‘I will open Mayfair gallery despite vote to leave EU’

A MAJOR European art dealer set to open his first gallery in London next ye a r s ay s the c i t y ’s b o o mi n g art market could do even better after the Brexit vote.

Thaddaeus Ropac, who runs galleries in Paris and Salzburg, said he was “very upset” by Britain’s vote to leave the EU but had no hesitation going ahead with his plans for 2017.

He said: “I have seen London rise like a phoenix from the ashes 20 years ago with young artists coming through.

“It wasn’t London’s politics that did that, it was the artists, the culture — it came from the underground.

“It is all about being the sort of place where the artists feel inspired and London is definitely that.”

Mr Ropac, who describes himself as “staunchly European”, said he thought leaving the EU might bring some trade back from sellers who went to New York to avoid the droit de suite levy — a European law which gives an artist or their heirs the right to a payment ever y time t hei r work is re-sold up to 70 years after their death.

He said: “I think actually London may profit from this in that complicated regulations may be removed.”

The Austrian-born dealer said he did not expec t a serious challenge to London’s position in the art world.

He said: “It is true that Berlin is great for artists and is a cheap place to live, but you can’t compare the infrastructure there with London.

“Tate Modern is still the most important museum in the world for contemporary art. London is a central part of the art world and Brexit will not change that.”

His Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac is set to open in Mayfair’s Ely House next spring, with four galleries spread across five floors of the building in Dover Street.