{"id":70507,"date":"2026-05-22T17:22:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T17:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/70507\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T17:22:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T17:22:54","slug":"art-basel-paris-taps-new-director-as-the-fair-hits-new-highs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/70507\/","title":{"rendered":"Art Basel Paris Taps New Director as the Fair Hits New Highs"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0version of this article originally appeared in\u00a0The Back Room,\u00a0our lively recap funneling only the week\u2019s must-know art industry intel into a nimble read you\u2019ll actually enjoy.\u00a0Artnet News Pro members get exclusive access\u2014subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0to receive the newsletter in your inbox every Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going great. There are a lot of Americans here,\u201d Hauser and Wirth president, Marc Payot, told me at Art Basel Paris\u2019s new VVIP Avant Premi\u00e8re on Tuesday. (Although, the most exclusive invite of the week was ostensibly a visit to the Louvre, where a group of American patrons got to visit the museum<\/a> before it reopened to the public after a shocking $102 million heist on Sunday.)<\/p>\n

U.S. collectors had been expected at Paris this year, after being thin on the ground during Art Basel in Switzerland in June, but the relief that they actually showed up was still palpable. It has been a glum summer in the trade.<\/p>\n

\"Evening<\/p>\n

The Main Entrance of the Grand Palais during the opening of Art Basel Paris 2025 on October 22, 2025 in Paris, France. Photo: Luc Castel\/Getty Images.<\/p>\n

The fair, which runs through Sunday at the Grand Palais, ended the work week on a high note, announcing that it\u2019s promoting Karim Crippa, its head of communications, to be its director. Crippa takes the place of Cl\u00e9ment Del\u00e9pine, who was hired to lead Lafayette Anticipations.<\/p>\n

Big Buzz<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just Americans buying in Paris, of course, but their presence was a vote of confidence, and big sales abounded during the VVIP and VIP days, offering a much-needed morale boost.<\/p>\n

\"Visitors<\/p>\n

Art Basel Paris\u2019s Avant Premi\u00e8re on Tuesday. Courtesy of Art Basel Paris.<\/p>\n

Hauser and Wirth moved a 1987 Gerhard Richter abstraction for $23 million. Julie Mehretu\u2019s 2007 Charioteer traded for $11.5 million at White Cube\u2019s stand, while Thaddaeus Ropac sold Alberto Burri\u2019s Sacco e oro (1953) for $4.8 million. At Karma, Matthew Wong\u2019s White Wave, Black Sand (2017) went for $3.5 million. Perrotin sold more than 12 works by Maurizio Cattelan, each priced between $104,000 and $208,000, a haul totaling above $3 million. (Artnet\u2019s \u201cPrice Check,\u201d out next week, will have all the reported sales.)<\/p>\n

There was work on offer at even higher prices, like a $50 million Pablo Picasso at Nahmad Contemporary and a $25.5 million Richter abstraction, this one from 1988, at L\u00e9vy Gorvy Dayan.<\/p>\n

\"Contemporary<\/p>\n

Installation view of Thaddaeus Ropac\u2019s Art Basel Paris booth, with Alberto Burri\u2019s Sacco e oro (1953) at center. Courtesy of Thaddaeus Ropac.<\/p>\n

Buzz has been building around Paris\u2019s contemporary art scene for years, but the city really asserted its position as the go-to European trade hub this week. The art historically rich city is \u201creclaiming its place as one of the three global capitals for contemporary art and the art market,\u201d Mathieu Paris, global director of White Cube, said, mentioning the \u201cextraordinary\u201d concentration of collectors and curators who were in town.<\/p>\n

Paris Calling<\/p>\n

New events are joining the action.<\/a> Sara Maria Salamone, of New York\u2019s Mrs. Gallery, and Brigitte Mulholland, who left New York to set up shop in Paris in 2023, partnered on an alternative fair, 7 rue Froissart, just around the corner from Mulholland\u2019s gallery. It features 11 galleries from the U.S. and Europe. Salamone said she wanted to capitalize on the momentum she felt participating in NADA Paris in 2024 (which didn\u2019t return<\/a> this year). \u201cIt was the last time I felt like I was making connections with people from both Europe and Asia,<\/a>\u201d she said. Sales have been slow at the event, she said, but engagement is high. \u201cThere are big curators, collectors, and other dealers coming through,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Contemporary<\/p>\n

Installation view of Mrs. gallery at 7 rue Froissart. Photo: Nicolas Brasseur. Courtesy of Mrs. gallery.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the homegrown satellite fair Paris Internationale is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, with a new location close to the Grand Palais and 75 local and international exhibitors. The fair announced this week<\/a> that it will expand to Milan next year, another market hotspot where blue-chip outfits like Ropac are putting down roots.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bottom Line<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not all hunkydory. While there are green shoots of market recovery, they are uneven, as I reported<\/a> on Wednesday. And plenty of galleries don\u2019t have the luxury of waiting around for things to improve further, as recent closures have proven. Some French galleries have said<\/a> that a hoped-for Basel trickle-down effect hasn\u2019t panned out.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Workers install the artwork of Venezuelan-US artist Alex Da Corte titled Kermit the Frog, Even at Place Vendome in Paris, on October 19, 2025, ahead of the official opening of Art Basel Paris. Photo: DIMITAR DILKOFF\/AFP via Getty Images.<\/p>\n

One thing is for sure: Crippa has a lot to balance now that Art Basel Paris looks to be the premier European art fair, outpacing even Basel Basel in terms of sales and extracurricular activities. As \u201ca driving force\u201d in establishing the Paris show\u2019s distinctive identity since 2022, according to job announcement, he\u2019s certainly no stranger to the task. \u201cI will do everything in my power to help advance this exceptional show and to remain a tireless advocate for the city of Paris,\u201d he said in a statement. Salut!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\u00a0version of this article originally appeared in\u00a0The Back Room,\u00a0our lively recap funneling only the week\u2019s must-know art industry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8],"tags":[37675,2386,3228,37667,1476,37666,27391,31363,27390,31362,77,37659,37663,37665,19473,37672,35106,28683,37673,37658,37668,37676,37669,37670,37662,37660,37671,37664,37674,35079,37661],"class_list":["post-70507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basel","tag-7-rue-froissart-art-fair-paris","tag-art-basel-paris","tag-art-basel-paris-2025","tag-art-basel-paris-sales","tag-art-fairs","tag-art-market-recovery","tag-art-news","tag-artnet-pro","tag-artnet-news","tag-artnet-news-pro","tag-basel","tag-clement-delepine","tag-contemporary-art-sales","tag-french-galleries","tag-gerhard-richter","tag-gerhard-richter-23-million-sale","tag-hauser-and-wirth","tag-julie-mehretu","tag-julie-mehretu-charioteer-sale","tag-karim-crippa","tag-karim-crippa-art-basel-director","tag-louvre-102-million-heist","tag-marc-payot-hauser-and-wirth","tag-mathieu-paris-white-cube","tag-paris-art-fairs","tag-paris-art-market","tag-paris-art-market-2025","tag-paris-internationale","tag-paris-internationale-10th-anniversary","tag-the-back-room","tag-u-s-collectors"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}