Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 17 2025

The erosion of the art fair model, which has been in place for decades, has reached the top of the market. Following Luhring Augustin and Michael Haas, Air de Paris is also pulling out of Art Basel – and making it public. In letters to the fair and their colleagues, published in the newsletter Provence, Florence Bonnefous and Edouard Merino explain their reasons: ‘While it's understandable that the recent trend towards a more corporatist model has given priority to managerial efficiency, leading to new structures and new behaviours, we don't see why Air de Paris has been moved from its initial leading position to a secondary one, which discredits us. Since 1999, the trip to Basel has been a defining moment in our careers as gallerists, as well as in the lives of the artists we have presented or brought to Basel. I have also served as an expert on the ABB selection committee and am now a member of the ABP committee. We have always respected the deadlines that were agreed for the payments. We cannot accept this treatment and feel obliged to withdraw. At the same time, we are proud to show that it is possible to say ‘No’. Just a few years ago, this ability to say no would have been unthinkable and unspeakable. The development could well develop into an existential crisis for the major art fairs. Their owners are corporations with specific return expectations. That doesn't leave much leeway in difficult times, which, on the contrary, require investment.

Art Dubai embodies the tectonic shifts in the art market, believes Daniel Cassady of Artnews: ‘Beneath Art Dubai's flash lies a confident maturity. It isn't Art Basel, nor is it trying to be. This year's fair had around 120 exhibitors from over 60 cities, with a clear emphasis on regions not often featured extensively in European or American events of its kind. There are, of course, many artists and galleries from the Middle East and the Gulf, but the fair also featured numerous galleries from countries such as India, Iran, Morocco, China and Singapore, to name a few. ‘In the last 20 years, what was perceived to be the periphery has become the centre—and that means the city of Dubai itself, and the fair along with it,’ Antonia Carver, director of Dubai's well-regarded Jameel Arts Centre, told ARTnews. Carver was director of the fair from 2010 to 2016. Anyone who thinks art in Dubai is just about artwashing and cultural branding is missing the point, believes Lisa-Marie Berndt at Monopol: ‘The audience at the fair is as diverse as the atmosphere: Collectors from the Gulf region rub shoulders with curators from Lagos, gallery owners from Paris, critics from New York – but also influencers with press passes, start-up heirs with an interest in art, and artists negotiating their next residency between two exhibition booths. Those who are here often want more than just to own art: it's about participation, influence, soft power. In Dubai, art is not only exhibited, but actively negotiated – as a resource in the game of visibility, belonging and the future. The fact that this stage works is not due to the magic of the place alone, but to a clear strategy: culture in Dubai does not emerge in a vacuum, but within well-integrated infrastructures.’ Melissa Gronlund makes it clear in The Art Newspaper that this is a regional fair: ‘It is important to come to an art fair in our region—not in Basel, not in New York—where the major regional galleries are showing,’ says collector Mohamed Maktabi, who runs Iwan Maktabi Gallery, a textile and carpet gallery in Dubai. ’And it's refreshing. Because we see ourselves, our work and our region.’ Eva Karcher expresses her enthusiasm for Art Dubai in the Tagesspiegel: ‘There is little sign of the economic crisis that is ravaging Europe and the USA here; on the contrary. […] The prospects for Dubai as an interesting art hotspot in the Middle East and its Art Dubai fair could not be better, especially now that Saudi Arabia is also investing heavily in contemporary art. The new players in the contemporary art market are networking. They have obviously realised that relationships arise from diversity and differences.’ I was in Dubai for Handelsblatt and Artmagazine.

As usual, Art & Antique provides the perfect stage for the Salzburg Festival's leisure programme, which Brita Sachs visited for the FAZ: ‘During the preview, there was almost a crowd around the high-quality jewellery from famous jewellers, with Old Treasury (Kerkrade) filling many display cases, as did Pintar from Salzburg. There was also a sparkle at Kunsthaus Kende, which once again travelled from Tübingen with historical and ultra-modern silver. Finally, the contemporary matadors of the Alpine country accompany the tour of the fair – sometimes as a sprinkling among universalists, such as at Lilly's Art (Vienna), where a huge red pouring painting by Hermann Nitsch provides the backdrop for a 15th-century crucifixion from the circle of Giovanni di Enrico Salisburgo.’ Werner Remm's conclusion in Artmagazine: ‘With a few exceptions, Art & Antique impresses with high quality and corresponding prices.’

Bettina Wohlfarth sums up the Paris auction week in the FAZ: ‘In line with the market situation, the estimates had been set without overly high expectations, so that most lots were sold at least in the range of the estimated prices. Overall, Christie's negotiated deals worth a gross total of 58 million euros in five bids last week. [...] In a total of four auctions during its spring sales, Sotheby's recorded gross sales of 38.5 million euros.’

The auction of the collection of former Daimler-Benz boss Edzard Reuter and his wife Helga is less exciting because of its expected contents. Bettina Wohlfarth's interview with Dirk Boll from Christie's in the FAZ on 19 April proves interesting from a market perspective: ‘The couple died last autumn and had no children. Many years ago, the Reuters decided to set up a foundation to promote their socio-political concerns. It is dedicated to issues of international understanding and cultural exchange. The proceeds from the collection – we estimate between three and five million euros – will go to this foundation, as stipulated in the will. The auction will take place in France because it has a fairly large proportion of French artists. Since Brexit, demand for Italian post-war art has shifted to Paris. The highest prices can be achieved there for these two parts of the collection. We are now seeing enthusiasm for our continent's post-war art, especially in Europe, after decades of focusing on the figurative schools. I believe that the collection could be entering the market at a good time in Paris.’

The speculation is over, now everything will be fine! At least that's what the Hiscox Artist Top 100 (PDF) suggests, which Karen K. Ho read for Artnews: ‘Flipping appears to have fallen out of favour, with total sales of “wet paint” artworks (those sold at auction within two years of being created) by artists under 45 falling 64 percent, to $14.1 million, down from $38.8 million in 2023. The HAT 100 report also noted that the number of works in this category fell to 698 lots from 924 in 2013, and that nearly one in five of these did not sell. That's ‘the highest proportion in seven years,’ the report said. ‘With sales at a seven-year low, the speculative fever that took hold in 2022 and 2023 is now over,’ said the report, published by global specialist insurer Hiscox, with research done by art market research and analysis firm ArtTactic.

If everyone else is lucky and Berlin is unlucky, Joe Chialo will not become Federal Minister of Culture after all, according to the Springer newspaper BZ (cookie terror), citing The Spot (paywall): ‘Christiane Schenderlein (43), who is considered experienced and respected across party lines, is now once again being discussed for the post. [...] It is also rumoured that Berlin's Senator for Education, Katharina Günther-Wünsch, could move to the federal government as State Secretary. It is unlikely that Berlin will fill more than one position.’

Larry Gagosian pays tribute to Ursula Scheer in the FAZ on his 80th birthday: ‘After studying literature with no plan for the future, Gagosian, who grew up in middle-class circumstances in the San Fernando Valley, had a brilliant idea while working in a car park: cheap posters only needed cheap frames to sell for many times their purchase price. [...] Gagosian's first shop in Los Angeles followed this business model. It quickly became a small gallery for contemporary art. Gagosian owed his rise to higher spheres to his long-legendary audacity and another fateful encounter.’

The death of the ‘Queen of Las Vegas’ Elaine Wynn, collector and ex-wife of Steve Wynn, at the age of 82, is reported by Maximilíano Durón in Artnews.

Guy Ullens, Belgian billionaire and co-founder of the UCCA Centre for Contemporary Art in Beijing, has died at the age of 90, Maximilíano Durón also reports in Artnews.