Art Fair Art Basel: Collector, come to Paris

Thus, the wealthy collectors from all over the world, who were lured by an outstanding offer of more or less expensive works to purchase in the current art week to the Art Basel fair in Paris, did not imagine: The city of lights, fashion, high culture and luxury, in which, according to the cliché, between Haussmann backdrops beautifully far away from reality as in the Netflix series “Emily in Paris”, has transformed into a city of burning barricades and looted shops. France is shaking up outbreaks of violence that no one has seen coming in this force – certainly not in the Élysée Palace. Once again, the globalized art trade, which makes up the lion’s share of its turnover with trophies for a small layer of so-called high or ultra high net worth individuals – while the mass of gallery owners and merchants struggle with the upper middle class artists they represent – is catching up with political reality. The days of the democratic consensus on prosperity in the West and the stable world order in general, from which the high-price business also benefited, are over. Top collectors may fly private jets; they do not yet live on another planet. Who is still talking about Monet in the auction halls? From the headlines has disappeared the announcement that on Thursday at Sotheby’s in Paris, a never-before-shown flower painting by Claude Monet could become the most expensive work of the Impressionist ever auctioned in France. Other paintings by the artist come to Christie’s from the collection of legendary gallery owner Paul Durand-Ruel. Bidders will already arrive, hopefully also one or the other museum with a stately budget, but the glamour disappears in the smoke. The art fair company Art Basel, which has honored Paris since 2022 with a sales event now held in the Grand Palais for more than 200 international exhibitors, wants to benefit from the traction of the culturally booming metropolis on the Seine. Since Brexit for EU residents more attractive than London, more chic than Berlin and with a well-balanced balance of famous state museums, outstanding private collections, galleries and fashion as well as jewelry de luxe en masse, the city offers everything that makes the heart beat faster. This not only revives mega-galleries, but also numerous smaller galleries in the wake of major attractions, where cultural construction work takes place at the price of self-exploitation. The Art Basel in Paris could be the Swiss parent trade fair of the group, one feared already on the Upper Rhine and can now say: Probably the one who has a safe (duty-free) port for the most important trade fair of contemporary art. Meanwhile, the future of Art Basel’s recent expansion into the Emirate of Qatar, where huge cultural investments are a matter of state, is overshadowed by the ongoing conflict in the region. But in Paris, three days before the opening of the Art Basel there, it is already about damage limitation. VIP guests have received an e-mail from the exhibition director Karim Crippa with the assurance that security measures have been increased. All in the best order? Probably hardly. As an enemy for violent rioters, but also peaceful for affordable rents and functioning schools protesters, the Parisian gem of the art market is always suitable. In Paris, what divides across Europe is tearing up.