Artnet has posted its Basel Preview with this lede: “In 2007, when Art 38 Basel coincided with the 52nd Venice Biennale and Documenta 12, many observers noted that the commercial art festival outshone its scholarly cousins, in terms of both the blue chip art on view and the new art being shown. Art dealers and the art market bested art curators and government art institutions. In a politically liberal art world, it seemed like a contrarian triumph of capital.”

Granted, Artnet is biased toward the market, but could it be that market is an efficient mechanism for bringing out the best art?