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Dominique Lévy, Brett Gorvy and Amalia Dayan Want to Bring Auction Urgency to Private Secondary Market Sales

LGD Hammer merges the competitive thrill of the auction room with the exclusivity and discretion of the traditional gallery experience.

Recent auctions have made clear that the market’s dynamism is primarily concentrated at the very top, where sustained global demand for art masterpieces is finally colliding with fresh supply as the long-anticipated generational wealth transfer begins to take hold. At the same time, ongoing volatility has accelerated a parallel shift toward private transactions, with both discreet private sales and confidential, invitation-only auctions increasingly shaping activity at the highest tiers—a trend underscored by the latest Artnet Intelligence Report.

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Now, seasoned dealers and art market figures Dominique Lévy, Brett Gorvy and Amalia Dayan, who currently collaborate under Lévy Gorvy Dayan, are venturing together into “the dark side” of private transactions with the launch of LGD Hammer, a bespoke live-bidding platform closely integrated with their gallery program. The platform’s inaugural live sale, scheduled for May 16, will feature an exceptional 1984 painting by Willem de Kooning, Milkmaid, once held by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, with an estimate of $10-15 million.

The aim is to inject urgency—that degree of competitive stamina that auctions generate—into gallery sales, which can otherwise take months or even years to conclude, particularly for multimillion-dollar works. “We recognize that our clients, especially many of our Asian clients, are currently looking to live bidding to validate prices and to have access in order to compete for major works of art,” Gorvy told Observer, framing the move as a natural evolution for........

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