Art Basel 2024: Market Slowdown Encouraging Selective Purchasing

Image: Picture taken by the author at Art Basel 2024

Evening in New York, morning in Dubai, midday in Tokyo—the one event where masterpieces from around the world gather in one place. This year's Art Basel, as expected, showcased its class, with top collectors strolling through the fair with champagne in hand.

As an individual working with a participating gallery, I enjoyed guiding my collectors through the fair and meeting new collectors as well. From the VIP day, journalists were already buzzing about the event, but here are my insights as someone who was actually there from the beginning to the end.

Mario Ceroli, Progetto per la pace (1968)

Art Basel 2024 began with a bang, featuring the Unlimited section showcasing monumental installations, sculptures, wall paintings, and large-scale artworks. The space was bustling with collectors, making it challenging to navigate through the crowd in some areas.

The VIP day kicked off after the Unlimited section opened, with many journalists already reporting on the lucrative sales by mega galleries and declaring the fair a success. However, as someone who was there until the end, I believe it was too soon to judge.

There were numerous reports of significant sales, such as Hauser & Wirth selling Louise Bourgeois's Spider IV (1996) for $22.5 million, David Zwirner selling Joan Mitchell's Sun Flowers (1990-91) for $20 million, and Pace selling Wayne Thiebaud’s Sliced Pie Stand (2017/2018) for $2.25 million. We witnessed a lot of positivity around the mega galleries. As I visited their booths, I noticed they would change their artworks each day. However, I also heard of many artworks being on hold, such as Mark Rothko's Untitled (1955) at Acquavella for $60 million and a Basquiat painting at Simon Lee for around $10 million. Interestingly, some works showcased in mega galleries had failed to sell at auction houses. For instance, Gagosian gallery was selling de Kooning's Untitled III (ca. 1978), which Christie's couldn't sell at their auction.

The journalists may be right that the mega galleries were doing well at Art Basel 2024. However, they appear to be a little cautious about the upcoming years, as overall sales for works over $5 million are declining, as you can see in the data below. While the mega galleries can be cautiously optimistic, let's take a look at how the smaller galleries fared at the fair.

Credit: The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2024

Throughout the fair, I talked to many gallerists from around the world, and everyone seemed to agree that this year's Art Basel has been slower compared to last year. This comes as no surprise given the inflation, higher interest rates, and political instability around the globe.

Unlike during the pandemic, consumer behavior has changed, with more collectors becoming selective in their purchasing decisions. I witnessed many artworks going on reserve throughout the fair, but there were certainly no instant buyers as we saw at other art fairs in the past.

Fortunately, our gallery did well this year, but we noticed that Asian collectors were more hesitant in making their decisions. Since the gallery I work for is based in Asia, we usually have a wealth of collectors from China and South Korea coming all the way to Basel to visit our booth. Although we had collectors asking for prices, Asian collectors struggled to make decisions due to their weakened currencies.

With that being said, there is no doubt that this year's overseas art fair has been very tough for Asian galleries. The cost to ship our works has nearly doubled compared to pre-COVID times. Of course, there are also the costs for the booth, framing, storage, accommodation, and much more.

As the top art fair in the world, Art Basel attracted many top-class collectors. It was exciting to meet new and returning collectors, but I'm sure many galleries will be divided on whether this fair was successful or not. Either way, the year is halfway done with a few more art fairs to go. It won't be long until we start seeing the results of the performance of this year's art market.

If you have any question, contact by clicking here.

---

About the Author

Shion Hamazumi

After graduating from Tel Aviv University (Israel), Shion has been working with Tokyo Gallery+BTAP. With over 70 years of history, the gallery boasts a wealth of collectors from around the world. Driven by his passion for art, he helps collectors understand the art market and share his love for art history.