The art fair was described to successful in comparison to the subdued last year. The hesitation to spend and the extreme caution of 2008 and 2009 were gone, too. Pay rise in the financial world back to pre-crisis levels, brought art back in spotlight, seem as a safe asset to park money.
Galleries like David Zwirner, Gagosian, Pace and Andrea Rosen all registered brisk sales. Major collectors including Steven A. Cohen, David Tieger and Peter Brant were conspicuous by their presence at the fair. The Wall Street Journal reported that the former acquired a Tim Hawkinson work for $180,000 from Blum & Poe and ‘Mappemonde’ by Adel Abdessemad for close to $300,000 at Zwirner. Summing up the mood at the Art Basel Miami, The New York Times Kate Taylor noted:
“The fair is a multiday sprint of buying, looking, socializing, and crucial networking for people not only in the art world but in other industries catering to the very rich, from private banking to private planes. The inaugural day started with a ceremonial groundbreaking for the new $200 million building of the Miami Art Museum on the bay. Its construction had been held up for many years, but Miami-Dade County released $100 million in bond proceeds in May to let the project designed by Herzog & de Meuron go forward.”Though many collectors and dealers cited a renewed exuberance and optimism, sounding a bit cautious, major Miami collector Don Rubell was quoted as saying: “I guess maybe the art world hasn’t heard about the recession…” He recalled how, he had to come by 9:30 a.m., in earlier years, to sneak through the doors by 11:30. This year, he came at 10:45 and was still the first in line. In some experts’ eyes, a positive outcome of the slower pace is that institutions now have more of an opportunity to buy.
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