Cautious dealers in Switzerland for the art world’s rendezvous fair sighed in relief after preview day, where despite a contracting market, transactions on the ground validated collectors’ interest in artworks poised to stand the test of time.
Art Basel opened to VIPs amid a red-hot summer on Monday to a backdrop of global art market contractions in response to the volatility brought on by U.S. tariffs, geopolitical conflict, and the corresponding retreat of price-driven speculators.
Dealers adjusted their strategy accordingly, covering a breadth of styles and periods, with blue-chip dealers Hauser & Wirth and Pace bringing undisputed modernists like Mark Rothko and Pablo Picasso to hedge against the ebbs and flows of the contemporary market.
Still, there is little doubt that the linchpin fair, which comes into its 55th edition this year, remains the benchmark in a rapidly expanding market.
Dealer Thaddaeus Ropac said the gallery had a ‘strong and busy start’ that was exceeding expectations.
‘The quality you see here is incredibly high and this is what people come for,’ he said.
The Austrian gallery sold 25 works, including two Georg Baselitz paintings for €1,800,000 and €1,200,000, a Robert Rauschenberg painting for $1,500,000 (all dollar figures USD), and placed a James Rosenquist painting for $1,800,000 with a European institution.
They found buyers for two Alex Katz paintings including one for $800,000, an Antony Gormley sculpture for £500,000, a Sean Scully painting for $500,000, and two Martha Jungwirth paintings for €360,000 and €320,000.
Hauser & Wirth put a Rothko from the early 1960s up for an undisclosed price. The painter’s works from the same period have sold between $30 and $50 million at auctions.
The Swiss gallery reported selling 33 works, including two Mark Bradford paintings for $3.5 million each, two Jack Whitten paintings, including one priced at $2 million, a Louise Bourgeois work at $1.9 million, and two George Condo paintings at $2.45 million.
Meanwhile, White Cube sold a Georg Baselitz painting for €2.2 million, a work by Tracey Emin for over $1 million, and a painting by Sam Gilliam for $975,000. The gallery also placed three editions of Danh Vo’s In God We Trust (2025) for $250,000 each with a U.S. collection and Cai Guo-Qiang’s Red Birds with a European institution for $1.2 million.
Pace, whose booth featured a $30 million Picasso that was on reserve by the end of preview day, sold an Agnes Martin painting for over $4 million, a painting by auction sensation Yoshitomo Nara, and an Emily Kam Kngwarray painting.
David Zwirner reported close to 70 sales, including a Ruth Asawa sculpture priced at $9.5 million, a Gerhard Richter painting at $6.8 million, an On Kawara diptych at $1.3 million, and two Dana Schutz paintings at $1.2 million and $850,000.
French dealer Almine Rech’s gallery brought a refurbished installation by the late German artist Heinz Mack to the fair’s sector for large-scale installations.
‘Art Basel remains an essential occasion for the art world to gather,’ Rech said.
The gallery reported numerous sales, including a painting by Javier Calleja in the range of €350,000 to €400,000, a painting by Ewa Juszkiewicz for $500,000 to $600,000, and two paintings by Christopher Le Brun for £110,000 to £120,000 each.
Tina Kim Gallery sold two paintings by Ha Chong-Hyun, alongside works by Suki Seokyeong Kang, Lee ShinJa, Mire Lee, and Pacita Abad in the five figures.
London gallery Edel Assanti cinched their Basel debut, selling out their Premiere booth, which included sculptures, paintings, and assemblages by Lonnie Holley ranging from $15,000 to $200,000, by the end of the day.
