Dozens of million-dollar sales kick off Art Basel

The artwork Oviraptor 1 (2022) by Manuel Solano on display at the international art show Art Basel on Tuesday © Keystone / Georgios Kefalas

Works by artists such as Louise Bourgeois, George Condo, Alexander Calder and Swiss-born Paul Klee have been sold for millions of dollars on the first day of Art Basel, pointing to a revival in art fairs.

Last year the Hauser & Wirth gallery sold the room-filling spider sculpture “Maman” by Louise Bourgeois for $40 million (CHF36 million); this year it sold a much smaller spider (“Spider IV” from 1996) for $22.5 million on the first day.

Hauser & Wirth said it had seen a good half dozen million-dollar sales on Tuesday. Besides a painting by the still very popular US artist George Condo ($5.5 million) and a painting by Philip Guston ($9.5 million). A painting by Bourgeois also went for $2.75 million.

The Belgian gallery Xavier Hufkens also did good business with Bourgeois, selling one of her sculptures for $2.5 million.

Modernist classics were also snapped up for millions. For example, a work by Paul Klee, reportedly for $3 million to $4 million at Di Doma New York, and several Alexander Calder sculptures for between $675,000 and $2.8 million at Pace, London.

Conspicuous in this round of million-dollar sales is the fabric sculpture “United Blue” from 2023 by the Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui, which was sold by the South African gallery Goodman for $1.9 million.

The prestigious annual art fairExternal link takes place in the city in northwest Switzerland from June 15-18.

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