Gary Nader is a breed apart in the art world. For over thirty years, he has been regarded as one of the most savvy and successful art dealers and gallery owners in the world, with a far-reaching influence that spans the United States, Europe and Latin America, all the way to the Middle East where he embraces his Lebanese roots. Nader deserves credit for helping to educate a vast number of collectors and art lovers towards an understanding of the values an historical importance of Latin American art.
Nader owns two of the largest gallery spaces in the world: Gary Nader Art Center, in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, boasts an exhibition space of 55,000 square feet (colossal in gallery-speak) and the recently opened Gary Nader Fine Art in New York, with more than 4,500 square feet of exhibition space.
To fund a proposed art center in Miami, Latin American art dealer Gary Nader will sell $100 million worth of works from his collection, the Miami New Times reports.
According to Nader, the works range in price and will be priced up to $15 million. His collection currently includes pieces by Pablo Picasso, Fernando Botero, Roy Lichtenstein, and Damien Hirst.
The news that Nader will sell some of his art is the latest development in a long and complex process Nader has undergone to build a museum in Florida. Nader, who currently runs a center in Miami’s Wynwood district, as well as a gallery in New York, first announced his plans to build an institution in 2014; at that time, the 90,000-square-foot center was slated to open in 2016. (The square footage and opening date have changed several times over the past few years.) Designed by Mexican architect Fernando Romero, it was to be called the Latin American Art Museum—Nader’s site now lists it as the Nader Latin American Art Museum, or NaderLAAM for short—and would be able to showcase his 650-work collection.
Initially, Nader had proposed the museum for a space near Miami Dade College, but, in 2016, the plans for the museum became mired in internal politics at the school. Nader has since chosen to look elsewhere, noting in the latest Miami New Times report that he will likely open the institution somewhere in downtown Miami.
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