Robilant and Voena gallery founders part ways to start separate ventures with their children – The Art Newspaper

Across the art industry, gallery founders are grappling with the question succession planning—how, or indeed if, to pass on their business to the next generation. In the case of Edmondo di Robilant and Marco Voena, who co-founded Robilant + Voena (R+V) gallery in 2004, this generational shift has prompted them to end their 22-year-long partnership in favour of launching two independent family firms: Robilant, and Voena.

The move comes as their children, Michele di Robilant (30), and Edoardo (33) and Virginia (31) Voena, step up to senior roles. At Robilant, Michele will become gallery director, overseeing exhibitions and “strategic development”, according to a statement, with a particular focus on contemporary programmes. Meanwhile at Voena, Edoardo takes on the gallery director role while his sister Virginia, largely based between Milan and Switzerland, becomes sales director. Pietro Sforza, R+V’s former sales director, is starting his own London-based consultancy focused on Italian 20th-century and contemporary art, while Helen Record stays with Robilant as head of content and research.

Though the duo were known for working under the same roof, filings with UK Companies House show that Robilant and Voena have been registered as separate entities for several years. Robilant Fine Art was incorporated in 2013, and Michele di Robliant was made a person of significant control in December 2025, alongside his father Edmondo. Voena Fine Art was incorporated in 2015, and Marco Voena remains the sole person of significant control.

Robilant will be based primarily in London, while Voena will operate between the existing Milan space on Via della Spiga and a London gallery yet to be announced (which party will take over the existing Dover Street gallery is to be determined). The New York gallery has closed, although Voena may seek another premises in the city.

Both businesses plan to continue exhibiting at fairs: Voena’s first solo event will be Art Monte-Carlo at the end of April followed by Tefaf New York next month, while Robilant will participate in the inaugural Nomad Hamptons in the US, a boutique destination event at the end of June.

R+V was known for mixing Old Masters with predominantly Italian 20th-century art and contemporary works, a diversity that will continue in both new businesses.

Edoardo Voena, who joined the business six years ago, tells The Art Newspaper that the separation of the firms feels natural, “as everyone wants to grow their business independently with family members. There’s continuity but also new energies.” He adds that founder-run galleries are “very difficult to pass on or to sell if there is not continuity within the family. I was always very interested in art, ever since I can remember, so when there was the opportunity to join [the business], it was natural that I took it.”

Voena notes that the art market has become far more complex in terms of compliance, digital demands, and logistics in the years since the pandemic: “Most galleries are small in terms of head count, so you need a certain set of skills that is quite wide…you need to be a good general business manager [to run a gallery], as well as have the art historical expertise.”

Michele di Robilant joined R+V two years ago after interning and working at various contemporary galleries. “My logic had always been that I wanted to learn what I could from galleries doing something completely different, and bring that knowledge to a more traditional gallery,” he tells TAN. “Joining two years ago meant I had time to learn from the founders’ wealth of knowledge, while seeing how the gallery might be steered into a new direction one day.”

On the separation of the businesses, Michele says: “I never focused it as a split or a separation, I just saw it as creating two new firms…a lot of businesses dream of passing the baton to the next generation in their family, and that rarely comes to pass. So, I saw it as something to really celebrate.”

The galleries di Robilant admires, he says, “keep it lean and mean, do something really strong from one place, and that’s exactly what we intend to do, staying in London.” Such streamlining is particularly important, he says, in the face of rising fixed costs. “That’s why I’m excited for Robilant to be working to this newer and slightly easier model.”

Robilant + Voena came under scrutiny in 2024 when the curator Virginia Brilliant, who worked as an independent consultant to the gallery from December 2019 until early 2024, filed an explosive complaint against the gallery accusing the co-founders of breach of contract and of creating a toxic workplace tainted by antisemitism, sexism, sexual harassment, homophobia and body shaming. Brilliant, who died of cancer last summer, retracted the allegations in August 2024.

“The matter was withdrawn and was fully resolved,” Edmondo di Robilant and Marco Voena say in a statement to The Art Newspaper. “Our focus is firmly on the future of both galleries and the opportunities ahead for the next generation.”