Top US art dealer Larry Gagosian, known for his eye for contemporary and modern works, is to open his first gallery in Paris in a new sign that the recently flagging Paris market is at last picking up.

The influential 65-year-old, who has opened eight art galleries worldwide since setting up his first in Los Angeles in 1979, is to open a swish Paris dealership on October 20 just off the prestigious Champs-Elysees avenue.

Paris, said Serena Cattaneo, co-manager of the new gallery, “is a historic art capital”.

“It was an old dream of his and on top of that there’s been a change in Paris. The city is on the way to re-establishing its place on the international art circuit thanks to its great museum shows,” she said. “Artists love coming to Paris and showing their works.”

Mr Gagosian currently has four galleries in the United States, three of them in New York, one in Los Angeles, two in London, one in Rome and one in Greece, which opened last year.

Among living artists showing in his galleries are the likes of Richard Serra, Cy Twombly, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Richard Prince, along with works by top 20th century artists such as Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol.

His white-walled four-storey gallery, featuring a white steel spiral staircase, was designed by French architect Jean-François Bodin and London studio Caruso St John.

The opening will be timed with the yearly FIAC contemporary art fair in late October, one of the top events on the European art calendar along with London’s Frieze fair.