Payot won’t be taking on a directly curatorial role, preferring instead to bring in guest curators for specific projects, but, he told ARTINFO, “We feel that it’s essential that somebody from the core of the company is here to guarantee the Hauser & Wirth identity,” which he describes as “very European.”

The architectural redesign of 32 East 69th Street will be undertaken by Annabelle Selldorf, principal of Selldorf Architects, who did the original renovation of the building when Hauser & Wirth bought it from boxing impresario Don King in 1997. So, although Hauser & Wirth will be hiring “about 10” new staff for their New York operation, Wirth points out that the new gallery can be achieved, “without having to devote time and resources to a huge building project.” This was apparently one reason why they didn’t opt for a Chelsea headquarters, though the company has been sizing up a variety of spaces all over the city for the last two years and, as Wirth told us, “I could absolutely imagine having a Hauser & Wirth space in Chelsea in the future.”