L.A. dealer to head Art Cologne

Art Cologne appointed Los Angeles gallery owner Daniel Hug to be its new director, part of a drive to boost attendance and win back top collectors and dealers.

Hug succeeds Gerard Goodrow, who left in January under pressure from Cologne dealers concerned about the future of the 40-year-old German event. Art Cologne drew just 60,000 visitors last year, 10,000 fewer than in 2006. In February, the fair announced it was scrapping a sister event on the Spanish island of Majorca.

Hug, 39, will take up his new position on May 1, after this year’s event, which takes place April 16 to 20. He has dual Swiss and U.S. nationality and is the grandson of the Hungarian artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, once a professor at the Bauhaus school.

As an art dealer, Hug has taken part in many international fairs, the Art Cologne statement said. He also worked as a consultant for Art Chicago and opened Daniel Hug Gallery in L.A.’s Chinatown in 2003.