On the heels of its fourth edition, the Independent 20th Century fair announced on Monday (8 September) that it will relocate next year to the Breuer Building, soon to become the New York headquarters of Sotheby’s auction house. The fair will also shift back by three weeks, taking place 24-27 September.
The building was designed by Marcel Breuer for the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Modernist landmark later served as an outpost for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and then the temporary home of the Frick Collection while the institution's Beaux-Arts mansion on the Upper East Side was under renovation. In 2023 Sotheby’s announced it had acquired the building, reportedly for $100m. Because many of the interior spaces are landmarked, Sotheby’s has made limited and subtle renovations led by the firm Herzog & de Meuron, and is set to officially open the new headquarters on 8 November—just in time for the marquee autumn auction.
“This is more than a new venue location, it’s a symbol of how we wish to imagine unforgettable exhibitions of the 20th century for a well-informed audience and for a new generation of collectors,” Elizabeth Dee, the fair’s founder and chief executive, said in a statement.
The new location will allow Independent 20th Century to support more than 50 galleries, she added. In previous years and last week, the fair has hosted around 30 exhibitors at Casa Cipriani, located inside the Battery Maritime Building in the Financial District.
The arrangement between Independent and Sotheby’s is a unique one in the art world, where commercial fairs and auction houses operate in different spaces of the same industry. Dee told The New York Times neither party is “interested in a landlord-tenant relationship”.
“We got in a room, started talking about all the things that are working and not working in culture, and we’re all aligned in terms of how to work together to move forward and innovate,” Dee told the Times.
Both fairs and auction houses are facing economic headwinds, as the art market stays soft compared to the boom in 2021 and the pre-pandemic years. According to Art Basel and UBS’s most recent Art Market Report, sales at live events like fairs accounted for 31% of dealer sales in 2024, compared to 42% in 2019, and Sotheby’s sales dropped by 23% last year.
The announcement of Independent 20th Century’s move comes just weeks after Independent announced its contemporary art fair will relocate from Spring Studios in Tribeca to Pier 36 on Manhattan's Lower East Side next May.
