The former home of one of New York’s most storied galleries is officially on the market. The first and second floors of the Chelsea Arts Tower, which once housed Marlborough Gallery, have been listed for $10.9 million. Jeffrey Zoldan and Roger Gillen of Brown Harris Stevens are handling the sale, offering a space that doubles as a piece of art history.
The 545 West 25th Street location boasts 18-foot-high ceilings, curb-cut access, and a street-level garage door capable of accommodating monumental artworks. With its flexible zoning and an expansive second-floor terrace, the space could potentially become another gallery, a museum, a school, or even a gym. But for those familiar with the art world, the address is synonymous with one thing: Marlborough Gallery’s rise and eventual fall.
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The sale is the latest chapter in the slow dissolution of Marlborough, once one of the most powerful galleries on both sides of the Atlantic. The gallery, which built its reputation on artists like Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and Jackson Pollock, announced last year that it would be closing its doors for good after nearly 80 years in business. Alongside the Chelsea space, the gallery’s London building, a 10-story structure in Mayfair, was listed in September of last year for roughly $32 million.
Marlborough’s demise has been anything but simple. A bitter internal battle within the family-run business culminated in legal disputes, allegations of financial mismanagement, and, eventually, the closure of its New York operations. In 2019, the gallery had planned a grand consolidation of its Chelsea and Midtown locations, only for the plan to unravel after a power struggle within the Lloyd and Levai families—the dynasty that had controlled the gallery since its founding in 1946. By 2020, amid the upheaval, Marlborough’s leadership had collapsed, and its future as an institution was in doubt.
While the gallery has promised that a portion of its liquidation proceeds will go toward nonprofit arts institutions, the exact details of those plans remain unclear. The sunsetting process is expected to take years, and while the former gallery no longer represents any artists or estates, its inventory of paintings, photos, and prints is said to be worth upward of $250 million.