Opening the doors on Saturday, October 20, just before their autumn sale of garden statuary, the new building will be known as the Morris Weller Gallery, named after Alistair Morris, FRICS and Leslie Weller DL, FRICS - respectively former managing director and chairman of Sotheby's Sussex - in recognition of their contribution to establishing Summers Place as an auction venue over the years.
The gallery nestles between the 100-year-old yew hedges in the walled garden of the adjoining Victorian mansion, Summers Place, formerly the home of Sotheby's Sussex saleroom. It has been designed to blend into its historic surroundings.
With contemporary lighting and revolutionary slate-veneered interior, the gallery provides state-of-the-art facilities at a venue where perhaps the greatest challenge in times gone by was finding a flat piece of flooring on which to place the sizeable lots.
The gallery crowns an auction complex spread over six acres, including the arboretum, sunken retail garden, modern garden and formal garden designed and laid out by award-winning landscape architect, Michael Balston in 1987.
All are used to display the wide range of garden statuary, furniture, architectural pieces and Contemporary sculpture in which the saleroom specialises.
