Three hundred galleries from 29 countries

Three hundred galleries from 29 countries. 2,500 artists. A fair which has existed for forty years. ArtBasel is the event of reference in the market of the art of the 20th century.

It is here that are influential collectors. This year, there were Eli Broad (co-founder of Kaufman & Broad), new entrants to the consumption of art as the oligarch Roman Abramovich, fans also famous as Brad Pitt... However, before even the opening of the event, it was predictable that the otherwise excellent "communicating" organizers would talk of the operation as a success.

That said, it seems that the facts give reason. Even if there is no official at the end of a fair result because, by definition, all transactions are a private unlike the auction it is clear that there had been many purchases in modern and contemporary art. The crisis has not yet stopped the appetite for recent art. It has however reduced the size of this market. While last year, $ 1 million was the basic unit, this year, the transactions at this level were not numerous. On its stand, the Swiss Gallery Bischofberger proposed a huge table (10.5 metres long), "Retrospective", of Andy Warhol, 1979, to EUR 53 million. What was said experts, given the importance of the sum, that it was in fact, not for sale.

Among the most important results, a late painting by Joan Miro, "Women and birds in the night", 1968, assigned to certainly EUR 3.6 million by the English Helly Nahmad Gallery. The buyer could easily have known that this work, not so rare, was acquired at auction in February last in London for... 1.9 million euros. Capital gains are therefore still achievable in the art market.

Similarly, one might think that the madness of increases in prices in the young artists have ceased, but continues to crack down on those who are noticed by the media collectors. Thus, François Pinault dedicated in his exposition of the tip of the customs, in Venice (see "Les Echos" of June 12), an entire room to Matthew Day Jackson. He was thirty-five years, lives in Brooklyn and created installations in relation to the myths and American trauma. In a year, prices have more than doubled to be sold between 50,000 and 200,000 dollars in its merchant of New York, Peter Blum. In the "success story" series, there is the veteran of the American art Paul McCarthy (born 1945), imagine facilities of the decadence of today's society, represented by grotesque characters. One of his dramatic works was exposed at the edge of the customs. Others still were sold at the stand of Hauser & Wirth up to $ 1.5 million.

Buyers negotiate

But, more generally, the reduction of the size of the market is also in demand reduction. Less of new consumers such as Russian, Chinese or Indian buyers. A large part of the financial for "connected" art was also absent. As a result, transactions were much less rapidly. They are, in addition, systematically renegotiated down by purchasers. For a large number of young artists, prices were down up to 30 from the sum originally announced. Same for some big names... Confirming the decline of activity in New York, the Warhol Foundation, it seems, reduces its prices a few months of 10 and 30. This flexibility of operators, as well as the prudence of houses sales, which have, in General, immediately endorsed estimates downward, have led to a certain backup activity, reflected in the Basel fair.

"The crisis is in no way comparable to that of 1991, when nothing was on the market", observes Stéphane Custot specialist Paris Gallery of impressionists and modern Hopkins Custot. "There is three months, the transactions were slowed. But confidence has returned and some quotes for the works of high quality are equal to those of last year.