A version of this article originally appeared in The Back Room, our lively recap funneling only the week’s must-know art industry intel into a nimble read you’ll actually enjoy. Artnet News Pro members get exclusive access—subscribe now to receive the newsletter in your inbox every Friday.

It’s been a successful Art Basel this week, with dealers reporting solid sales, even if the pace was slower and collectors were thinner on the ground than before the market’s downturn. Hauser & Wirth announced the biggest transactions, moving a Gerhard Richter for $20 million and a 1963 Picasso for $35 million. Gray sold the late David Hockney‘s Studio Interior #2 (2014) for $8.5 million, and Gagosian placed an untitled 1984 Willem de Kooning with a private Asian collection within the first hour for a high-seven-figure sum.

However, even as the market improves after a rough few years, the world’s leading art-fair group is facing a conundrum similar to Coca-Cola’s: Its main competitor is itself.

Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported on the schism between Diet Coke and Coke Zero drinkers, noting that Coke Zero—which launched in 2007 and underwent a recipe update in 2017—could dethrone the stalwart “DC” as “the most important diet soda property.”

Similarly, the flagship Swiss fair’s preeminence is being threatened by Art Basel Paris, which launched in 2022 and expanded in 2024. Like Diet Coke, Basel Basel has die-hard fans, while the Paris fair, like Coke Zero, is smoother and more accessible, drawing in both new and established customers.

Exclusive Draw

This year’s “Basel Exclusive” initiative perhaps aimed to reengage collectors who had deprioritized the fair on the Rhine. The premise—withholding works from PDF previews and unveiling them only at the event—apparently sparked some interest. One gallery director told  me that collectors reached out asking for details on held-back works, which galleries were not supposed to provide. This dealer suggested that some colleagues did not uphold the embargo. (Quelle surprise.)

Plenty of these Exclusive works sold. Almine Rech placed a Picasso in the $6 million range, David Zwirner moved Elizabeth Peyton‘s 2026 Transmission (E, rose) for $1.2 million, and Sprüth Magers sold a 2017 work from John Baldessari‘s “Emoji Series” to a European private collector for $500,000. Xavier Hufkens sold a small Nicolas Party painting for around $200,000, and Jessica Silverman placed Hayal Pozanti‘s Envoys From Deep Time (2026) for $55,000. Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel reported several sales through the initiative, including Marina Rheingantz‘s Pé do Ouvido (2026) for $80,000 and Antonio Tarsis‘s Untitled (The colour side of the flames) for $32,000. Casey Kaplan sold out Patricia Fernández Carcedo‘s presentation, which included a Basel Exclusive work priced around $20,000.

Excited to be Here

Sales across the fair proceeded apace during the opening VIP days. 

In the Statements section, for emerging art, Gypsum Gallery sold nine works by Hana El-Sagini, priced $3,400–$11,400 each, and Galerie Molitor placed Yalda Afsah‘s HEAT (2026) with the German national collection for around $40,000. In Premiere, for curated presentations of recent works, Magenta Plains sold two Liza Lacroix paintings at $40,000 each.

In the small Zero10 section, for digital art, sales were plentiful. Fellowship sold John Gerrard‘s STANDARD (2022) for $500,000 to a significant private U.S. collection. Bitforms and Max Estrella sold Rafael Lozano-Hemmer‘s Pulse Aglomerate (2024) for $180,000 to a private foundation in Ukraine. ArtBlocks moved a large William Mapan painting for €80,000 ($91,700) and six plotted drawings with accompanying digital works at €3,000 ($3,400) each. Nguyen Wahed placed 15 generative works by Andreas Gysin at $4,500 apiece.

The fair remains top tier in terms of quality, but very few American collectors were in attendance this year, continuing the post-pandemic, Basel Paris–era trend. However, plenty of U.S.-based advisors were spotted, including Todd Levin, George Newall, and Rob Teeters.

But as advisor Benjamin Godsill told me, the Americans who are in Basel “are excited to be here.”

The Bottom Line

That excitement stems from an appreciation of what only Basel can offer. Like Diet Coke—which has a precise, strange flavor and a third more caffeine than Coke Zero—Basel Basel provides an extremely specific, concentrated dose of art. It is an acquired taste that offers a buzz like no other.

The weird specificity of Basel Basel is its biggest strength. The fair should double down on that, rather than try to win over those who will always prefer a Parisian getaway. It certainly doubled down on Wednesday night, when a masked Fasnachtsclique (a traditional Swiss drum-and-fife group) performed at its second-annual awards dinner, where Paula Cooper Gallery became the first recipient of its new Art Basel Gallery Legacy Award. Only in Basel!

For the record: I am a Diet Coke devotee, and I’d be devastated—irate, even—if it ever changed.