The Australian art auction house and gallery Mossgreen has gone into voluntary administration.
Its chief executive officer, Paul Sumner, said no vendors, staff or buyers would be out-of-pocket.
“Mossgreen has chosen to take a path of voluntary administration during the month of January at a time that will least impact our clients and which will allow the company to restructure its business,” Sumner said.
“The company is looking forward to a very strong calendar of auction sales that are contracted and already catalogued for the first half of 2018, starting in February. No vendors will lose any money in this process and neither will any of our staff, who will also be fully supported through this process.
“The company has a excellent reputation and this will be protected right through this process and going forward.”
Mossgreen was founded in Melbourne in 2004 as Australia’s first combined auction house and art gallery. Last year it opened a second, three-level premises in Sydney, as well as an events space. It then acquired the leading New Zealand auction house Webb’s and rebranded the business Mossgreen-Webb’s.
Sumner said he accepted that part of Mossgreen’s trouble was that it had expanded too quickly.
“We chose…