GENEVA—Pierre Huber, the controversial Geneva-based gallerist, will be excluded from this year's Art Basel and ShContemporary art fairs, Artforum reports. The news is the latest setback for a dealer who once sat on the Basel selection committee and just last September was codirector of the inaugural ShContemporary.

Huber began drawing controversy in February 2007, when he auctioned 74 works from his private collection at Christie’s New York. The works had originally been purchased with the understanding that they would eventually be part of a future private museum, and were sold at a museum discount. Huber defended the sale by saying his Swiss collaborators did not develop the museum project.

Following the Christie's sale several outraged gallerists protested Huber’s inclusion in Art Basel and vowed to boycott ShContemporary. Over the summer, Huber further upset critics with decisions he made as codirector of the Shanghai fair, including placing a work from his own gallery—a vase by Lu Hao—on the cover of the fair's catalog and awarding a new prize honoring a young Chinese artist to an artist he represents.