Famed art dealer Larry Gagosian and artist Anna Weyant arrive in New York

Famed art dealer Larry Gagosian and his rising artist girlfriend Anna Weyant, who is 50 years his junior, were spotted in New York City together on Sunday – less than one year after the art prodigy signed her boyfriend up as her official agent amid a bitter fallout with her former dealer. 

The gallery owner, 77, and the Canadian painter, 27, who have been dating for about two years, were both dressed in black as they arrived in the Big Apple aboard a private helicopter. 

Weyant, who is represented by her beau’s Gagosian galleries, was dressed in a turtleneck sweater dress paired with white sneakers. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a loose braid and topped with a dark cap that obscured half of her face. 

She flashed a bright smile as she carried a black Gagosian tote bag and a merlot Hermès Birkin bag while her coat was slung over her arm. Birkins start at around $10,000, but the highly-coveted handbags can sell for $100,000 or more, with bags similar to Weyant’s fetching up to $75,000 on resale websites.

Weyant flashed a smile after they arrived in the Big Apple aboard a private helicopter

The gallery owner and painter, who were both dressed in black, have been dating for about two years 

Gagosian, a longtime bachelor whose net worth is an estimated $600 million, was bundled up in a dark coat, pants, and sneakers. He topped off his jet-set look with a pair of black aviator sunglasses. 

The couple was seen loading up the back of a black SUV with their belongings before being driven to their next destination. 

Nearly four years ago, Weyant was selling her paintings on a sidewalk for around $400 apiece. She has since become the toast of the art world, with several of her works fetching more than $1 million at auction.  

The artist, who first gained attention for her paintings on Instagram, signed a global representation agreement with her boyfriend’s Gagosian galleries in May 2022 following a bitter business split with dealer Tim Blum of Blum & Poe.

Weyant and Gagosian spoke out about her meteoric rise in a lengthy profile for the Wall Street Journal last June.

‘I’m just trying to protect her from the big bad wolves,’ Gagosian told the Journal, insisting that when it comes to discussions about Weyant’s career, he treats her the same as any other artist with his gallery.

At the heart of Weyant’s split with her former dealer, Blum, appears to be her painting ‘Falling Woman,’ which she said she sold to him in 2021 for $15,000 — just half what his gallery was charging collectors for other works in her spring 2021 show.

Gagosian, a longtime bachelor whose net worth is an estimated $600 million, was bundled up in a dark coat, pants, and sneakers

Weyant, who is represented by her beau’s Gagosian galleries, was dressed in a turtleneck sweater dress paired with white sneakers

Weyant carried a black Gagosian tote bag and a merlot Hermès Birkin bag while her coat was slung over her arm

The artist’s blonde hair was pulled back in a loose braid and topped with a dark cap that obscured half of her face

As interest in her paintings soared, Blum then sent the painting to Sotheby’s for auction, and in May 2022, it fetched $1.6 million, a record for Weyant’s work. 

Blum didn’t break any rules in doing so, although dealers don’t usually consign their own artist’s paintings to auction. It’s unclear if he was still representing Weyant when the artwork was dispatched to the tony auction house.

Though Weyant declined to describe her falling out with Blum in detail, she told the Journal that she was unhappy with how things ended and that the consignment of ‘Falling Woman’ was the final straw in her decision to switch to Gagosian.

Blum declined to comment to the Journal and could not be immediately reached by DailyMail.com at the time.   

‘Falling Woman’ has since been featured on the cover of Jen Beagin’s novel ‘Big Swiss,’ which was published last month. 

Born in 1995 in Calgary, Canada, Weyant studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, which she said she attended because it was the closest school to New York City that accepted her.

Far from having an artistic upbringing, she is the daughter of a lawyer and a provincial court judge. But she took to painting in college and even placed in the top three of a Canadian art contest the summer after her senior year.

After graduating in 2017, she spent six months painting at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, where she said the city’s sepia tones influenced her now-signature muted palette.

The couple was seen loading up the back of a black SUV with their belongings before being driven to their next destination

 Weyant appeared to be in great spirits as she juggled all of her bags 

Nearly four years ago, Weyant was selling her paintings on a sidewalk for around $400 apiece. She has since become the toast of the art world

Weyant signed a global representation deal with Gagosian last year after a falling out with her former dealer Tim Blum 

At the heart of Weyant’s split with her former dealer, Blum (pictured), appears to be her painting ‘Falling Woman,’ which she said she sold to him in 2021 for $15,000 

As interest in her paintings soared, Blum then sent the painting to Sotheby’s for auction, and in May 2022, it fetched $1.6 million, a record for Weyant’s work 

Weyant got her big break when she moved to New York in 2018 and began assisting the established painter Cynthia Talmadge, who promoted her work on her own Instagram account.

Talmadge introduced Weyant to her own dealer Ellie Rines, owner of the New York gallery 56 Henry, who recalled to the Journal: ‘I saw a lot of potential in her.’ 

‘Falling Woman’ has since been featured on the cover of Jen Beagin’s novel ‘Big Swiss,’ which was published last month

Rines helped Weyant make some of her first sales in the summer of 2019, laying out her paintings on a sidewalk at a Hamptons art fair, selling a few for $400 apiece.

Group shows followed and then Weyant’s first solo show at 56 Henry, titled ‘Welcome To The Dollhouse.’

Gagosian galleries described that series as ‘a sequence of darkly cinematic vignettes depicting a dollhouse and the strange, cloistered lives of its inhabitants.’ The show sold out, with every piece going for between $2,000 to $12,000.

It was around this time that Gagosian first became aware of her work, and purchased one of Weyant’s paintings, titled ‘Head,’ which he hung in his home.

By the spring of 2021, Weyant was being exclusively represented by the Los Angeles gallery Blum & Poe, and some of her paintings were selling for nearly $50,000 apiece.

Gagosian, who visited her spring 2021 show, invited the artist to have dinner at his Beverly Hills mansion, recalling that he was struck when she asked if he had any gin, which is one of his favorite drinks.

The couple was soon dating and vacationing together in exotic locales such as Paris and Saint-Tropez. However, she has tried to remain grounded amid her increasing travels. 

Gagosian (pictured with Jeffrey Deitch and Weyant last year) told the Wall Street Journal last year that he treats his girlfriend the same as any other artist with his gallery 

At the time of the Wall Street Journal interview, Weyant was still living and painting in a modest 675-square-foot apartment on New York’s Upper West Side 

Weyant has tried to remain grounded and stick to her routines while traveling in Gagosian’s jet-set circles 

At the time of the interview, she was still living and painting in a modest 675-square-foot one-bedroom apartment on New York’s Upper West Side, where she resided since moving to the city.

Despite her tension with Blum over the matter, it was the Sotheby’s sale of ‘Falling Woman’ last year that set heads spinning and put Weyant’s name on the lips of every collector.

First on the docket for the prestigious evening show, ‘Falling Woman’ blew past all expectations, with the final bid coming in at eight times the high-end estimate.

Weyant’s relationship with Gagosian has also set tongues wagging in the art world.

Prior to dating Weyant, Gagosian and his longtime girlfriend, Chrissie Erpf, a senior director at the gallery, split in 2019, according to Page Six.

Gagosian also briefly dated Holly Bawden, his 35-year-old former personal assistant, later in 2019, the outlet reported.

Weyant’s allies harshly denounce any speculation that her romance with the legendary gallerist has given her a leg up in the cutthroat art world.

‘When someone becomes successful, people kind of forget that that’s a human being,’ Rines, Weyant’s first dealer whom she remains close with, previously told the Daily Beast.

‘She’s a 27-year-old woman, and I think it’s really wild that men, mostly middle-aged men, are spreading all these rumors about her. I think it’s so pathetic.’