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Art Basel Paris Wraps Second Edition With Big Early Sales and Citywide Public Works

The fair foregrounded citywide public projects to temper its transactional core.

Overview

  • The Grand Palais fair closed Oct. 26 after drawing more than 200 galleries from 41 countries and logging a reported $90 million in VVIP-night sales before the official VIP opening.
  • Gallerists described an intensely transactional atmosphere shaped by high costs, with one estimating about $300,000 to exhibit for six days.
  • Helen Marten’s multimedia performance 30 Blizzards at Palais d’Iéna, supported by Miu Miu, was widely praised and concluded with the fair.
  • Chromoscope at the Cité de l’architecture presents major abstract canvases on loan valued around $120 million in a reconstructed Gothic chapel, remaining on view until mid-February.
  • Designer Harry Nuriev’s Objets Trouvés invited visitors to exchange found items in a deconsecrated chapel, even as similar boxed objects were offered by his gallery Sultana for $2,500.