The Observer has learned that the buyer of the Chelsea townhouse just sold by the estate of the late feminist realist artist Sylvia Sleigh Alloway was Swiss art collector Ursula Hauser, whose son in law operates the international contemporary art gallery Hauser & Wirth.
Ms. Hauser, who is known to be an avid collector of work by women artists, has been a collector of Sylvia Sleigh’s work; Sleigh, who died last year, was close with the artist Louise Bourgeois, who lived around the corner in Chelsea and who, until she also passed away last year, was famous for the Sunday salon-style gatherings of creative types she would hold in her home. Bourgeois was represented — and her estate is now represented — by Hauser & Wirth.
As detailed in The Observer‘s earlier report on the sale:
The 5-bedroom, 2.5-bath Greek Revival gem was built around 1857. Spanning four floors and featuring an oval skylight, four marble fireplaces and a double parlor with twelve foot ceilings, the 3,264-square-foot home is an ornate artist’s den.
The property was originally listed in May of this year for $4.195 million but ultimately sold for slightly less, $3.8 million.
Hauser & Wirth began in 1996 as a partnership between Mr. Wirth and Ursula Hauser. Mr. Wirth is married to Ms. Hauser’s daughter, Manuela Hauser. The gallery now operates a number of branches internationally: one in Zurich, three in London and one in New York, in a townhouse that it owns on the Upper East Side. It represents such internationally renowned artists as Paul McCarthy, Subodh Gupta and Martin Creed, as well as the estates of Dieter Roth, Jason Rhoades and Eva Hesse.
