UK Gallery Accounts Reveal a Split Art Market as Ropac, Hauser & Wirth, and Zwirner Report Profit Drops While White Cube Rises
A new set of UK filings is offering a rare, numbers-forward snapshot of how the upper tier of the art trade is absorbing a softer market: several major galleries reported weaker revenue or sharply reduced profits, while one of London’s best-known dealers posted a notable jump.
Among the most closely watched results were those of Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery Ltd. The company’s 2024 accounts show turnover of £36.4 million, down from £49.6 million in 2023. In the directors’ report, Thaddaeus Ropac attributed the decline to what he described as a more challenging environment across the art market, pointing to uncertainty around the economy, tariffs, and broader socio-political upheaval. He also cited pressure on gross profit margins alongside rising overheads across the industry.
Despite the contraction, the gallery continued to expand its footprint. In September, it opened a space in Milan, and in February it announced plans to enter the US for the first time with a project space in New York.
The filing also shows a shift in the balance sheet. Net assets stood at £7.9 million at the end of 2024, compared with £13.2 million a year earlier. Profit after tax for 2024 was £1.8 million, down from £7 million in 2023. A dividend of £7.1 million was paid to shareholders during the year (down from £9.4 million in 2023).
Other international galleries with UK operations also reported declines. Hauser & Wirth’s UK arm saw pre-tax profits fall by almost 90% in 2024, with the directors’ report citing “lower secondary market sales.” At David Zwirner, after-tax profit dropped from £2.5 million to £41,180. The accounts point to reduced turnover, partially offset by a lower valuation of unsold stock: £326,000 in 2024 versus £2.5 million in 2023.
Not every major player moved in the same direction. White Cube, which files under the business name Modern Collections Ltd, reported higher turnover and profit in its most recent accounts. For the year ended March 31, 2025, turnover rose to £15.3 million from £10.6 million in 2023–24, while profit after tax increased to £5.2 million from £1.6 million.
The accounts also underscore how intricate gallery corporate structures can be. On June 30, 2025, Modern Collections LLP — the immediate parent company, registered in British Columbia, Canada — was dissolved. The ultimate controlling party remained J.M. Jopling, while the new immediate parent undertaking became Mansmoor Ltd, a company set up in 2009.
One of the more striking disclosures in the White Cube filing concerns an asset described as the contractual right to sell a designated body of art. Modern Collections wrote down the £27.2 million cost of that right by £17.8 million, leaving a net book value of £9.4 million as of March 31, 2025. The gallery declined to say whether the works relate to a single artist, or whether the devaluation reflects sales from the group, a reassessment of market value, or both. The accounts also show the group holding £53.3 million worth of art in stock.
Auction houses, too, are signaling pressure in their UK accounts. The four largest international auction firms have filed 2024 results, and while their ownership structures make direct comparisons difficult, the filings suggest that auctioneering’s high cost base and squeezed premiums can leave profitability less obvious than headline sales totals imply.
Bonhams’ owner, Vantage Bidco Ltd, filed its first consolidated accounts for 2024 at the end of December following a change in control: the company was taken over by one of its lenders, Pemberton Asset Management, via a debt-for-equity swap in October 2025. The accounts note that Vantage Bidco owed £207.3 million to Pemberton, with interest set at 6% above SONIA, the Bank of England’s benchmark rate.
Taken together, the filings sketch a market in which even blue-chip names are recalibrating — and where expansion plans, inventory valuations, and financing costs are increasingly central to the story, not just sales at the top end.
