paper, Escape from Humanity (2021), to a collector named Alexander Popov. The sale is reported to have happened sometime between 14 April and 31 December 2022—after the UK’s department for international trade imposed a ban on the export of luxury goods worth more than £250 to Russia, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Popov, who runs a prominent art foundation with his wife, is not under UK sanctions and was not accused of any wrongdoing.
In what was believed to be the first case relating to the UK’s ban on supply of luxury goods to Russia, Judge Tony Baumgardner quashed the two criminal charges yesterday, ruling that prosecutors had not produced sufficient evidence that Popov was a Russian resident at the time of the sale.
A spokesperson for Hauser & Wirth confirmed that the court had “dismissed the case against our UK gallery in its entirety”. They add: “From the outset, we strongly contested these proceedings and denied any wrongdoing. We continue to be fully committed to complying with all our legal obligations including with respect to sanctions. We are pleased that this matter is now closed.”
The prosecution came at the end of last year after it was announced that Condo had left Hauser & Wirth; the gallery’s spokesperson told The Art Newspaper at the time that Condo’s decision to leave was not connected to the case. This week, Hauser & Wirth announced it would once again represent Condo alongside his long-term gallery Sprüth Magers.
