Unfazed Collectors Drive Strong Sales on Art Basel Miami’s First Day - BloombergQuint

(Bloomberg) -- News headlines have been beating a continuous, ominous drumbeat about the Covid-19 omicron variant, but wealthy collectors continued to line up on Tuesday morning for the VIP opening day of Art Basel Miami Beach.

“We haven’t had cancelations,” says the New York dealer Marianne Boesky.

Mega-gallery Hauser and Wirth sent out a release saying it had sold 18 artworks in the first few hours of the fair, ranging from a $250,000 painting by Henry Taylor to a solid, cast-glass sculpture by Roni Horn that went in the range of $1.2 million.

Rival Pace sent out a release saying it had sold “over 30” works.

“It sounds cheap, but it’s like the auction house’s function,” says dealer Daniel Buchholz, whose gallery has locations in Cologne, Berlin, and New York.

Buchholz relates a story that Ernst Beyeler, the late dealer who co-founded the original Swiss iteration of Art Basel, told him.

At this point, Art Basel Miami Beach is only one small component of Miami’s “art week,” a loose combination of art fairs, art parties, sponsored dinners, and many, many product launches couched in such terms as “brand activation.”

Trying to discern trends in a fair with booths from 253 galleries is always a losing battle.