As the curtain falls on 2023, Art Basel Miami Beach 2023 was a grand finale to a packed calendar of art fairs. The largest art fair in North America, which attracted an astonishing 79,000 visitors, captured this year’s trends and transformations. Throughout the fair, exhibitors reported rekindled enthusiasm among attendees, with several galleries noting the robust return of collectors and the palpable energy that defined this year’s edition.
“Our exhibitors came out with works of extraordinary quality and ambition, met with strong attendance from local and international collectors,” Vincenzo de Bellis, director of fairs and exhibition platforms at Art Basel, told Artsy. “The energy in Miami Beach this week is palpable.”
With 277 galleries, Art Basel Miami Beach produced several seven-digit sales, with notable successes throughout the fair. Miami-based Spinello Projects, for example, sold out its solo stand of paintings by Esaí Alfredo in the first hour and a half of the VIP day, including a work for ICA Miami. This year’s fair featured several major museum acquisitions: ICA Miami acquired an Alicia Adamerovich painting from the Michael Kohn Gallery, and Hales Gallery sold a work by Jordan Ann Craig to a “prominent” US museum.
While the art world says goodbye to a year characterized by uncertainty and volatility, Art Basel Miami Beach was also marked by enthusiastic participation and seemed to unite 2023 setting an optimistic tone for the year ahead. “Stand sales have been strong since the show opened, signaling an upbeat turnaround in this year’s more sleepy market and economy,” said Fionna Flaherty, partner at Lehmann Maupin. “We transact with private buyers and institutions.”
Here, we’ve rounded up the top reported sales from Art Basel Miami Beach 2023.
Hauser & Wirth recorded the most expensive sale of the fair: that of Philip Guston Painter at night (1979) for $20 million. Other top gallery sales included the following:
- George Condo’s Smiling Aristocrat (2023) for $2.35 million.
- by Henry Taylor MADE IN MEXICO (2016) for $1 million.
- Amy Sherald’s The Beauty of Change (A Happy Man) (2023) for $850,000.
- by Charles Gaines Numbers and Trees: Arizona Series 1, Tree #5, Thunder (2023) for $795,000.
- by Rashid Johnson God painting “A New Day” (2023) for $750,000.
- by Jenny Holzer Working copy (2023) for $550,000.
- Baez thread Untitled (South Building) (2023) for $495,000.
- by Gary Simmons Trenchtown Dreams (2023) for $375,000.
- Flora Yukhnovich Bacchanal (2023) for £320,000 (US$402,000).
Notable sales by Almine Rech have included the following:
- by Tom Wesselmann Blue nude upside down (2001) for $1.25 million–$1.35 million.
- by Javier Calleja Boop-Oop-a-doop (2023) for €390,000 – €430,000 ($419,000 – $462,000).
- by Tomokazu Matsuyama Cost of cold ceilings (2023) for $250,000–$290,000.
- by Kenny Scharf LIKETY SPLIT (2023) for $210,000–$240,000.
- Nathaniel Mary Quinn YouTube Ray-Ray (2023) for $120,000–$145,000.
- by Huang Yuxing Pier in the woods (2023) for $110,000–$120,000.
- by Vaughn Spann Untitled (Tagged Man) (2023) for $105,000–$115,000.
- by Mehdi Ghadyanloo The memorial tunnel (2023) for €100,000-110,000 (US$108,000-118,000).
Notable sales by David Zwirner have included the following:
Major sales reported at Thaddaeus Ropac included the following:
- by Robert Rauschenberg Copperhead-Bite IX / ROCI CHILE (1985) for $1.7 million.
- by Georg Baselitz Everything falls off the table (2020) for €1.5 million ($1.62 million) and Greetings from Dinard (2023) for €1.2 million ($1.3 million).
- by Tony Cragg Points of view (2019) for €900,000 ($967,000).
- Emilio Vedova From the cycle of nature ’56 – 1 (Brazil) (1956) for $850,000.
- by Alex Katz Navy 1 (1999) for $725,000.
- That of Robert Longo Untitled (Windy Palm) (2023) for $700,000.
White Cube’s top sales have included the following:
- Seo-Bo Park Deed No. 191-75 (1975) for $1.5 million.
- by Richard Hunt Years of pilgrimage (1999) for $1.2 million.
- by Tracey Emin let me fall (2022) for £600,000 (US$752,000).
- by Antony Gormley LOOSE (2022) for £600,000 (US$752,000).
- by Imi Knoebel Image 06.07.2018 (2018) for €230,000 ($248,000).
Kasmin reported seven-figure sales, including the following:
- Galerie Christophe Gaillard reported several sales of works by Eric Baudart, among them Grid paper (2022) for $45,000, Rose gold graph paper (2022) for $25,000 and concave (2022) for $25,000. The gallery also sold that of Stéphane Couturier Series E-1027+123- Villa Eileen Gray – #1 (2021–22) for $18,000 and by Pablo Tomek Plan Tetris 3 (2023) for $12,000.
In the New section of the fair, dedicated to new works by one to three artists, the following sales stand out:
- Luis De Jesus Los Angeles sold that of Héctor Dionicio Mendoza coyote (2022) for $50,000–$75,000 to a prominent Southern art foundation. The gallery also sold two sets of Ken Gonzales-Day’s “Erased Lynchings V” postcards for $35,000 to $40,000 to separate “major East Coast institutions.” A large-scale sculpture by Héctor Dionicio Mendoza, pulling (2020), sold for $30,000–$40,000 to a bicoastal collector.
In the survey section of the fair, dedicated to historical works, the following sales stand out:
In the Fair Positions section, focused on emerging galleries and up-and-coming artists, the outstanding sales were as follows:
