!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mystery Buyer Revealed! "Munch's 'The Scream' Sold to Financier Leon Black" in @wsj

By KELLY CROW

New York financier Leon Black paid Sotheby's nearly $120 million for Edvard Munch's masterpiece, "The Scream," according to several people close to the collector.

 

imageReuters
An auctioneer takes bids for the sale of "The Scream" painted by Edvard Munch at Sotheby's in New York in May.

The identity of the buyer—who set a record for a work of art sold at auction—has been one of the art world's most closely guarded secrets since the dramatic, 12-minute sale in May.

 

 

Now that the buyer has been identified, the new parlor game surrounding the iconic artwork will be guessing where it will end up. Mr. Black's long-term intentions for his Munch remain unclear. He sits on the boards of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, setting up a potential tug of war between two of the country's most powerful art institutions. Neither owns a "Scream," aside from lithograph-print versions of it.

 

Few artworks have the world-wide celebrity of "The Scream," and it would immediately become a merchandising bonanza and huge attendance draw for any museum that displayed it.

 

It's easy to understand the work's appeal: Munch created four versions of "The Scream," but Mr. Black's is the only one not in an Oslo museum and the first to come up at auction. The work depicts a bald, skeletal figure in a blue shirt standing at a popular suicide spot on Oslo's horseshoe-shaped bay where people could often hear screams from a nearby insane asylum, according to art historians.

 

A spokesman for Mr. Black, 60 years old, declined to comment.

 

image
Reuters
Apollo Management LP Managing Partner Leon Black speaks at a panel discussion in May 2011.

 

Mr. Black is one of a handful of billionaires whose lavish art spending has transformed the international art market in recent years, fueling the proliferation of art fairs and ratcheting up prices for all sorts of artworks. His $750 million art collection already includes drawings by Raphael and Vincent van Gogh, watercolors by J.M.W. Turner, Cubist paintings by Pablo Picasso and ancient Chinese bronzes. Three years ago, he paid Christie's $47.6 million for a Raphael chalk drawing, "Head of a Muse," a record auction price at the time for a work on paper.

 

The seller of "The Scream" was Petter Olsen, a Norwegian real-estate developer and shipping heir whose father was a neighbor of Munch's in the small Norwegian town of Hvitsten. Mr. Olsen said he sold the work in order to fund a hotel and museum of Munch's work near the Norwegian fjord where the artist painted.

 

Mr. Black gleaned an early interest in art from his mother and his aunt, Grace Borgenicht Brandt, a Manhattan art dealer who represented painter Milton Avery. In the late 1970s, Mr. Black became a buyout executive for Drexel Burnham Lambert and rose to become the billionaire chairman and chief executive of New York firm Apollo Global Management. His fortune, which Forbes said tops $3.4 billion as of March, increased when Apollo went public in March 2011. Apollo said it manages $105 billion in assets.

 

In 2006, Mr. Black teamed up with collector Ronald Lauder to buy a $38 million Ernst Ludwig Kirchner work, "Berlin Street Scene"—a record for that artist as well. In 2001, he and Mr. Lauder jointly paid Sotheby's $22.5 million for Max Beckmann's 1938 "Self Portrait with Hunting Horn." On Wednesday, Mr. Lauder said he has "always had great respect for Leon's taste and knowledge."

 

Unlike Mr. Lauder, who has put much of his collection on public display in his New York museum, the Neue Galerie, Mr. Black has always kept his art close to home. Dealers who have visited the Park Avenue apartment he shares with his wife, Debra, say it brims with art from an eclectic variety of styles and periods—from archaic Chinese vessels to Constantin Brâncuşi's sleek sculpture, "Bird in Space."

 

[image] 
Getty Images
Edvard Munch

Mr. Black began collecting drawings as a teenager, and his walls are still dotted with clusters of framed sketches by Honoré Daumier, Georges Seurat, Paul Cézanne and van Gogh, dealers say. He also has purchased a few contemporary works by artists like Andy Warhol. (In March he and his wife gave his alma mater, Dartmouth College, $48 million to build a new visual arts center adorned with an Ellsworth Kelly wall sculpture.)

 

 

"I wish museum directors knew as much about art as Leon Black does," said Richard Feigen, an Old Master dealer who said he has known the collector for several decades and has sold him art. "Nobody has his wingspan."

 

Until recently, Mr. Black was still primarily known in the art world as a collector of drawings, a field that's been largely overlooked by the recent influx of billionaire art buyers because these works tend to be smaller and harder to instantly identify than a colorful, wall-power painting. In some ways, "The Scream" represents a perfect hybrid because it is a pastel on board—containing all the chalky immediacy of a work on paper—and yet its imagery is well known by the masses.

 

Whatever his reasons for wanting "The Scream," Mr. Black competed hard to win it. During Sotheby's May 2 sale in New York, auctioneer Tobias Meyer kicked off the bidding for the work at $40 million, and five bidders from the U.S. and China joined in. Among them was Mr. Black, who fielded his telephone bids through Charles Moffett, Sotheby's executive vice president and vice chairman of its world-wide Impressionist, modern and contemporary art department. As the price topped $80 million, the fight came down to Mr. Black and another telephone bidder, whose bids began to waver and lag as the price climbed higher still. Mr. Black's bids came quickly, suggesting less hesitation.

 

When the bidding crossed the $100 million mark, an auction first, Mr. Meyer adjusted his tuxedo jacket at his rostrum and said, "Can I say I love you?" The hundreds of people packed into the house's York Avenue saleroom chuckled. When the gavel finally fell, Mr. Moffett smiled, whispered his congratulations to Mr. Black and hung up.

via online.wsj.com

"Records Set at Christie's Contemporary Sale in London" in @nytimes

LONDON – At Christie’s post-war and contemporary art auction here on Wednesday evening – an event aptly described by the super dealer Larry Gagosian as “Masterpiece Theatre’’ – collectors from around the world dropped millions of dollars on works by many of the major names of the 20th century, and record prices were set for two of them: Yves Klein and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Hoping to capture the attention of both established collectors and new-rich ones from places like the Middle East, Russia and Asia, Christie’s had marshaled its international connections, pulling in exceptionally strong artworks for an evening auction like few others London has seen. The sale totaled $207.3 million, against an estimate of $160.1 million to $216.9 million, the highest total of any auction in the category that Christie’s has held in Europe.

Unlike Sotheby’s, whose auction on Tuesday evening made $108 million with more works of lower value, Christie’s reached for the stars.

Three bidders wanted Klein’s “Le Rose du Bleu (RE 22),’’ an organic landscape of pink sponges and pebbles that was bought by a telephone bidder for $36.7 million, a record price for the artist at auction and well above its high estimate of $31.2 million. (Final prices include the buyer’s commission to Christie’s: 25 percent of the first $50,000; 20 percent of the next $50,000 to $1 million and 12 percent of the rest. Estimates do not reflect commissions.) The painting, which was being sold by an anonymous collector, was one of the earliest of just 12 such sponge reliefs that the artist produced in pink rather than his trademark ultramarine blue.

The other record was achieved for a 1981 Basquiat canvas of a primitive figure with clenched teeth, his oversized hands held high in the air. It had been estimated to bring $15.6 million to $23.4 million, but was purchased by a telephone bidder for $20.1 million. (The painting had last been up for sale at Sotheby’s in New York in 2007, when it brought $14.6 million.) Brett Gorvy, chairman of Christie’s post-war and contemporary art worldwide, who took the winning bid, described the buyer as “a seasoned European collector who had been looking for the right Basquiat for years.”

“There was strong American buying tonight,’’ Mr. Gorvy said after the sale. “But Europeans were even stronger.’’ (Surprisingly, he added, there was little action from either Asian or Russian buyers, in contrast to many recent sales.)

Another hefty price was paid for Francis Bacon’s “Study for Self-Portrait,’’ a 1964 full length painting of the artistperched on a bed, which was expected to sell for between $23.4 million and $31.2 million. After it failed to sell at auction at Christie’s in New York in 2008 it was the subject of a law suit, in which the owner, a family trust led by the Connecticut collector George A. Weiss, claimed that Christie’s had reneged on a $40 million guarantee (a sum promised the seller regardless of a sale’s outcome). That suit was settled in July of last year, with Christie’s agreeing to pay the trust an undisclosed.

On Wednesday night William Acquavella, the Manhattan dealer, bid for the work by phone in what became a protracted battle against Christopher van der Weghe, another Manhattan dealer. Mr. van der Weghe won, paying $33.6 million. “We knew we would have to fight for it,’’ Mr. van der Weghe said after the sale, describing the client he had bid for only as an international collector. “Quality is more important these days than ever.’’

Gerhard Richter has been a consistent winner over the past few years and on Wednesday night “Strutur (2),’’ a richly painted 1989 canvas of alabaster whites and gunmetal grays, sold to a telephone bidder for $19.8 million. It had been estimated to bring $14 million to $18 million.
Lucian Freud, who died a year ago, has a loyal following too, especially after the recent exhibitions here and in New York. Two works by him both brought strong prices. “Naked Portrait II,’’ a 1974 painting of the artist’s lover Jacquetta Eliot curled up asleep, had been expected to sell for $5.8 million to $6.8 million; it made $6.7 million. And “Head of a Greek Man,’’ a 1946 portrait, fetched $5.3 million, well above its estimate of $2.3 million to $3 million. Both paintings were purchased by telephone bidders.

Not everything sold high. Jeff Koons’s monumental stainless steel sculpture “Baroque Egg with Bow (Blue/Turquoise),’’ from 1994-2008, was snapped up by Ivor Braka, a London dealer, for $4 million, just under its low estimate. “Koons is one of the truly ground-breaking artists of the 20th and 21st centuries,’’ Mr. Braka said after the sale, “and to buy something like this at this level, especially given the elevated prices for other artists, was great. Some days you just get lucky.’’

via artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com

"Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble: Journalists Brood on an Art Market Crash" by Adam Lindemann

June 13, 2012

On the eve of this summer’s annual Art Basel fair in Basel, Switzerland, I’ve noted that some art writers have eagerly predicted the demise of the so-called “art bubble”; a few of them are persuasive enough to instill real fear and a loss of confidence. It almost makes you wonder if their doomsday predictions could actually come true. Well, fear not, they won’t.

 There are two main reasons for the popularity and persistence of the art bubble apocalypse myth. First, it makes good copy: gloomy predictions always draw an audience. Second, the thought that collectors, speculators, dealers and advisors are reaping the financial gains from these “insane“ prices seems awfully unfair to many of those in the art world who don’t. But it’s not the prices that are wrong, it’s the logic that is flawed: art and the art market are two altogether different things. The goal of the art market is to sell artworks and achieve the highest possible price; there’s no morality in it. Sometimes these prices may sound extreme, vulgar, indulgent or decadent, but many things are this way, and you don’t, for instance, read many articles lamenting the obscene sizes and prices of today’s mega-yachts—or cruise ships, for that matter.

Let’s put the art market in perspective. Think about the value of Google, which boasts a $189 billion market cap, or Facebook, with a market cap of $58 billion, down from an IPO price of about $100 billion only a few weeks ago. The average trading volume of Google in a single day is $2.4 billion dollars. The approximate total sales in the entire global contemporary art market in a year is around $6 billion, or what would likely be only two or three days’ worth of trading in Google stock. If these companies’ young billionaire founders, Sergey Brin or Mark Zuckerberg, bought up all the contemporary art sold in an entire year, they wouldn’t even feel the pinch.

Two weeks ago, in an article in The New York Times Magazine that asked if we are in an art bubble, business writer Adam Davidson admitted to understanding nothing about the art market, but still managed to come to a sound conclusion: the art market “is a proxy for the fate of the superrich themselves.” His view is that as long as the rich get richer, art prices will hold steady or increase. My bet is that he’s right. But he ends his article by confusing art and the art market: “It makes me happy to think that this world of art-as-investment is a minuscule fraction of the art world overall.” But one has nothing to do with the other; why should the “art world overall” bear any relation whatsoever to the $120 million paid at Sotheby’s last month for Edvard Munch’s The Scream?

Mr. Davidson is hardly the first journalist to brood on a bubble in recent years. U.K.-based writer Ben Lewis’s documentary The Great Contemporary Art Bubble, which predicted an art market crash, came out in 2009—good timing. But, though the market did dip, sadly for Mr. Lewis it then rebounded and has now risen, in some cases, to new heights. The esteemed Souren Melikian also recently intimated he felt the bubble when he said: “Right now, the art market situation offers uncomfortable similarities with the state of affairs in the spring of 1990,” so bubble predictions today aren’t the exception, they are the norm.The latest entry in the department of doom and gloom comes from Artnet.com’s endearing Charlie Finch, who last week fearlessly gave us his take on this precarious situation in a piece titled “Will the Art Market Crash?” He posited that the perfect storm of bad worldwide economic news means that the market cannot “continue its contrarian record sales indefinitely.” He then convincingly played the economist, speculating that deflation will make the rich horde cash and stop spending on art, and then midrange collectors “will panic … as collectors argue that the $100 million Munch might just as well be worth $10 million in an environment of falling prices.” Mr. Finch took the full cold plunge when he spouted, “I predict that, in six months, art prices will be down, across the board, by 50 percent, falling faster with no takers.”

Extreme views make for exciting reading. Their conclusions may differ, but Messrs. Davidson, Lewis, Melikian and Finch all share the same premise: art values are in a precarious “bubble.” Having been a zealous contemporary art collector for some 20 years, and having recently opened my own gallery, I do not share their view. No one can predict the future, but let me fill in some of the blanks for my soothsaying, doomsday-predicting friends.

All is not well in the art market and hasn’t been since late 2008. While a few trophy pieces make record prices at auction each season, like colorful Basquiats (if they are from 1982), and colorful Richter abstractions, underneath this spectacle things move with difficulty and sometimes grind to a halt. Today’s collectors are fickle, they find comfort in following the prevailing trends, and so what’s hot now can very easily be cold tomorrow. All that glitters is not gold.

Despite the highflying golden outliers, there is no bubble and there hasn’t been one since the one that burst in the 1990s. My prediction is that there will never be one again. I don’t see art market history repeating itself, and I don’t fear a tulip-style crash. Fine art was undervalued for a long time, and for a number of reasons. Before the Internet, the glitzy retail auctions and the now-ubiquitous art fairs, collecting tastes were often quite regional. Aside from a few global names, Europeans were primarily interested in collecting European artists, and Americans bought Americans. Even inside the U.S., the Los Angeles art market was separate from the one in New York. West Coast museums know it too; they recently staged the massive “Pacific Standard Time” series of exhibitions to showcase the generation of excellent artists that never quite made it out of L.A. Well, it still didn’t really work.

Today the picture is very different: L.A. dealers who operate from Berlin sell hot artists to collectors in New York, while new and hungry Filipino or Chinese collectors regularly appear at art fairs in Basel or Paris. I’m not suggesting that there are all that many of them; I am well aware that there are very few people with the money and the conviction to purchase a historic Munch for $120 million or a Cézanne for $250 million, but there are a few, and it’s likely that with time there will be more. Consider that this phenomenon is not restricted to art alone; just this week a 1962 Ferrari GTO, one of only 39 ever built, sold privately for $35 million, a world record for a car. The collectable car market also crashed in the ’90s but today, for the top trophy cars like GTOs, Testarossas or Spyder Californias, it is going up higher and higher and looks like it will never turn back. However, if you are thinking that a ’50s Porsche Spyder or a ’60s Aston Martin DB4GT will ever make these numbers, you are likely to be very disappointed. The big prices exist only for the rarest of Ferraris, though a prewar Bugatti or Alfa-Romeo may perhaps squeeze into these megabuck garages once in a while.

Art isn’t the only asset class to have often been repriced. The value of some vintage French Bordeaux wines has tripled over the past few years (though beware this is not the rule with all wine). When the Chinese coveted Château Lafite, it jumped by a factor of two or three times the value of a comparable Château Latour. The Chinese were the big buyers (as recently as last year), so Lafite ruled the wine market, though many experts might argue it tastes no better than a fine Latour or Mouton Rothschild. Now the Chinese buyers have backed off, so Lafite prices are easing off: Château Lafite may have been in a bubble, but the wine market overall was not and is not.

There is, theoretically, a limited supply of “trophy”-grade historic art, though the definition of what is or is not “historic” is a moving target and subject to constant change and review. Those outstanding record blockbuster sales notwithstanding, a global, informed and well-travelled audience has repriced fine art as an asset class. Collectors as a rule are willing to pay more for emerging, young, midcareer as well as blue-chip art, and this phenomenon will not reverse itself—though it might slow down, and I believe it already has.

Nothing is forever, of this we can be sure, but that doesn’t mean we will ever go back to the way it used to be. Those who are enthusiastically waiting to hear a big “pop!” in the market bubble will yet again be disappointed. From now on all we are likely to hear is a tight snap or a faint crackle.

via adamlindemann.com

 

Hedge Funder Cohen, Eye Rothko, $25 Million Richter Sells

By Scott Reyburn - Jun 13, 2012 1:56 PM ET

A Gerhard Richter painting with a price of between $20 million and $25 million led sales at the world’s biggest fair of modern and contemporary art where U.S. billionaires Steven Cohen and Jerry Speyer were among the VIP visitors.

The New York-based collector Alberto Mugrabi and U.K. artist Tracey Emin joined other well-known faces at the UBS- sponsored Art Basel in Switzerland, now in its 43rd edition, with 300 galleries from 36 countries.

"Untitled"

"Untitled"

Marlborough Fine Art via Bloomberg

"Untitled," a 1954 painting by Mark Rothko. The Abstract Expressionist work is being offered by Marlborough Fine Art at the 43rd edition of Art Basel in Switzerland. The fair runs though June 17.

"Untitled"

"Untitled"

Galerie Bruno Bischofberger via Bloomberg

"Untitled," a 1985 work by Jean-Michel Basquiat. It is being offered by the Zurich-based dealership Galerie Bruno Bischofberger at the Art Basel fair in Switzerland. The event runs through June 17.

"Untitled (Self-portrait)"

"Untitled (Self-portrait)"

Skarstedt Gallery via Bloomberg

"Untitled (Self-portrait)," a 1984 work by the German painter Albert Oehlen. It was sold by the New York-based Skarstedt Gallery at the Art Basel fair in Switzerland, which runs though June 17.

 

"A.B. Courbet" by Gerhard Richter

"A.B. Courbet" by Gerhard Richter

Pace Gallery via Bloomberg.

"A.B. Courbet," a 1986 abstract by Gerhard Richter. The work was sold by the New York-based Pace Gallery at the Art Basel fair in Switzerland, previewing on June 12-13. The work was priced between $20 million and $25 million.

Twombly blackboard painting

Twombly blackboard painting

Galerie Karsten Greve AG St. Moritz via Bloomberg.

"Hill (Rome)," a 1966 painting by Cy Twombly is being offered for sale by the St. Moritz-based dealers Galerie Karsten Greve at the 43rd edition of the Art Basel fair in Switzerland. The event previews on June 12-13.

 

"Sumac" by Alexander Calder

"Sumac" by Alexander Calder

Pace Gallery via Bloomberg.

"Sumac" by Alexander Calder, a mobile work made in 1961. The sheet metal, wire, and paint work is being offered by the New York-based Pace Gallery at the Art Basel fair in Switzerland, previewing on June 12-13.

 

"Travel Picture Rose"

"Travel Picture Rose"

Thomas Dane Gallery via Bloomberg

"Travel Picture Rose," a 2007-2008 diptych by the Los Angeles-based photographer Walead Beshty. The work is being offered by the London-based dealer Thomas Dane at Art Basel.

 

"Untitled" by Houseago

"Untitled" by Houseago

Fredrik Nilsen/ Thomas Houseago and Hauser & Wirth via Bloomberg

"Untitled," a 2012 bronze by Thomas Houseago. The sculpture is being shown by Hauser & Wirth at the Art Basel fair in Switzerland. The 43rd edition of the event previews on June 12-13.

 

"Egyptian Light"

"Egyptian Light"

Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York, via Bloomberg.

"Egyptian Light," a 2011-2012 "tablet" by the New York-based dealer Tony Shafrazi. It is among 9 such works being shown by the gallerist at the Art Basel fair in Switzerland, which runs through June 17.

"Tears"

"Tears"

Spruth Magers Berlin London via Bloomberg

"Tears," a 2012 digital print on vinyl by Barbara Kruger. The work is being shown by the Berlin and London gallery Spruth Magers at the 43rd edition of the Art Basel fair, which previews on June 12-13.

Richter’s monumental 1986 red, blue and yellow abstract “A.B. Courbet” was sold by Pace Gallery of New York on behalf of an unidentified collector. The dealership’s staff members confirmed the transaction today, saying the buyer was a U.S. based collector, though they wouldn’t say if the work had sold within the asking range.

The German artist is on a bull run at auctions, with a record $21.8 million paid at Christie’s International on May 8 for the 1993 painting “Abstraktes Bild (798-3).” Richter’s average auction price in 2012 is $3.1 million, compared to $290,112 in 2009, according to the Artnet database.

A 1954 Mark Rothko abstract from a Swiss collection, featuring a block of orange above a band of pale pink, remained unsold by the second afternoon, priced at $78 million via London-based Marlborough Fine Art.

Auction Records

Like Richter, it was testing confidence at the top end of the market with prices that reflected auction records for the artists achieved in May. The price is pitched just below the record $86.9 million achieved for a 1961 abstract at Christie’s in New York, also on May 8.

“Negotiations are still cooking,” Marlborough’s director Gilbert Lloyd said in an interview. South American and Russian clients were interested in the work, he said. Frank Auerbach’s 1985 painting “Head of J.Y.M.,” priced at 550,000 pounds ($857,200), featured among the gallery’s first-day sales.

“It’s quite classical and safe this year,” the Brussels- based art adviser Henry Bounameaux said in an interview. “I’m seeing a lot of familiar names. It must reflect what is going on in the economy. No one knows what is going to happen, and yet the art market still goes on.”

The diamond dust-encrusted 1981 Andy Warhol painting “Joseph Beuys” was among the first day’s sales. This had been marked at about $10 million on the booth of the New York dealer Acquavella. It was also purchased by a U.S.-based collector.

Hirst Sculpture

Damien Hirst’s 2006 sculpture “Stripper,” a vitrine containing hundreds of surgical instruments, was also available, priced at 3.75 million pounds on the booth of White Cube. The London-based dealership had sold several other works, including Mark Bradford’s 2012 mixed-media painting, “Witch in a Bottle,” for $550,000.

Art Basel remains the must-visit fair for curators, advisers and collectors in an increasingly crowded calendar. This year, the preview was extended to two days to meet growing demand from both established collectors and new buyers looking to art as an alternative to turbulent financial markets.

Cohen, founder of the hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors LP, and Speyer, chief executive of the property developers Tishman Speyer, were among the select “First Choice” invitees who arrived in pouring rain for privileged access to the fair before the main crowd of VIPs was admitted at 3 p.m yesterday.

Gagosian’s Picasso

Cohen, wearing a baseball cap with the logo “NERO,” was spotted shaking hands with the dealer Larry Gagosian on a booth packed with museum-quality works by established artists such as Warhol, Hirst, Pablo Picasso and Robert Rauschenberg. This year, Gagosian brought an estimated $250 million of works to a fair that has inventory valued at about $2 billion.

Though the preview was dominated by art-fair regulars, several dealers reported selling to new clients.

“I sold works priced at more than $1 million to a Scandinavian and an Israeli buyer I hadn’t met before,” said the Swiss dealer Karsten Greve, who has the 1966 Cy Twombly blackboard painting “Hill (Rome),” tagged on his booth at more than $12 million.

New York-based Skarstedt Gallery was one of several dealerships to be enthusiastic about the new tiered two-day preview at Art Basel.

“It’s good to be able to talk to important collectors without being interrupted,” said Per Skarstedt, gallery director, who sold a 1984 Albert Oehlen self-portrait for between $1.5 million and $2 million. The 1987 Rosemarie Trockel knitted painting “Made in Western Germany” sold for $1 million.

Hufkens’s Bourgeois

A lyrical Louise Bourgeois 2010 mixed media work on paper, “A Baudelaire (#9) The Impossible,” was sold by Brussels-based dealer Xavier Hufkens to a European collector. It had an asking price of $1.4 million.

The dealer, in common with most exhibitors interviewed by Bloomberg News, described levels of business as about the same as last year. He was also another of a majority of exhibitors who expressed enthusiasm for the two-day preview.

“You can spend much more time with collectors and actually talk about art, yet they still feel the pressure to buy,” Hufkens said. “It wasn’t good when people were pushing each other aside to get into the fair.”

Other exhibitors, who declined to be named, were unhappy about having to class valued clients as either “First Choice” or ordinary VIPs. Some had been reluctant to hand over client lists to Art Basel, which had issued the VIP invitations, rather than the galleries themselves.

Todd Levin

“It feels more blue-chip and thoughtful this year,” the New York-based adviser Todd Levin said in an interview. “The market used to be shaped like a bell-curve. Now there are just two spikes. One for the top artists, and the other for younger names. It’s difficult for the stuff in between.”

The U.S. artist Rudolf Stingel was one of the blue-chip names in demand. His “Untitled (Paula),” based on an old black and white photograph of the New York gallerist Paula Cooper smoking a cigarette, was sold by Cooper to a European private institution for about $3 million in the Art Unlimited sector.

Hauser & Wirth sold the 1978 Philip Guston canvas “Orders” for $6 million and the 1993 Bourgeois mixed media sculpture “Arched Figure” for $2 million. Both were bought by European collectors.

The New York dealer Tony Shafrazi was also breaking new ground by giving over his booth to a one-man show of his own artworks. The brightly-colored “tablets,” combining photographic images with text, are priced at $50,000 to $150,000, said gallery staff member John J. Czaplicki, who would not give details of confirmed sales.

Art Basel runs at the Messe Basel through June 17. The fair’s specialist offshoot Design Miami/Basel runs concurrently nearby, as do the satellite contemporary-art shows Liste, Volta and Scope at other venues in the Swiss city.

Art Basel has offshoots in Miami Beach (Dec. 6-9) and Hong Kong (May 23-26 2013),

Information: http://www.artbasel.com/go/id/ss/lang/eng/