As the curtain falls on 2023, Art Basel Miami Beach 2023 stood as a grand finale in a packed calendar of art fairs. Attracting a staggering 79,000 visitors, North America’s largest art fair encapsulated this year’s trends and transformations. Throughout the fair, exhibitors reported a revived enthusiasm among attendees, with several galleries remarking on a robust return of collectors and the palpable energy that defined this year’s edition.
“Our exhibitors turned out with works of extraordinary quality and ambition, met with a strong attendance of local and international collectors,” Vincenzo de Bellis, director of fairs and exhibition platforms for Art Basel, told Artsy. “The energy in Miami Beach this week is palpable.”
Featuring 277 galleries, Art Basel Miami Beach yielded several seven-digit sales, with notable successes reported across the fair. Miami-based Spinello Projects, for instance, sold out its solo booth of Esaí Alfredo paintings in the first hour and a half of VIP day—including one work to the ICA Miami. This year’s fair saw several significant museum acquisitions: A painting by Alicia Adamerovich was acquired by ICA Miami from Michael Kohn Gallery, and Hales Gallery sold one work by Jordan Ann Craig to a “prominent” U.S. museum.
As the art world bids farewell to a year characterized by uncertainty and volatility, Art Basel Miami Beach was also marked by enthusiastic participation and appeared to tie together 2023 by setting an optimistic tone for the year ahead. “Sales at the booth have been strong since the opening hours of the fair, signaling an optimistic shift in this year’s sleepier market and economy,” said Fionna Flaherty, a partner at Lehmann Maupin. “We’ve transacted with private buyers and institutions alike.”
Here, we round up the top reported sales from Art Basel Miami Beach 2023.
Hauser & Wirth logged the most expensive sale reported from the fair: Philip Guston’s Painter at Night (1979) for $20 million. The gallery’s other top sales included the following:
- George Condo’s Smiling Aristocrat (2023) for $2.35 million.
- Henry Taylor’s MADE IN MEXICO (2016) for $1 million.
- Amy Sherald’s The Beauty of Change (A Happy Man) (2023) for $850,000.
- Charles Gaines’s Numbers and Trees: Arizona Series 1, Tree #5, Thunder (2023) for $795,000.
- Rashid Johnson’s God Painting ‘A New Day’ (2023) for $750,000.
- Jenny Holzer’s Working Copy (2023) for $550,000.
- Firelei Báez’s Untitled (Southern Building) (2023) for $495,000.
- Gary Simmons’s Trenchtown Dreams (2023) for $375,000.
- Flora Yukhnovich’s Bacchanalia (2023) for £320,000 ($402,000).
Almine Rech’s notable sales included the following:
- Tom Wesselmann’s Upside Down Blue Nude (2001) for $1.25 million–$1.35 million.
- Javier Calleja’s Boop-Oop-a-doop (2023) for €390,000–€430,000 ($419,000–$462,000).
- Tomokazu Matsuyama’s Cost Of The Cold Ceilings (2023) for $250,000–$290,000.
- Kenny Scharf’s LICKETY SPLIT (2023) for $210,000–$240,000.
- Nathaniel Mary Quinn’s YouTube Ray-Ray (2023) for $120,000–$145,000.
- Huang Yuxing’s Pier in the woods (2023) for $110,000–$120,000.
- Vaughn Spann’s Untitled (Marked Man) (2023) for $105,000–$115,000.
- Mehdi Ghadyanloo’s The memorial tunnel (2023) for €100,000–€110,000 ($108,000–$118,000).
David Zwirner’s notable sales included the following:
Top reported sales at Thaddaeus Ropac included the following:
- Robert Rauschenberg’s Copperhead-Bite IX / ROCI CHILE (1985) for $1.7 million.
- Georg Baselitz’s Alles fällt vom Tisch (2020) for €1.5 million ($1.62 million) and Grüße aus Dinard (2023) for €1.2 million ($1.3 million).
- Tony Cragg’s Points of View (2019) for €900,000 ($967,000).
- Emilio Vedova’s Dal ciclo della natura ‘56 – 1 (Brasile) (1956) for $850,000.
- Alex Katz’s Marine 1 (1999) for $725,000.
- Robert Longo’s Untitled (Windy Palm) (2023) for $700,000.
White Cube’s top sales included the following:
- Park Seo-Bo’s Ecriture No. 191-75 (1975) for $1.5 million.
- Richard Hunt’s Years of Pilgrimage (1999) for $1.2 million.
- Tracey Emin’s You Let Me Fall (2022) for £600,000 ($752,000).
- Antony Gormley’s TIE (2022) for £600,000 ($752,000).
- Imi Knoebel’s Bild 06.07.2018 (2018) for €230,000 ($248,000).
Kasmin reported seven-digit sales, including the following:
- Galerie Christophe Gaillard reported several sales of works by Eric Baudart, including Papier millimétré (2022) for $45,000, Papier millimétré or rose (2022) for $25,000, and conCav (2022) for $25,000. The gallery also sold Stéphane Couturier’s Series E-1027+123- Villa Eileen Gray – #1 (2021–22) for $18,000 and Pablo Tomek’s Tetris plan 3 (2023) for $12,000.
At the fair’s Nova section, dedicated to new works by one to three artists, notable sales included the following:
- Luis De Jesus Los Angeles sold Hector Dionicio Mendoza’s Coyota (2022) for $50,000–$75,000 to a prominent Southern art foundation. The gallery also sold two sets of Ken Gonzales-Day’s “Erased Lynchings V” postcards for $35,000–$40,000 to separate “major East Coast institutions.” A large-scale sculpture by Hector Dionicio Mendoza, Jalando/Pulling (2020), sold for $30,000–$40,000 to a bicoastal collector.
In the Survey section of the fair, dedicated to historical works, notable sales included the following:
In the Positions section of the fair, focusing on emerging galleries and rising artists, notable sales were as follows:
