Opera Gallery: A Founder Story

In the last 30 years Gilles Dyan, the founder and chairman of Opera Gallery, has gone from trading prints in his hometown of Paris to running 16 galleries around the world. The group sells paintings by household names like Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse to the likes of George Condo and Jean-Michel Basquiat, turning over close to €150m in yearly revenue. Here, we look at the story of Opera Gallery’s success.

In 1993, Paris was still recovering from the economic recession of the early 1990s that impacted most of the Western world. A nascent gallery venture of Gilles Dyan’s was one of its casualties. The French art dealer — at this time, dealing mostly in prints with the occasional original work by a local emerging artist — was still licking his wounds from this experience when opportunity came knocking. 

He was offered the opportunity to participate in the Tresors art fair in Singapore. In lieu of cash, he paid for his booth by enlisting his contacts to rent stands alongside his own. It was a resounding success: Dyan sold around 30 paintings and promised to return soon with more stock. Within three months, he had opened his first space in the Orchard Hotel. Opera Gallery maintains an impressive space a stone’s throw away from where it all started.

The blueprint for Opera Gallery — a space with a welcoming atmosphere inviting collectors from all corners — was indelibly impacted by Dyan’s early experiences as an itinerant dealer. "I began my career in the art world by selling prints from local artists door to door,” he says. “This experience taught me that one didn't need formal education to appreciate or own art. Most of my early clients found traditional art galleries intimidating. This inspired me to create spaces that are accessible to everyone, featuring masterpieces by established artists alongside works by young emerging talents. Art should be for everyone, not just the elite."

From this point, Opera Gallery grew at an exponential rate — first with a space in Singapore and then Paris, followed by expanding further into Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and America. Its scope has also broadened from building markets for new artists to trading in blue-chip artworks with important collectors and institutions. Today, its locations include London, New York, Geneva, Hong Kong and Seoul and it participates in around 12 art fairs each year.

Dyan remains involved in the day-to-day running of the gallery, alongside overseeing a €100 million investment fund that supports the acquisition of artworks and provides auction houses with guarantees.

Dyan’s ability to foster authentic relationships with artists and collectors has always been a driving force behind Opera Gallery’s success. For example, Bernard Buffet was a French artist whose work, undervalued in his lifetime, now upholds a buoyant market. At the time of writing, eight of his last ten paintings to sell at auction outperformed their estimate. Opera Gallery is now one of the biggest players in his market — entirely thanks to Dyan’s early relationship with Maurice Garnier, Buffet’s Parisian dealer. “I had met him thanks to my wife, Florence, who grew up opposite Buffet’s studio,” he explains. “We stayed in touch, and when I opened the first Opera Gallery in Paris, I was fortunate to obtain some stunning paintings by Bernard Buffet on consignment. This allowed me to organise my first major exhibition. The rest, as they say, is history!" 

This is just one of many sources of Opera Gallery’s success. Look at Dyan’s story and you will find a number of strategies that allowed him to build the global business that he runs today. From opening spaces in desirable neighbourhoods to providing would-be collectors with a range of investment options by balancing multi-million pound artworks with more accessible emerging programme — after 30 years of art dealing, Dyan knows what is required to make a gallery flourish.