Lévy Gorvy Dayan Launches LGD Hammer Sales Platform

What happens when a gallery borrows the pressure of an auction without giving up the slower pace of a private viewing? Lévy Gorvy Dayan is about to find out. The New York gallery has introduced LGD Hammer, a new platform for selling high-value art that combines appointment-only access, a fixed sale date, and anonymous bidding.

Brett Gorvy, a cofounder of the gallery, said the project is not intended to overhaul the market.“We aren't inventing a new paradigm, but it is a development,” he said. The timing, he added, reflects a market in which private sales have slowed and collectors are taking longer to look, think, and negotiate. Even strong works, he said, can linger while buyers deliberate.

The first work to be offered through the platform is Willem de Kooning's“Milkmaid” (1984), which carries an estimate of $10 million to $15 million. The painting will be presented in a stand-alone installation at the gallery's Upper East Side space from May 2 through May 16, by appointment only. Dominique Lévy, the gallery's cofounder, will serve as auctioneer, drawing on her years at Christie's.

The sale is scheduled for May 16. Bidding will take place by phone, while participants follow along online. Buyers will remain anonymous.

The structure is telling. Rather than sending a work directly into a crowded evening sale, LGD Hammer gives collectors time to encounter the painting in a gallery environment before the competitive moment begins. Gorvy said the format is meant to preserve that slower experience while still tapping the force of competition.

The choice of de Kooning also signals where the market remains strongest. Collectors have been gravitating toward artists with long records and deep institutional support, and de Kooning continues to fit that profile. Gorvy noted that demand for the artist has held up across multiple regions, including Asia, and that works in the $10 million to $20 million range are still moving.

The platform arrives at a moment when auction houses have been leaning on lower estimates and cleaner sales to keep works circulating. LGD Hammer is not a direct replica of that model, but it does suggest how galleries are adapting to a market that still responds to competition, even as buyers demand more context before they commit.

MENAFN02052026005694012507ID1111062031