Lucie Kitchener, the CEO of stalled design truthful Masterpiece London, recognized for exhibiting works by vintage sellers and designers, stepped down from the position in December, a consultant for the truthful’s father or mother firm MCH Group advised ARTnews lately. The departure was the most recent shift for Masterpiece, which has not staged a good since 2022; the MCH consultant mentioned that “future plans are beneath evaluation” for the model, although additional particulars weren’t offered.
In 2023, MCH, the Swiss occasions firm that additionally owns Artwork Basel, introduced in regulatory filings that it was cancelling that 12 months’s version of Masterpiece and that the truthful wouldn’t run once more in its present type, because it had been dropping cash since at the least 2020.
Two years earlier than that, in 2021, MCH’s administrators reported in monetary filings they anticipated Masterpiece London to “return to profitability” after recovering from the pandemic cancellation of the 2020 truthful. That didn’t find yourself occurring. In subsequent experiences, MCH mentioned that Masterpiece suffered a £2.2 million revenue loss in 2022 and one other £2 million in 2023. MCH reported that it was working the design truthful with a £2.6 million mortgage from the accounts of its most profitable truthful, its annual Basel version.
In 2022, the final 12 months the truthful ran, Masterpiece reported producing $5.9 million from that 12 months’s version, solely 2 p.c above the prices it spent to function the truthful. On the time, MCH had been attempting to construct the truthful’s sponsorship enterprise, courting heritage manufacturers with ties to Previous Masters just like the Wallace Assortment. Nonetheless, these companions accounted for under 15 p.c of the truthful’s income that 12 months and wasn’t almost sufficient to offset the excessive working prices. In June and July of that 12 months, 4 board members resigned from their roles on the truthful.
After MCH introduced the cancellation of the 2023 version, former workers of Masterpiece left the truthful to determine the artwork, antiques and design truthful Treasure Home Honest. Round 40 galleries that have been planning on taking part in Masterpiece switched to the brand new truthful. Treasure Home will maintain its third version this June, regardless of quietly reporting that it too was in a loss-making place, with a £50,000 deficit in the summertime of final 12 months, in response to UK monetary filings.
MCH has not but given up on Masterpiece nevertheless, disclosing in public filings that it plans to retain the Masterpiece’s trademark and model, however to reconfigure a “new idea” for the truthful. Up to now, representatives nonetheless concerned in possession of the model haven’t publicly talked about these plans are. MCH owns a competing American model, Design Miami, income for which is undisclosed.
TEFAF, a long-running competitor truthful that features design, is ready for its 2025 version in Maastricht in March.
