Early Sales at Art Basel Paris See Buyers Favoring Substance Over Speculation
Art Basel Paris opened yesterday (Oct. 22) with its official VIP preview, though a new pre-opening—the Avant Première—had already built strong momentum the day before. In just four hours on Tuesday, dealers secured a wave of early sales—setting a more composed tone for opening day compared to last year’s frenetic debut at the Grand Palais. For the Avant Première, galleries invited six top clients, each with a plus-one, drawing roughly 6,000 guests in the fair’s first hours, according to Art Basel. Another 12,000 attended the VIP preview, which helped prevent the jam-packed aisles of last year’s edition.
Hauser & Wirth’s sale of a $23 million Gerhard Richter, timed with the artist’s major survey at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, headlined the fair’s early hours. The gallery also sold Lucio Fontana’s Concetto spaziale, Attese (1964-1965) for €3,500,000 and George Condo’s Femme de Monaco (2025) for $1,850,000 during the pre-opening preview. By yesterday’s end, Hauser & Wirth reported additional significant sales, including Bruce Nauman’s Masturbating Man (1985) for $4,750,000, Francis Picabia’s Femme brune (1941-1942) for €850,000 and Firelei Báez’s Blooming in the Noise of the Whirlwind (World’s Progress) for $325,000. Also placed were works by Pat Steir ($795,000), Rashid Johnson ($750,000), Henry Taylor ($650,000), William Kentridge ($550,000), Ed Clark ($500,000) and Lorna Simpson ($400,000). Additional placements featured María Berrío ($250,000), three bronze editions by Camille Henrot ($225,000 each), Nairy Baghramian (€175,000), George Rouy (£120,000) and Hélène Delprat (€35,000).
Yet the other major “news” to emerge from the Avant Première—because the French never miss a good piece of gossip—was that former First Lady Carla Bruni arrived with her new partner on the same day her ex-husband Nicolas Sarkozy was sent to prison. Still, the true Parisian drama unfolded across town with the opening of Paris Internationale, the edgier counterpart to Basel’s polished precision. Several dealers candidly told Observer that much of Tuesday night’s energy was focused on who was there—and being seen—than on the business itself, in quintessential Parisian fashion. Still, in the early hours, established though not mega galleries also reported strong sales. New York’s P·P·O·W, for instance, recorded $700,000 in placements during the Avant Première, including a large-scale work by Kyle Dunn, alongside pieces by Hilary Harkness, Dinh Q. Lê and Carolee Schneemann. “Avant Première gave us a head start—and collectors responded enthusiastically,” Wendy Olsoff, director at P·P·O·W, told Observer. “We had quality time with every person who stopped by, which will certainly generate future opportunities.”
Downstairs, where the early activity was concentrated, mega-dealers competed less on volume than substance and pragmatism—showcasing museum-quality works by artists currently drawing institutional attention. The market, still cautious, clearly favors artists with established careers over those inflated by short-term auction hype. Perhaps the best example was Gagosian, whose booth presented a full arc of significant figures from past and present art history, spanning from a painting by Peter Paul Rubens to contemporary star Jadé Fadojutimi.
Pace reported one of the fair’s other major sales with Amedeo Modigliani’s Jeune fille aux macarons (Young Woman with Hair in Side Buns) (1918), which sold for just under $10 million to a European institution. The sale precedes a multipart collaboration between Pace and the Institut Restellini for the publication of the definitive Amedeo Modigliani Catalogue Raisonné in March 2026, to be distributed by Yale University Press—a long-awaited effort to bring order to the artist’s famously chaotic market. Another standout sale followed the Modigliani: Adrian Ghenie’s The Spanish Room 2 (2025), which sold for €1,500,000. By evening, Pace had also placed Agnes Martin’s Children’s Playing (1999) for $4.5 million, ahead of her upcoming New York survey and inclusion in “Minimal” at the Bourse de Commerce. Other artists from that exhibition also performed well, including Lee Ufan ($900,000) and Jiro Takamatsu ($52,000). Additional sales included works by Emily Kam Kngwarray ($550,000), Louise Nevelson ($500,000), Paulina Olowska ($195,000), Alicja Kwade ($115,000), Arlene Shechet ($80,000) and Marina Perez Simão ($70,000).
Highlights from the VIP day confirmed that serious buying extended well beyond the Avant Première rush. Pace sold Alexander Calder’s Big Bellied Bottle (1958), aligning neatly with the September 2025 opening of Calder Gardens in Philadelphia, the first institution dedicated entirely to the artist’s legacy. Additional placements included Elmgreen & Dragset’s bronze The Visitor (2025) for €270,000, an Agnes Martin work on paper from 1977 for $250,000, Robert Nava’s painting Ability to Teleport ($250,000) and teamLab’s Darkness Becomes Existence, an Eternal Sea (2025) for $120,000. A 1984 work by Antoni Tàpies also sold, as did one by Loie Hollowell ($65,000) ahead of her forthcoming solo exhibition at Pace London in March 2026.
David Zwirner described this edition as its “most successful fair in Paris to date,” placing works across a wide range of its roster, including a Ruth Asawa sculpture ($7,500,000), paintings by Martin Kippenberger ($5,000,000), Gerhard Richter ($3,500,000), Joan Mitchell ($3,000,000), Bridget Riley ($2,200,000) and Robert Ryman ($1,200,000). Additional sales included Elizabeth Peyton ($1,000,000 and $220,000), Dana Schutz ($900,000), Yayoi Kusama, Marlene Dumas and Lucas Arruda, along with twelve Richter editions at $400,000 each, an Oscar Murillo painting ($380,000) and two Andra Ursuța sculptures at $300,000 each.
If the first hours on Tuesday were buoyant, momentum clearly accelerated on the second VIP day, when dealers began confidently reporting sales by afternoon—and, discreetly, acknowledging overnight booth rehangs. Perrotin, always a powerhouse on its home turf, confirmed brisk activity through Thursday afternoon, selling more than a dozen works priced between €90,000 and €180,000, including several on paper. Highlights included Pierre Soulages (€400,000), Takashi Murakami ($550,000), Bharti Kher (€140,000), Mr. (€130,000-€140,000), Emily Mae Smith (€135,000) and Claire Tabouret ($180,000-210,000), as well as pieces by Izumi Kato, Hernan Bas and Sophie Calle. Two collaborative paintings by Mr. x Murakami sold for $150,000-170,000 each, alongside Otani Workshop ($50,000-60,000) and Chen Fei ($280,000).
Almine Rech’s pre-sales also exceeded expectations. Among the works placed were Joël Andrianomearisoa ($40,000-45,000), Oliver Beer ($80,000-90,000), Brian Calvin ($35,000-40,000), Ha Chong-Hyun ($250,000-300,000), Mehdi Ghadyanloo ($150,000-170,000), Youngju Joung ($65,000-70,000), Ewa Juszkiewicz ($700,000-800,000) and Pablo Picasso ($500,000-600,000). Additional highlights included Claire Tabouret ($150,000-180,000), Tom Wesselmann ($250,000-300,000), Ji Xin ($50,000-60,000) and James Turrell ($900,000-1,000,000). Andrianomearisoa’s installation at the Hôtel de la Marine—part of Art Basel’s public program—sold for $230,000-290,000. “This edition of Art Basel Paris is proving to be exceptional, marked by enthusiasm from collectors,” Almine Rech told Observer. “In a still measured market, these results demonstrate stable activity and sustained interest in the artists within our program.”
Parisian powerhouse Kamel Mennour, showcasing the blue-chip side of his program, placed an Andy Warhol ($1,300,000), two works by Lee Ufan ($1,000,000 each), a Gerhard Richter ($280,000), a Ugo Rondinone ($240,000) and an Adam Pendleton ($225,000).
White Cube reported sales only after the first official VIP day, including Julie Mehretu ($11,500,000), Georg Baselitz (€2,500,000), Luc Tuymans ($1,350,000) and Josef Albers (€550,000). Other highlights included Howardena Pindell ($550,000), Theaster Gates and Danh Võ (€350,000), Francis Picabia (€300,000), Antony Gormley (£250,000), Park Seo-Bo ($250,000) and Marina Rheingantz ($220,000). Tracey Emin’s three works sold for £120,000 each, while Enrico David (£75,000), Yoko Matsumoto ($70,000) and Léon Wuidar (€68,000) rounded out the list. “We’re absolutely thrilled not only by strong sales but by the sense of momentum,” senior director Matthieu Paris told Observer. “Paris is back, and it feels like the art world knows it.”
Among French veterans, Templon reported robust first-day sales, including Anthony Caro (€200,000), François Rouan (€165,000), Chiharu Shiota (€130,000), Omar Ba (€100,000), Gérard Garouste (€85,000), Philippe Cognée (€50,000) and several Kehinde Wileys ($85,000-125,000).
Thaddaeus Ropac, ever the fair fixture, reported an extensive list led by Georg Baselitz (€3,500,000, €1,200,000, €1,200,000, €1,000,000 and €850,000). Alberto Burri’s Sacco e oro sold for €4,200,000, followed by Elizabeth Peyton ($1,300,000). Other sales included Antony Gormley (£600,000 and €120,000), Joan Snyder ($600,000, placed with a U.K. museum), Sean Scully ($500,000), Daniel Richter (€450,000) and multiple works by Martha Jungwirth (€430,000, €340,000, €190,000 and €75,000). Additional highlights included Tony Cragg (€325,000), Pierre Soulages (€280,000), Sturtevant (€275,000), Liza Lou ($250,000), Tom Sachs ($225,000), Miquel Barceló (€110,000), Robert Longo ($90,000), ZADIE XA (€70,000) and Oliver Beer (£55,000).
Welcoming visitors at the entrance were two of Germany’s powerhouses: neugerriemschneider, showcasing a monumental Ai Weiwei Lego version of The Last Supper and Sprüth Magers, whose booth was wrapped in a massive Barbara Kruger piece. Sprüth Magers reported strong sales, including three George Condos ($1,800,000, $1,200,000 and $1,800,000), alongside Rosemarie Trockel (€300,000 and €200,000), Louise Lawler ($90,000), Hyun-Sook Song (€70,000), Salvo (€58,000), Gala Porras-Kim ($60,000), Henni Alftan ($50,000), David Salle (€42,000), Gretchen Bender ($40,000), Andreas Schulze (€35,000) and Oliver Bak (€20,000).
Berlin-based Eva Presenhuber also stood out for her ambitious presentation, featuring three of Ugo Rondinone’s giant Magic Mountains—the vividly colored stone towers first installed in the Mojave Desert in 2016. Blending the primordial with the hyper-contemporary, these three-meter-high forms bridge cairns, megaliths and minimalist sculpture with an irresistible pop aesthetic. The gallery also co-presented Rondinone’s monumental The Innocent (2024) with Mennour, installed in the forecourt of the Institut de France as part of Art Basel’s Public program.
Nearby, Brussels heavyweight Xavier Hufkens reported a strong start with Tracey Emin (£1,200,000), Alice Neel ($1,000,000), Louise Bourgeois ($500,000), John Chamberlain ($285,000), George Condo ($250,000), Thomas Houseago ($250,000), Qiu Xiaofei ($225,000) and Lesley Vance ($180,000). Additional sales included Tatiana Trouvé (€25,000-175,000), McArthur Binion ($150,000), Mark Manders (€115,000-130,000), Tracey Emin (£55,000 each), Matt Connors ($60,000), Nathanaëlle Herbelin (€16,000-50,000), Thierry De Cordier (€30,000 each) and Sterling Ruby ($25,000 each).
By the close of preview day, Lehmann Maupin had sold more than 15 works priced between $20,000 and $650,000, including pieces by McArthur Binion, Teresita Fernández, Catherine Opie, Cecilia Vicuña and David Salle. Lisson Gallery, meanwhile, placed Leiko Ikemura’s monumental public sculpture with a U.S. foundation, along with paintings, textiles by Olga de Amaral and a debut work by Huguette Caland. Additional highlights included Ryan Gander’s talking mouse, an Anish Kapoor mirror, a glass bird by Laure Prouvost and two Opticks by Hiroshi Sugimoto.
As the fair opened to the public on Thursday, many dealers were already preparing for a second rehanging—a promising sign for a European market eager to regain momentum after a buoyant London week. Unlike Frieze, which still felt largely domestic, Art Basel Paris now attracts a global audience of collectors. Among those spotted during the Avant Première were Eugenio Re Rebaudengo, Komal Shah, Milica Rieder and Pamela Joyner, along with curators Scott Rothkopf, Massimiliano Gioni, Jane Panetta, David Breslin, Ian Alteveer and Anne Pasternak.
On the upper floor, gems beyond the blue-chip excitement
At just four hours, the Avant Première left some collectors without enough time to make it upstairs, but several galleries on the upper level still reported solid sales by opening day—ditto for several galleries in the curated Premise and Emergence sections.
Some of the most dynamic Parisian galleries also posted strong results across the two VIP days. Crèvecœur’s booth (anchored by in-demand Japanese painter Yu Nishimura and Polish artist Tomasz Kowalski, who debuted with the gallery this week) was already rehanging by Wednesday morning after multiple Avant Première sales. Sultana (Paris, Arles) placed a work by Claracq (€30,000), alongside Louis Le Kim (€30,000) and Olivier Millagou (€3,000), marking a promising early run by the close of the official VIP opening.
Upstairs, new and emerging art scenes also attracted attention and momentum. Saudi Arabia’s ATHR Gallery enjoyed a highly successful Avant Première, reporting multiple on-site sales—mostly to collectors personally invited as VIP guests—demonstrating the enthusiasm and growing strength of the Saudi art market when met with international visibility. The booth spotlighted three Saudi women artists—Sarah Abu Abdallah, Hayfa Algwaiz and Lulua Alyahya—whose distinct visual languages ranged from suspended, symbolic painterly compositions to conceptual reflections on identity, translating the complex, layered experiences of Saudi women today. The gallery reported nine sales in total, including a work by Sarah Abu Abdallah (SAR 62,300), five by Hayfa Algwaiz (SAR 28,500, SAR 17,500, SAR 16,500, SAR 15,500 and SAR 12,500), three by Lulua Alyahya (SAR 19,500, SAR 10,500 and SAR 10,500) and one by Asma Bahmim (SAR 30,000).
Also upstairs in the side rows was the always interesting booth of New York dealer Andrew Edlin, known for his discerning eye in discovering and championing outsider and self-taught artists. At Art Basel Paris, he spotlighted the work of Abraham Lincoln Walker (1921-1993), a previously underrecognized artist from East St. Louis whose work was rediscovered in 2024 thanks to the gallery, which brought him to international attention following a strong reception at recent U.S. fairs. Strategically and pragmatically, for both pricing and logistics, the presentation focused on Walker’s seldom-seen works on paper from the 1980s (priced around $15,000 each), exhibited alongside a powerful oil-on-board painting from 1983-1992 that charts his movement from figuration toward abstract, cosmic explorations of faith, memory and transcendence. The latter sold by opening day, with other works on paper—and several on hold—that Edlin expected to close by evening.
Standing out in Kiang Malingue from Hong Kong—and more recently New York—is the world through my mother’s cabinet of curiosities (cabinet no. 1) (2025), an installation of 39 mixed-media assemblages by Vietnamese artist Tiffany Chung. The work continues her exploration of humanity’s entanglement with the natural world and the built environment, examining how progress and human-driven landscape alteration reshape ecological and cultural systems. Throughout her practice, Chung has mapped the aftermath of climate change and migration through intricately detailed, often miniature forms, from glass menageries to video works imagining ruins and regeneration. Blending playfulness with scientific rigor, this new installation incorporates miniature plants, flowers and knick-knacks collected by her mother; dead corals found during her research in Ishigaki, Okinawa; remnants from past projects; and organic and artificial fragments donated by friends and family. Each small ecosystem merges organic and inorganic, personal and collective traces, evoking shared cycles of disaster, survival and renewal while reflecting our impact and relationship with the natural, social and political environment. Priced at $100,000, the installation is being positioned for a museum placement ahead of Chung’s first U.S. institutional solo exhibition at UC Santa Barbara, underscoring her growing international recognition.
Another eye-catching presentation upstairs comes from Christian Berst Gallery, showcasing the work of German artist Julia Krause-Harder. Filling the booth is a remarkable population of dinosaurs whose articulated skeletons are constructed from the detritus of contemporary industrial society, combining everyday metal and plastic objects. Fascinated by paleontology and geology, Krause-Harder—now in her fifties—has transformed her autism into a deeply imaginative and rigorous artistic practice, driven by her lifelong ambition to resurrect all 800 known species of dinosaurs. Crafted with striking anatomical precision informed by scientific illustration, her sculptures range in size and price between €14,000 and €28,000, with several already placed by the gallery. Complementing the sculptures are exquisitely detailed embroideries depicting prehistoric worlds before the disruptive arrival of humankind. Trained initially as a tailor, Krause-Harder spent nearly three years creating her monumental textile work The Creation of the World, an immersive piece spanning more than 250 square meters.
A bit defiantly in the still labyrinthine floorplan of the Grand Palais, the Premise section features nine dealers presenting solo exhibitions of 20th-century works worth a close look. Among them, Tina Kim Gallery drew notable institutional and private interest for Korean artist Lee ShinJa, whose colorful textile works intertwine tradition and technology, materiality and cosmological energy. Her textiles function as platforms of connection between the micro and macrocosm, weaving together the universe’s energies. The presentation marked what Kim described as a long-overdue debut in France for this pioneering artist, positioning her practice within Europe’s postwar textile tradition and in dialogue with figures such as Sheila Hicks, Olga de Amaral and Magdalena Abakanowicz, reaffirming her place in the global fiber art narrative. By the end of the VIP day, the gallery reported four acquisitions: one textile work by Lee ShinJa sold for $150,000, two for $90,000 each and another for $70,000, with an additional piece on hold for acquisition by a U.S. institution.
In the same section, the London-based Gallery of Everything presents a museum-quality—and museum-targeted—spotlight on Afro-Caribbean painter Hector Hyppolite (1894-1948). A self-taught Haitian Surrealist and Voodoo priest, Hyppolite is widely regarded as one of the most important African diaspora painters of the 20th Century and a pioneer of Black Surrealism, and he inspired artists and writers such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Hervé Télémaque, Truman Capote and Zadie Smith. The presentation unites seminal works and archival materials that highlight his singular contribution to Surrealism and beyond, revealing the visionary power of a practice deeply rooted in Haitian folklore, mythology and spiritual iconography. André Breton personally visited Hyppolite in Haiti and later included his work in the landmark 1947 Surrealist exhibition, whose catalogue—designed by Enrico Donati and published by Aimé Maeght—is part of the presentation. For Art Basel Paris, the Gallery of Everything assembled an exceptional survey featuring three original works from that publication, shown together for the first time since 1947. Hyppolite, who produced fewer than 300 works before his death at 54, now sees prices rising into the six-digit range, particularly for pieces included in the 1947 Surrealist show. His La Reine Congo (1946) is held in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection, while his iconic Ogoun Feray (1945) was most recently exhibited in “Surréalisme (2024/25)” at Centre Pompidou.
Around the balcony overlooking the blue-chip ground floor, Emergence offered a dense concentration of valuable discoveries and ambitious presentations. Standing out among them, BANK from Shanghai presented a fully staged environment by Duyi Han, rich with layered symbolism and references to both Chinese tradition and contemporary society. The installation immediately drew institutional attention—when we arrived, the director and head curator of M+ were already deep in conversation. “It’s been a fantastic two days,” confirmed gallery founder Mathieu Borysevicz. Informed by Taoist principles of impermanence, Han’s work synthesizes design, art and architecture into multilevel sensory experiences that explore how cultural frameworks shape cognitive and emotional perceptions. In Ordinance of the Subconscious Treatment, Han merges mental health, heritage and technology, transforming motifs from Buddhist and Taoist temples into embroidered symbols that intertwine ancient spirituality with modern science. Reinterpreting Qing dynasty decorative systems through 3D molecular models and immersive animations, he constructs a living diagram of interconnectedness—where fragments of biology, faith and design converge into a luminous reflection on visual culture and the splendor of life. With Visions of Bloom, Han further transforms the booth into a “treasure gallery” of embroidered furniture, patterned wallpaper and 3D animation, updating the Qing dynasty’s hundred-antique décor system with molecular structures and scientific imagery. Blending cultural symbols with biological forms, the booth becomes a mesmerizing, radiant ecosystem of transformation between human and nature and between cultures.
A few booths away, THE PILL (Istanbul, Paris) presented Greek artist Nefeli Papadimouli, whose performative practice—centered on body, identity, collectivity and femininity—expanded here into painting and installation. With a background in architecture and visual arts informed by phenomenology, feminism and utopian avant-gardes, Papadimouli creates modular, connective sculptures and choreographed environments that explore how space, distance and movement shape social interaction and equilibrium. Her work often evolves from the notion of Gesamtkunstwerk, a complex orchestration where human and nonhuman bodies combine into gestures of reciprocity and shared transformation. Originally conceived on a larger scale for the Lyon Biennial, her elastic, proto-architectural textile installation wraps the entire booth, functioning as both an instrument for collective action and an architecture of encounter. The monumental work sold during the Avant Première to a deeply committed collector who will showcase it in a castle outside Paris—”We couldn’t hope for better,” gallery founder Suela Cannet told Observer.
On the other side, Hong Kong’s Blindspot Gallery featured Xiyadie, a Chinese queer artist who has recently gained both commercial and institutional recognition following his inclusion in the Venice Biennale, after years of censorship and marginalization. Known as “the Butterfly Father,” Xiyadie is celebrated for his intricate, deeply personal paper-cutting practice that merges traditional folk techniques with radical queer expression. His works unfold vivid narratives of homoerotic intimacy, rural life, and fantastical hybrid worlds where human, animal, and botanical forms intertwine. By the afternoon of the preview day, the gallery had already placed three of the larger works at €32,000 each and nearly all the smaller ones in the €5,000–6,000 range.
Just down the same row, Jakarta-based RHO Gallery presented Cambodian artist Tith Kanitha, whose abstract wire sculptures and gestural paintings explore freedom, resilience, and transformation. Her coiled steel-wire process becomes both material and metaphor—a negotiation between uncertainty and liberation, resonant in a country still marked by the shadow of the Khmer Rouge. With works priced between $2,000 and $13,000, RHO sold several pieces during Avant Première, extending the artist’s growing international presence after her participation in the Hawaii Triennial, Busan Biennale, Singapore Biennale, and as the first Cambodian artist to show at the Carnegie International in 2022.
Despite the divide between the two floors, Art Basel Paris confirms that the market is regaining traction at every level, but with a sharper focus. Collectors who are still buying are increasingly selective and committed, gravitating toward institutionally grounded names and conceptually rigorous presentations alongside blue-chip fixtures, while showing less appetite for the new figurative painters propelled by purely commercial momentum—largely absent now from such a high-stakes fair.
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