Opinion | Art Galleries Are Not OK - The New York Times
I’ve spent nearly 30 years in the art world. For half that time I led Art Basel, the global art fair now staged five times a year — in Miami Beach; Paris; Hong Kong; Doha, Qatar; and this week, at its namesake original location in Basel, Switzerland. In many ways, these should be the best of times for the galleries participating in the fair: The number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals — i.e., potential collectors — has grown enormously in the past decade. And auction houses recently grabbed headlines with sales including a $181 million Jackson Pollock and a Brancusi, marketed with a Nicole Kidman video, that sold for $108 million. Auction sales get a lot of press, but galleries are the art world’s engine. And talking to gallerists recently, as they prepared to gather for the big fair this week, uncertainty abounded. Many are questioning the fundamentals of their business. It’s as if the art world they know has fallen off its axis. Galleries around the world have been closing at a st