The premise of an art fair is that a collector can walk through its aisles, stumble across an artwork that catches his or her eye, and buy it. As a consequence, prices at most fairs are comparatively low, with work rarely surpassing the $2 million mark. After all, very few people can afford a million-dollar impulse buy.

The exception is at Art Basel in Switzerland (June 14–17), where dealers tend to bring showstopping art at a much higher price point.

“This was always the premier art fair of the world,” says Brett Gorvy, a co-founder of Lévy Gorvy, which has a 1982 collage by Jean-Michel Basquiat in its booth, for $17.5 million, and a painting by Mark Grotjahn on offer, for $12.7 million. “It was always the tradition in Basel that [dealers] would ultimately hold their best work for the fair.”

But this year at Art Basel, which opened to VIPs on Tuesday and will officially open to the public on Thursday, there’s been a further upward trend in the price of many of the objects on view.

As a mishmash of European, American, and Asian collectors crowded into the fair on opening morning, women with small watches and large bracelets mingled with men wearing large watches and small bracelets, and dealers stood inside booths in which the total value of artworks on view could easily surpass $100 million. 

“We know that in Basel we have the possibility to get close to an auction-like situation,” says Hauser & Wirth partner Marc Payot, standing near a painting by Joan Mitchell that sold on the first day for $14 million. “We can ask a price, which is a big price for an important work, and there’s pressure” on the collector, Payot explains. “If Collector A doesn’t decide [immediately], then Collector B is interested—it’s like an auction.”

In past years, $10 million-plus artworks were outliers, and many pieces could be found for hundreds of thousands of dollars or less. This year, those “reasonably” priced works are there, but they’re increasingly joined by a profusion of art with values well above $3 million. And that’s where the action is.

Dealers provided two explanations for this change in material and price point: First, wealthy collectors are simply more interested in art that’s at the top of the market; and second, the rich are getting richer and can spend more on art than ever before.

Changing Taste
“During the last boom in 2007 and 2008, people were bringing a lot of great art, but it was selling it at a lower price,” says Robert Delaney, a director of London’s Bernard Jacobson Gallery, which has a booth featuring two massive paintings by Robert Motherwell priced at $10 million each.

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