NEW YORK, NY.- London Contemporary Art dealer Harry Blain and former Sotheby's Worldwide vice chairman Emmanuel Di Donna have joined forces to open a secondary market gallery in New York.

Called Blain|Di Donna, the new venture will focus on blue-chip Impressionist, Modern (I/M) and Contemporary Art works.

Said Di Donna: “Now is the perfect time to start a business like this. The I/M and Contemporary markets in New York and Europe are more dynamic than ever, and of course the appetite for the very best works by the very best artists never diminishes.”

As one of Sotheby's senior I/M specialists, Di Donna was involved in many landmark auctions in London and New York, including the sale of Kazimir Malevich's ‘Suprematist Composition’, which sold for $60m in 2008. After a highly successful seventeen year tenure Di Donna left the company in September 2010.

He adds: “Being in partnership with Harry [Blain] is a wonderful opportunity. He has a comprehensive knowledge of Contemporary Art and the market as a whole, and his experience is very complementary to my own. We are both looking forward to using our combined reach and expertise to assist international buyers and sellers in their passion for collecting.”

Until September, Blain, 43, was the CEO of Haunch of Venison, which he co-founded with Graham Southern in 2002 and later sold to Christie's International in 2007. Blain and Southern launched a new London gallery, Blain|Southern, in October this year.
Blain|Di Donna, which is to be located on the Upper East Side, will open for business in the middle of November. It will stage three exhibitions a year, the first scheduled for April 2011 when the new gallery officially opens.

Said Blain: “Emmanuel [Di Donna] has close relationships with some of the most important European and American collectors of Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary Art, all of whom have come to rely heavily on his advice when buying and selling masterpieces at auction and privately.

“He’s also one of the very few people with an in-depth knowledge of the three major art locations - Paris, London and New York. This and his many other gifts will prove invaluable in assisting the collectors and museums to acquire important works they wish to add to their collections"