ArtBasel Miami Beach Sales Report
Miami Needs the Dabblers. Maybe ArtBasel Miami Beach Doesn’t?
Robin Pogrebin asked ArtBasel’s management about the VIP Vernissage attendance and they confirmed that the numbers were off a substantial 9.4%. That’s pretty big news. With further reports of hotels slashing their rates and vacancies, the visitor numbers for the public access to the fair may be well off the past numbers too.
Pogrebin summarized the welter of causes assumed to account for the drop:
The reason, many agreed, had to do with several factors: fear of the Zika virus, a tentativeness in the art market around the presidential election and too many art fairs. But the result was a general sense of relief — turmoil in the world has winnowed out some of the dabblers, and purchases are more deliberative.
Nonetheless, reported sales remained relatively strong—though with private sales there is no reliable information to go by—which bolster’s Pogrebin’s point about the art market. It remains dependent upon a relatively small group of buyers. Does that mean the art market is better off when the less committed don’t show up? Or do buyers need the audience to validate their purchases?Continue Reading
Vernissage TV: ArtBasel Miami Beach
Bloomberg’s ABMB Report
- Gagosian: Steve Wynn bought a 1980s Lichtenstein painting, asking price of $900,000.
- Eli Broad bought a 1988 Koons sculpture of an almost- life-size Buster Keaton. The asking price was between $5 million and $5.5 million.
- Barbara Gladstone sold pieces by Rosemarie Trockel, Anish Kapoor and Mike Kelley ranging from $125,000 to $1 million for Kapoor.
- Pace gallery quickly sold out the entire edition of a 2012 Michal Rovner video titled “Crossing,” with each of three units priced at $150,000.
Chelsea Handler, Will Ferrell Join Miami Basel VIPs (Bloomberg)