Some artists working with the Simon Lee Gallery have found themselves in a financial vacuum with the struggling London gallery, Artnet News has learned.
The artists claim that the gallery, which last week issued a notice saying it had been put on judicial administrationdidn’t pay them after selling their works and they have no idea when or if they will be able to get those funds back.
Gallery workers aren’t faring much better – the company began its liquidation process and most of the dozen or so employees were laid off earlier this week, sources told Artnet News.
Among the artists facing non-payment is A’Driane Nieves, who says she was only paid for six of the twelve works she entrusted to Simon Lee Gallery last year, all of which sold, in a post on Substack. The interdisciplinary artist exhibited works with the gallery at Art Basel last year in Basel and at Frieze London, she said. She received payment for six works sold in Basel, but after invoicing the rest and establishing a payment schedule with the gallery, the gallery stopped paying the invoices in January. Nieves declined to comment further.
Several sources close to the situation said that the gallery does not pay artists for the works it sells, but that some have managed to get paid after several months of hunting.
The gallery’s financial collapse did not happen overnight. Rumors that she was facing financial difficulties began swirling last year, and in March the gallery was to be dissolved, according to public documents. Last month, the gallery said the March 17 petition to liquidate the company was related to a tax dispute and the matter has since been resolved.
The doors to the gallery’s Mayfair space remain closed and the lights were off on Thursday afternoon. However, the art of the late French abstract painter Olivier Debré featured in the gallery’s latest exhibition, scheduled until August 4, remained on the wall.
The gallery space in Hong Kong held its last exhibition until January 21 this year and a phone call to its number went unanswered. The gallery’s New York branch held its last exhibition in 2020, according to the gallery’s website.
It was not immediately clear how many works of art remain in the gallery’s storage facilities scattered around the world. The receiver, BDO LPP, did not respond to a request for comment, nor did gallery representatives. A July 18 corporate insolvency notice advises creditors to send their claims to BDO.
According to Simon Lee Gallery Limited’s 2019 financial statements, the gallery recorded a loss of £3,239,606 after tax that year compared to a profit of £97,393 recorded in 2018. The 2019 financial statements, filed with UK Companies House in May 2023, are the most recent available. Simon Lee Gallery Limited was incorporated in 2001.
However, the company is subject to a winding up order from HMRC, the UK tax authority, following their determinations for its 2019, 2020 and 2021 results. Between 2014 and 2021, Companies House sent several mandatory delisting notices to dissolve the business, but each time the delisting action was subsequently suspended.
The company’s directors, however, believed the company would be financially stable after the delinquent accounts and tax returns were filed, according to the financial statements.
The accounts of another company, Simon Lee Gallery Holdings Limited, which was incorporated in 2015 and became “a person exercising significant control” over Simon Lee Gallery Limited, were overdue according to Companies House records. He also received a notice of mandatory disbarment from Companies House in January this year, but was suspended in February.
Additional reporting by Eileen Kinsella.
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