Art Basel 2009

“Surprise success: Art Basel dispels credit crunch blues”. “Art Basel’s 40th edition continued to defy the worldwide financial slump”. These were some of the optimistic head titles and reports on Art Basel which could be read on the Art Newspaper throughout the last week.
New Hollywood-star collectors and galleries reacting to the economical crisis by bringing out their best pieces were some of the reasons given for the successful amount of major transactions done during the first days of the fair.

On the one hand, I have heard from some collectors that they bought more than they were expecting to and where even surprised to find such good quality. On the other hand, I hear galleries saying that despite selling something they definitely sold less than last year, which I guess only proves that the real business is being done very few players and that maybe one shouldn’t believe everything one reads in the newpapers…