New York Magazine says Art Basel Miami is going to be the same as it ever was this year, only different:
In a nod to the realities of the economy, Basel Miami is actually constraining some large-scale parties, says Lee Schrager of Southern Wine & Spirits, the fair’s liquor supplier and sponsor. That said, “there seem to be more non-official parties than ever this year.” Luxury goods are back on the beach. Montcler and Cartier are both hosting events. Pucci, which skipped last year, returns. Collectors are back, too: More museum groups than ever have arranged to tour the satellite Art Miami fair this year, says Nick Korniloff, its director—over a dozen.
But excess this year doesn’t really add up economically, even morally. It isn’t like everything’s really back to normal. Some satellite fairs and events have spread away from South Beach to economize. (Rooms go for $615 a night at the Delano, which is next to Basel Miami, while the Deauville, 50 blocks north, where the nada fair is being held, offered a $99 special.) As a result, the walkable, boozy art Disneyland is now more like L.A. itself, stretching nineteen and a half miles down to the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, where Larry Gagosian will show giant works by Yayoi Kusama.
Holiday in the Sun (New York)
