Art couple Taylor-Wood and Jopling to separate after 11 years' marriage

Jay Jopling and Sam Taylor-Wood, one of the art world's most powerful couples, are splitting after 11 years of marriage, they announced yesterday. The pair, who have two daughters, said no one else was involved in the break-up.

Jopling, an art dealer, is the owner of the the commercial White Cube gallery, whose artists include Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and the Chapman brothers.

Taylor-Wood is a Turner Prize-nominated artist probably best known for her video portrait, commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery, of David Beckham sleeping. She is also known for her portraits of famous men crying, featuring Jude Law, Dustin Hoffman, Benicio Del Toro and Paul Newman.

Sara Macdonald, a spokeswoman for White Cube gallery, said: "Jay Jopling and Sam Taylor-Wood are saddened to announce that, after 11 years of marriage, they have agreed amicably to separate. No other parties are involved. For the sake of their two daughters, who are their priority, they have asked that their privacy be respected."

The White Cube first opened its doors in London in 1993. It moved to Hoxton Square in 2000 and a second site, where Hirst showed off his £50m diamond-encrusted skull, opened in St James's, Piccadilly, in 2006. Hirst cut out Jopling, an old Etonian and son of a Conservative MP, when instead of going through his dealer he sold a record-breaking £111m worth of his art at auction at Sotheby's this month.

This year, Taylor-Wood directed a short film, Love You More, written by Patrick Marber and produced by Anthony Minghella, which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival. She was diagnosed with colon cancer 12 years ago and underwent a mastectomy for breast cancer four years later.

She faced another cancer scare in 2000, and instead of attending the opening of his new gallery in Hoxton, Jopling was by her side in hospital in America.

The pair, who are well known on the celebrity circuit, have a home in Shepherd's Bush, west London, and another house in Yorkshire.