The headline-hitting London dealer Steve Lazarides, who started out as Banksy’s photographer, has a new backer, the high-profile Qatari businessman and collector Wissam Al Mana. His investment— a “seven-figure sum” according to the Financial Times— will allow the street art dealer, who represents JR and Invader, to relocate his Lazarides Rathbone gallery from Fitzrovia to Mayfair. Lazarides highlights the developments in a cheeky statement, saying: “Firstly, no-one can ever pronounce the name so we’re changing it to LazInc. Secondly, we’re moving to Mayfair. We’ve spent years working from a position of isolation, and now it’s time to challenge the status quo from the inside. I can hear the shouts of ‘Sell-out!’ on the internet from here. Find out what we have planned before you dish out any hate.” Al Mana runs a family company with retail and property interests (incidentally, he is married to the singer Janet Jackson).
