Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 44 2025

Art Basel Paris is seen as a rejuvenating cure for the French capital by Bettina Wohlfarth in the FAZ: "As if Paris had awakened from a deep sleep, the French capital has been radiantly elegant again for several years now, building on its great past and, at least in terms of art, offering something joyful to counteract the ongoing political crisis and the recent debacle at the Louvre. The fourth edition of Art Basel Paris, which is being held at the Grand Palais for the second time, shows how closely the fair is now linked to the city and its institutions. The freely accessible additional programme of sculptures, installations and interventions is on display in museums and public spaces."

Art Basel Paris threatens to outshine not only Frieze London, but even the parent fair itself, Alexandra Wach speculates in the Tagesspiegel (paywall): "According to gallery owner Thaddaeus Ropac, all the major American collectors were there. This could be because the Paris edition of Art Basel follows directly on from Frieze in London and has long since developed into the most international fair in the world. Miami, Basel and Hong Kong are increasingly focusing on their respective regions. If this trend continues, the parent fair is likely to cannibalise itself. This could mean that galleries will no longer save their best works for Switzerland."

The pre-opening of Art Basel Paris on Tuesday does not seem to have had only advantages, report Devorah Lauter and Sarah Douglas at Artnews: "The Avant Première event was not without its hitches. Mayer said that deciding who to give one of the six invites allotted to each gallery was “difficult” and left some of their clients “a little bit angry” if they didn't get one. Some emerging and medium-sized galleries in the second floor's less-traveled alleys told ARTnews that the event wasn't a boon for them: even the clients who received invites from these dealers didn't always make it upstairs. ‘It was like crickets,’ said one American dealer, who asked not to be named. The result, in their view, was a lost day in Paris."

While the fair was still running, Art Basel announced the successor to outgoing ABP director Clément Delépine. Karim Crippa is a veteran of the fair company, having previously headed Art Basel's communications department.

Daniel Cassady at Artnews reports on Art Basel Paris's tiered pricing as if it was a new form of tacit discounting: "According to several first- and second-time exhibitors at Art Basel Paris, the fair has been offering booth-fee discounts to new participants—20 per cent for “freshmen,” 10 per cent for “sophomores.” The galleries were notified in an email sent shortly after Labour Day. Multiple dealers confirmed receipt of the email, and while it’s unclear when exactly the policy began, one New York gallerist said the practice has been in place since Art Basel Miami Beach in 2021. Vincenzo de Bellis, the fair’s chief artistic officer and global director, confirmed that such a programme was in place.” The sliding scale of prices with discounts for new exhibitors is no secret. For the WELTKUNST Insider (60 days free) of 20 August 2024, I created a detailed table with the prices of 21 art fairs, which I still have.

The crisis of the traditional art fair model has been nowhere more evident than in Paris this year, believes Elisa Carollo of the Observer: "As operating costs rise and the art world grows without a matching increase in demand, many dealers—especially younger ones trying to enter an already saturated system—now find themselves trapped in an industry that has outpaced its own capacity: too large, too costly and too reliant on a fair model that no longer serves them. In response, a new generation of dealer-led art fairs has emerged—smaller, collaborative and self-organised alternatives to the institutional circuit. Seeing how many of these gallery-led initiatives are multiplying this year in Paris, one can't help but draw parallels to the Salon des Refusés." The comparison is apt, but perhaps not in the way the author intended. Because without the Salon, there would be no Salon des Refusés. Someone has to provide the entire infrastructure, i.e. the appeal that attracts curators, collectors and journalists to the city in the first place.

I was in Paris for the Handelsblatt and Artmagazine.

I report on a new satellite fair for Art Cologne for Artmagazine.

Women are the better, or at least more generous, collectors, according to Ursula Scheer's report on the Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2025 in the FAZ: "The art trade, which has been severely affected by economic uncertainties and geopolitical crises, can pin its hopes primarily on one group: affluent female art collectors, who make up about half of the people surveyed by Clare McAndrew's team. According to the Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting, in 2024 these women's spending on art and antiques was 46 per cent higher than that of men. Female collectors in China are leading the way.‘ The survey also has some less positive news for galleries, according to Daniel Cassady's review in Artnews: ’That fluidity shows up in how art changes hands. In 2024–25, 63 per cent of collectors purchased directly from artists, up from 27 per cent two years earlier and 43 per cent from 2022. Nearly half of all high-net-worth buyers used social media to do so: 43 per cent bought from studios, 37 per cent commissioned works, and 35 per cent purchased via Instagram links. The old hierarchy—dealer first, artist second—is slipping. Sure, galleries remain the most trusted channel overall, but the survey finds that collectors' second-most-preferred route is now direct purchase, a category that's more than doubled in just one year." I read the report for the Handelsblatt.

After the break-in at the Louvre, it turns out that the stolen jewels, like everything else, were not insured, reports George Nelson in Artnews: "This revelation is particularly painful for the museum because the jewels were valued at $102 million, a Paris prosecutor said on Tuesday. This comes after French authorities claimed they were of “incalculable” value. [...] According to the French culture ministry, the country would not be reimbursed for any losses linked to the stolen items if they are not recovered by the police. Officers are continuing to investigate, but leads have been thin on the ground. A culture ministry spokesperson said in a statement first reported by French newspaper Le Parisien: “The state acts as its own insurer when national museums” works are in their typical place of conservation.'" This once again highlights the disadvantage of state liability when it comes to state-owned property. This has been known since the theft from the Green Vault in Dresden, if not before. On the other hand, who could or should have insured a risk like the Louvre?

Stephanie Dieckvoss summarises the London auctions in the Handelsblatt: "For the time being, however, interest is turning to the auction offerings in Paris, which are gaining even greater significance in parallel with Paris Art Basel. But London can breathe a sigh of relief for now. The autumn season was not a disaster. However, it is clear that the various houses are taking increasingly different paths. As long as the art on offer combines excellent quality with rarity, sales are almost guaranteed. The results achieved by Karpidas at Sotheby's and Faarup and Hegewisch at Christie's show that private collections are also well received." Anne Reimers summarises the events for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The bankruptcies of Munich art dealers Thomas and Röbbig confronted the art market with some unpleasant truths about the industry, believes Annegret Erhardt in WeLT (paywall): "The examples of Galerie Thomas and Kunsthandlung Röbbig can be used to create a psychogram of the art trade, its more or less specific laws, its combination of high-level connoisseurship and a well-developed affinity for commerce. This probably also includes a fatal tendency to ignorantly gloss over foreseeable disasters. [...] Of course, there were unpleasant, let's call them well-known idiosyncrasies. At Galerie Thomas, for example, there was the extremely hesitant settlement of accounts with artists and colleagues for works that had long since been sold; at Kunsthandlung Röbbig, there was the outstanding payment of trade fair costs, which soon added up to a considerable sum. But the reputation of both companies, thanks in part to their spectacular trade fair appearances, repeatedly appeased tempers and made them tolerant against their better judgement."

George Nelson reports the closure of the Zurich gallery Francesca Pia at Artnews. The press release (PDF) for the current exhibition simply states: ‘Galerie Francesca Pia is pleased to announce the sixth solo exhibition with Wade Guyton. This will also be the final exhibition in the gallery space in Zurich.’ It is the gallery's only location – unica sede, as they say in Italy.