Art Basel Paris Fair Keeps Gaining Gravitas

The Parisian satellite of the Art Basel constellation of art fairs marked its fourth edition with quiet confidence, including a public program that transformed the city into an open-air exhibit.

Art Basel Paris 2025 drew an international mix of collectors, galleries, and aficionados to the Grand Palais on October 24-26. The event recorded robust sales, and attendance from the who’s-who of the art world. Business moguls rubbed shoulders with socialites, artists, and celebrities. Even if you are not into contemporary art, consider a visit – people watching while perched at the Ruinart champagne bar offers a gripping show.

The fair is organized into three main areas, Galleries, Emergence and Premise, featuring a total of 206 galleries from 38 countries. By the end of a four-hour preview for select collectors on October 22, Hauser & Wirth had sold 12 works including its flagship piece, Gerhard Richter’s “Abstraktes Bild”, for $23 million – the highest reported sale at the fair so far according to Artnews.

Other major galleries added to the healthy figures and the general consensus was that this more intimate avant-premiere (each gallery could just invite six guests) was more conducive to devoting attention to each conversation.

The thrill of Art Basel Paris is not only in what is selling at eye-watering numbers, but catching a glimpse of what (or rather, who) is coming next. The Emergence sector attracted 22 galleries presenting their vision of the future of contemporary art. This year most of the works appeared to be whispering intimacy rather than shouting at monumental scale.

Then there is the Public Program, supported by Miu Miu, that expands the fair’s reach with large-scale installations across the city. Among them, at the Palais d’Iéna, Turner Prize winner Helen Marten presented “30 Blizzards”, a multimedia performance, video, and sculpture exhibition exploring femininity, inspired by poets Hélène Cixous and Audre Lorde. On Place Vendôme, Alex Da Corte’s “Kermit the Frog, Even” 60-foot muppet revisits the 1991 Thanksgiving Parade balloon, including its drooping deflated head. Perhaps a commentary on the vulnerability of pop culture? Avenue Winston Churchill, the grand entrance to the main venue, featured seven monumental sculptures, including Vojtěch Kovařík’s “Atlas calming the troubled world”, depicting the Titan wrapping his protective arms around the globe.

Art Basel Paris is set to return to the Grand Palais on October 23-25, 2026 for its fifth edition under newly appointed Director Karin Crippa – and we can’t wait to see what they have in store for us.