Art Dealers Struggle To Keep Up With Demand At Art Basel Miami

After a two-year break, Art Basel Miami returned to the Miami Beach Convention Center earlier this week with strong attendance from celebrity art collectors and wealthy aficionados. According to Artnet, just within the first few hours of the preview tens of millions of dollars had already been spent.

Although the event was reportedly less crowded than previous years due to the COVID-19 restrictions, sales remained strong with Pace Gallery alone selling 30 artworks worth$6 million in just 6 hours.

“Art Basel Miami Beach is back!” Marc Glimcher, Pace’s president and CEO, told Artnet. “A confluence of the fair and various NFT events has brought new crowds to the city and created new interest in the fair.”

The inclusion of NFTs at this year’s event is testimony to the rapid movement of this new segment into the mainstream. Emerging artists also performed well, with works by Flora Yukhnovich selling out by the time the fair opened to the public.

Although sales are yet to return to pre-pandemic highs, strong buyer appetite at Miami is a good indicator that the art market is on track to return to normality in 2022. All eyes are now on the spring circuit in 2022 to gauge how fast this complete recovery will be.