Robert Mnuchin, the New York gallerist behind some of the most lucrative secondary market deals in history, has died.
Mnuchin came to selling art late in life, having spent 33 years as an equities trader, mainly with Goldman Sachs, and director of the New York Stock Exchange. In 1992 he opened C&M Arts in New York, with James Corcoran, and the dealers staged a number of shows of Willem de Kooning, as well as Jeff Koons, Andy Warhol and Phillip Guston. The gallery was also instrumental in developing the market for Black Abstraction, with shows for artists including Ed Clark and Sam Gilliam.
In 2005, Mnuchin went into partnership with Dominique Lévy, the gallery changing its name to L&M Arts, and they began representing David Hammons. In 2019 Mnuchin bought Jeff Koon’s stainless steel Rabbit sculpture on behalf of Steve Cohen for $80 million, the second highest amount paid for an artwork by a living artist.
Mnuchin’s son Steven was Treasury Secretary in the first Trump administration.
