As the curtain falls on 2023, Art Basel Miami Beach 2023 stands as the grand finale to a packed calendar of art fairs. Attracting a staggering 79,000 visitors, North America’s largest art fair encapsulates this year’s trends and transformations. Throughout the fair, exhibitors reported renewed enthusiasm among attendees, with several galleries noting the strong return of collectors and the palpable energy that defined this year’s edition.
“Our exhibitors presented works of exceptional quality and ambition, met with a strong presence of local and international collectors,” Vincenzo de Bellis, director of fairs and exhibition platforms for Art Basel, told Artsy. “The energy in Miami Beach this week is palpable.”
Featuring 277 galleries, Art Basel Miami Beach achieved several seven-figure sales, with notable successes reported throughout the fair. Miami-based Spinello Projects, for example, sold out its solo booth of Esaí Alfredo paintings in the first hour and a half of the VIP day—including one work for ICA Miami. This year’s fair saw several notable museum acquisitions: an Alicia Adamerovic painting was acquired by ICA Miami from the Michael Cohn Gallery, and the Hales Gallery sold a work by Jordan Ann Craig to a “prominent” American museum.
As the art world bids farewell to a year characterized by uncertainty and volatility, Art Basel Miami Beach was also marked by enthusiastic participation and seemed to tie 2023 together by setting an optimistic tone for the year ahead. “Stand sales were strong from the opening hours of the fair, signaling an upbeat turnaround in this year’s sleepier market and economy,” said Fiona Flaherty, partner at Lehmann Maupin. “We’ve done deals with both private buyers and institutions.”
Here we round up the best reported sales from Art Basel Miami Beach 2023.
Hauser & Wirth recorded the most expensive sale reported by the fair: that of Philip Guston Artist by night (1979) for $20 million. The gallery’s other top sellers include the following:
- George Condo A smiling aristocrat (2023) for $2.35 million.
- To Henry Taylor MADE IN MEXICO (2016) for $1 million.
- To Amy Sherald The Beauty of Change (Happy Man) (2023) for $850,000.
- To Charles Gaines Numbers and Trees: Arizona Series 1, Tree #5, Thunder (2023) for $795,000.
- To Rasheed Johnson God Draws A New Day (2023) for $750,000.
- To Jenny Holzer Working copy (2023) for $550,000.
- Baez thread No Name (South Building) (2023) for $495,000.
- Gary Simmons Trenchtown Dreams (2023) for $375,000.
- To Flora Yuhnovich bacchanalia (2023) for £320,000 ($402,000).
Notable sales of Almine Rech include the following:
- To Tom Wesselman Inverted blue nude body (2001) for $1.25 million – $1.35 million.
- To Javier Calleja Boop-oop-a-doop (2023) for €390,000 – €430,000 ($419,000 – $462,000).
- To Tomokazu Matsuyama The cost of cold ceilings (2023) for $250,000 – $290,000.
- To Kenny Scharf LICKETY SPLIT (2023) for $210,000 – $240,000.
- To Nathaniel Mary Quinn YouTube Ray-Ray (2023) for $120,000 – $145,000.
- To Huang Yuxin Pier in the forest (2023) for $110,000 – $120,000.
- Von Spahn’s No Name (The Marked Man) (2023) for $105,000 – $115,000.
- To Mehdi Gadianlu The Memorial Tunnel (2023) for €100,000–€110,000 ($108,000–$118,000).
David Zwirner’s notable sales include the following:
Top reported sales at Thaddaeus Ropac include the following:
- To Robert Rauschenberg Copperhead-Bite IX / ROCI CHILE (1985) for $1.7 million.
- of Georg Baselitz Everything falls off the table (2020) for €1.5 million ($1.62 million) and Greetings from Dinar (2023) for €1.2 million ($1.3 million).
- To Tony Cragg Points of view (2019) for €900,000 ($967,000).
- To Emilio Vedova From Nature’s Cycle ’56 – 1 (Brazil) (1956) for $850,000.
- To Alex Katz Marine 1 (1999) for $725,000.
- To Robert Longo No Name (Windy Palm) (2023) for $700,000.
White Cube’s top sales include the following:
- Park Seo-Bo’s Writing No. 191-75 (1975) for $1.5 million.
- To Richard Hunt Years of worship (1999) for $1.2 million.
- To Tracey Emin You Let Me Fall (2022) for £600,000 ($752,000).
- To Anthony Gormley TIE (2022) for £600,000 ($752,000).
- To Imi Knobel Photo 07/06/2018 (2018) for €230,000 ($248,000).
Kasmin reported seven-figure sales, including the following:
- Galerie Christophe Gaillard reported several sales of works by Eric Bodard, including Graph paper (2022) for $45,000, Rose gold graph paper (2022) for $25,000, and concave (2022) for $25,000. The gallery also sold those of Stéphane Couturier Series E-1027+123- Villa Eileen Gray – #1 (2021–22) for $18,000 and to Pablo Tomek Tetris plan 3 (2023) for $12,000.
In the fair’s Nova section, dedicated to new works by one to three artists, notable sales include the following:
- Luis De Jesus Los Angeles sold this one to Hector Dionisio Mendoza Coyote (2022) for $50,000–$75,000 to a prominent Southern art foundation. The gallery also sold two sets of Ken Gonzalez-Day’s “Erased Lynchings V” postcards for $35,000-$40,000 to individual “major East Coast institutions.” Large-scale sculpture by Hector Dionisio Mendoza, Pulling (2020) sold for $30,000–$40,000 to a collector on either side.
In the fair’s research section devoted to historical works, notable sales include the following:
In the Positions section of the fair, which focuses on emerging galleries and emerging artists, notable sales were as follows:
