BASEL, Switzerland - The world's largest international contemporary art fair opened Wednesday and will be watched as a key indicator of whether world art prices will continue to boom despite economic woes.
Record prices at recent auctions indicate the art market remains resilient despite global financial woes and private jets were flying in with the wealthier of the 60,000 artists, collectors, gallery owners and enthusiasts expected for the four-day Art Basel fair.
More than 300 of the world's leading galleries are presenting works of more than 2,000 artists from five continents. Prices range from millions of dollars for the work of established artists to thousands of dollars for newcomers.
The fair includes work by significant artists such as Francis Bacon. A Bacon triptych sold for US$86.3 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York last month to become the most expensive work of contemporary art ever auctioned.
Other featured artists include Japan's Murakami Takashi, U.S. artists Robert Rauschenberg and Tom Wesselman and China's Cai Guo-Qiang. All forms of artistic expression are on view, ranging from paintings, drawings and sculptures to installations, performances and video art.
The Allianz Suisse insurance company said Wednesday that demand for insurance coverage has grown 30 per cent since the February robbery of four Impressionist paintings worth $163 million from a Zurich museum.
Two of the paintings taken in the robbery, by Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh, were recovered a few days afterwards, but the other two - by Paul Cezanne and Edgar Degas - remain missing.
"Despite the financial market crisis and high energy prices, the art market is still booming - as is the market for private art insurance," the company said.
The company said it has insured collections for more than $625 million, triple the amount set three years ago, and expects business to double in the next three years.
A parallel "Art Unlimited" exhibition features unconventional works by 60 artists from 23 countries, some created for the occasion, such as a dollar-covered wallpaper installation by U.S. artist Tony Oursler.
The Art Basel newspaper reported German customs officers at the border with Switzerland discovered more than 1,000 dollar bills stuffed in Oursler's bag. The event's daily said the officers counted every note to make sure it did not exceed Germany's legal export limit of US$10,000.
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