While top works were slower to move, collectors showed strong interest in material under $1 million.
Few expected this year’s Art Basel to revive the flagging art market—but Pace’s Marc Glimcher was brimming with optimism, claiming “the energy to collect was returning” and that “everyone misread” May’s New York auctions. “The velocity of the sales has been as vigorous as any year in the past,” he said in an email-blasted statement.
I for one love the enthusiasm! But I don’t think the spin is serving anyone after two tough years with no end in sight.
Collector attendance was thin, said Philip Hoffman, founder and chairman of the Fine Art Group. He pointed to interest rates and rising tensions in the Middle East as deterrents. American attendance was down, for the second year in a row, as ongoing trade tensions hamstring stock markets and concerns about the potential onset of autocracy grow.
At the fair, there continues to be quite a lot of interest under the $1 million level, “similar to what we saw in the Sotheby’s and Christie’s day sales,” Hoffman said, “but people are not pulling the trigger quickly.” Deals will close, but at 20 to 30 percent below asking price, he surmised.
The upshot? It remains a buyer’s market. So let’s see what sold.
Under $10,000
Sure, the Swiss fair is known for its high-value offerings but as Artnet’s Vivienne Chow reported, it’s possible to do Basel on a budget. One of the hottest items on her list was a collectible Labubu figurine designed by Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung. Created in a limited edition of 100 and sold for $245 exclusively at the Art Basel Shop, the blue monster holding a spirit level became a must-have thanks to its viral popularity as a Gen Z fashion accessory, and many who queued for it left empty handed.
Elsewhere, on the fair floor, four ceramic works by Chinese artist Wei Libo sold for €6,000 ($6,888) each at Paris gallery Sans Titre’s booth. And at Montreal dealer Eli Kerr’s stand in the Statements section, several works by up-and-coming multimedia artist Joyce Joumaa—who was featured in last year’s Venice Biennale and is the winner of Art Basel’s Baloise Prize this year—each sold “for a price under €5,000.”
$10,000 to $100,000
Kerr also sold two editions of Joumaa’s 2025 Periodic Sights works, comprising photographs in repurposed fuse boxes of scenes in Tripoli and Beirut, commenting on the energy crisis in Lebanon. They were priced between $45,000 and $68,000.
First-time exhibitor Edel Assanti’s solo booth of Lonnie Holley’s work in the new Premiere sector of the fair was sold out on the opening day. Prices across the gallery’s Premiere and Unlimited booth ranged from $15,000 to $200,000.
At Gladstone, several Joan Jonas drawings sold for approximately $10,000 each, as did multiple Kerstin Brätsch drawings. The gallery also sold a few paintings by Chinese painter Hao Ling, a hot artist in the now-cool ultra-contemporary sector, whose works have sold for seven figures at auction. At the fair, two works from his To Watteau series sold for $285,000 each and another for $160,000.
$100,000 to $1 million
Gladstone also sold Sarah Lucas’s 2022 sculpture GODDESS for £300,000 ($403,000) and a Rosemarie Trockel 1987 wool work for $325,000.
Amid growing demand for work by Indigenous artists, pieces by some high-profile names sold well in this bracket. At Hauser and Wirth’s stand, a new work by Jeffrey Gibson, who represented the U.S. at the Venice Biennale last year, sold for $365,000. A painting by Emily Kam Kngwarray, Anooralya – Yam Story (1994), sold for $450,000 at Pace, which currently has a solo show dedicated to the Aboriginal artist at its London gallery, ahead of a major survey dedicated to the artist at Tate Modern, opening in July. The late Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s I See Red: Indian Heart (1993) sold for between $750,000 and $1 million at Stephen Friedman.
$1 million to $10 million
Even if there was more demand for works under $1 million, there were plenty above that threshold moving—for the right artists. That included a 2025 Alex Katz painting for $1.2 million at Gladstone. Senior partner Max Falkenstein said “collectors are continuing to be thoughtful about their acquisitions but are also responding to quality.”
At White Cube, Michael Armitage’s 2015 painting, In the Garden, sold for $3.25 million—a nice sum given that the British artist’s auction record of $2.37 million was just set last month at Sotheby’s New York.
Historically overlooked artists from the past century continue to command some of the strongest prices right now. Jack Whitten’s Kritiko Spiti (1974–75), a walnut and ceramic figure, sold for $2 million at Hauser and Wirth, which is in the region of the artist’s top auction results. Another work, a 1986 painting titled Sanctuary, sold for an undisclosed figure. That the American artist is the current subject of a retrospective at MoMA is of course a help in nabbing premium prices.
A standout sale includes a stunning hanging sculpture by Ruth Asawa at David Zwirner’s booth, which went for $9.5 million. The artist’s auction record stands at just $5.38 million, set in 2020 at Christie’s New York, according to the Artnet Price Database. SFMOMA currently has a survey dedicated to the late modernist.
Di Donna had a well-stocked booth with many million-dollar pieces, including a ravishing 1963 triptych by Leonora Carrington, titled Sueño de Sirenas (Mermaid’s Dream) and priced at $9.5 million. As of Friday, it had not sold. A rep for the gallery said that there is “significant interest in the work from multiple institutions.”
$10 million+
There were plenty of works topping $10 million, but few reported sold by the end of the week. That’s not surprising given that there was a dramatic 44.2 percent drop in sales of art above this price point at auction in 2024, per Artnet’s latest Intelligence Report. Annely Juda Fine Art sold David Hockney’s Mid November Tunnel (2006) for $13 million to $17 million to a private collection, but few other confirmed sales in this price range had trickled in by the end of the VIP days.
It often takes a little longer to negotiate these big sales. But the optics of laying out millions for major artworks in this economy is also different to five or 10 years ago. Trophy works used to be seen as a win for a collector, but now even referring to them as such is “so 2012” because it implies you’ve overpaid—or so Pace’s Glimcher told my colleague Andrew Russeth. The $30 million Picasso the gallery brought has a hold on it, according to the gallery, but the sale is yet to be confirmed. Even a 30 percent discount would only bring the price down to around $20 million. As I noted last week, it last sold 19 years ago for $7.84 million (or about $12 million in today’s dollars).
