Pace Gallery, Emmanuel Di Donna and David Schrader are set to be the talk of Art Basel Miami Beach this week, after announcing that they will collaborate to launch the snappily titled Pace Di Donna Schrader Galleries (PDS), specialising in secondary market sales.
Last night’s surprise move from the new power threesome can be seen as the product of a number of factors impacting today’s art market.
As was seen in the latest November sales series in New York, while the more speculative young contemporary market has softened in the face of increasing uncertainty across the board, the market for blue chip 20th century works is bullish for the right material. Many of the big contemporary galleries have also been adding artist estates to their roster in the past few years, adding depth and breadth to their offering.
Against a backdrop of multiple gallery closures worldwide this year, the formation of PDS also speaks to a consolidation within the trade, and a chance to spread the load of considerable overheads while also sharing knowledge and contacts.
PDS will operate out of a new headquarters in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, with Pace Gallery, Emmanuel Di Donna, and David Schrader as equal partners. According to a statement, PDS “will be able to leverage Pace’s spaces and resources globally—including galleries in Los Angeles, London, Geneva, Berlin, Seoul, and Tokyo, as well as Pace’s global headquarters in New York”.
The new business will begin operations early next year and from summer 2026 Emmanuel Di Donna, the founder of Di Donna Galleries, and his team will expand to the new PDS Upper East Side headquarters. Di Donna, who opened his own gallery in 2010 after holding the role of vice chairman of impressionist and modern art Sotheby’s, is well established in the field of Surrealist, Modern, and post-war art.
Referencing Pace’s chief executive Marc Glimcher and eponymous gallerist David Schrader, Di Donna says in a statement: “For more than two decades, Marc, David, and I have collaborated informally whenever a work, a collection, or a museum project called for a shared perspective. Formalising that partnership now feels both natural and timely.”
Schrader was a collector working at JP Morgan before he joined Sotheby’s as head of private sales for contemporary art in 2017. Schrader says that, thanks to his and Di Donna’s history with the auction house, PDS will maintain a close relationship with Sotheby’s.
But this new venture is also intended to offer an alternative to buying through the major auction house’s private sales departments. And it’s a growing market.
“Private sales now represent more than half of all blue-chip transactions,” Schrader says in a statement. “Our new venture is a strategic and structural response to a market that has outgrown its old architecture.”
Glimcher told the New York Times: “The art business is desperately in need of evolution—everybody knows that. When a business gets this crammed up between expanding operating expenses and narrowing margins, it’s time for an evolution. It’s usually a time for consolidation as well, and this is that for sure.”
The NYT also quotes Glimcher as saying in a recent interview: “There are no great, great secondary galleries anymore”. Although he did then acknowledge Acquavella was an exception, that statement may still rustle a few feathers.
Glimcher’s father Arne, who founded Pace in 1960, is on board too. “For 65 years, Pace has been about something more than one individual,” he says in the statement. “The secret to our success has always been the people behind vision. Beginning with Milly and me in Boston, the gallery has always been the work of a team.
He adds: “We all see Pace Di Donna Schrader Galleries as a venture that will transform how galleries serve consigners and collectors; bringing the growth of the secondary market to new heights, while stewarding the legacy of the great art we have the privilege to work with.”