Tony Shafrazi

Tony Shafrazi (born May 8, 1943) is an Iranian-born American art dealer, gallery owner, and artist. He is the owner of the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York City who deals in artwork by artists such as Francis Bacon, Keith Haring, and David LaChapelle.

Early life and education Tony Shafrazian was born in Abadan, Iran, to Iranian Armenian parents and raised Christian. He first went to a vicarage in Bilston, then to boarding school in Whittlebury, and later Hammersmith College of Art & Building. where he lectured at several universities, including the School of Visual Arts. He deliberately wrote the confusing phrase, "KILL LIES ALL" instead of "ALL LIES KILL", as an allusion to James Joyce's 1939 novel, Finnegans Wake, so that it could be read from any direction. After nine hours, he added other artists to his booth.

Art dealer In 1976, only a few years after the spray painting incident, Shafrazi returned to his homeland and became the art advisor to the Shah of Iran and Kamran Diba, then director of the Teheran Museum of Contemporary Art. As he did so his power expanded in the art market. The museum Shafrazi had constructed in Tehran to house this collection epitomized the Shah's modern Iranian state, thus the collection was predominantly Western: from Impressionism to Abstract Expressionism, Pop and Conceptual Art, including works by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Willem de Kooning.

In 1978, Shafrazi briefly opened his own commercial gallery in a small Tehran shopfront but closed it because of conditions in the country leading up to the 1979 Revolution. He lost much of his art during that time but safely returned to New York City. In 1990, he opened a new 13,000-square-foot gallery at 119 Wooster Street, with an exhibition entitled "American Masters of the 60's" and including Carl Andre, Tom Wesselmann, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Frank Stella, and Andy Warhol.

In 1999, the Francis Bacon estate chose Shafrazi as its United States representative. In 2004, the gallery opened another space on 26th Street with a large show of paintings by Picasso, Francis Bacon and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Shafrazi's gallery closed in 2014.

In 2026, Shafrazi was referenced by Madonna on the third single Danceteria (song) of her fifteenth album Confessions II. Madonna mentions that Tony Shafrazi Gallery was regularly frequented by herself and other notable New Yorker creatives such as Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf.

Personal life In 1995, Stephanie Seymour and Peter Brant had Shafrazi serve as the best man at their wedding at an estate outside Paris.

Tony Shafrazi is also actively involved in supporting Children of Armenia Fund, a charitable organization that aims to advance rural communities in Armenia. He is the Honorary Chair of COAF Honorary Board.

In 2020, Shafrazi publicly supported Donald Trump for president.