Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in On Balance, the ARTnews newsletter about the art market and beyond. Sign up here to receive it every Wednesday.
It’s no secret that the art market has been mired in a prolonged slump for nearly two years. Where dealers and market observers once described conditions in late 2023 and 2024 using euphemisms like “soft” or “a correction,” this spring’s assessments were more often met with shrugs—or, when expectations were exceeded, with outsized celebration. Such was the case with Frieze’s fairs in LA in February and New York in May.
But each fair is its own micro-market, driven more by immediate factors than by geopolitics, tariffs, or vague notions of global uncertainty. So before the collectors and dealers decamp to the Hamptons, Aspen, or farther afield for July 4, it’s worth taking one last look at the state of Art Basel. The June fair closed 10 days ago with decidedly mixed sentiments from dealers, though enough seven-figure deals trickled in to deem it a success—anecdotally speaking, at least.
Still, an ARTnews analysis of five blue-chip galleries—Hauser & Wirth, Pace, Thaddaeus Ropac, White Cube, and David Zwirner—found that their publicly reported sales at this year’s Art Basel were over 35 percent lower than in 2024, around 8 percent below 2023, and just over 20 percent down from 2022.
The high-water mark came last year, with a combined total of $204 million from these five galleries—lifted in large part by a standout showing from Hauser & Wirth, which moved eight-figure works by Arshile Gorky, Philip Guston, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Alexander Calder.
Even so, the broader trend line points downward. And another pattern has emerged: a steady climb in the number of artists sold to hit those totals. In 2022, these five galleries reported selling work by 109 artists; in 2023, 113; in 2024, 149; and this year, 157. (Pace, curiously, bucked the trend—its artist count dipped from 39 in 2022 to 28 in 2025.)
In short, galleries have increasingly leaned on a broader tranche of artists—and more inventory—to meet their sales goals. That trend echoes research by arts economist Clare McAndrew in the most recent UBS Art Basel Global Art Market Report, which found that while global sales contracted by 12 percent from 2023 to 2024, the volume of transactions actually rose by 3 percent. Earlier this month, ARTnews’s Daniel Cassady and George Nelson reported on what that looks like in practice: scattershot gallery presentations with a wide range of styles, artists, and price points.
At the fair, adviser Gabriela Palmieri told ARTnews that market uncertainty had “turned Art Basel into a place where more really is more.”
Bjorn Stern, a London-based artist manager, echoed that view, telling ARTnews the sheer number of artists on view at the Swiss fair suggested organizers weren’t holding galleries to Basel’s usual standards for keeping booth presentations tight and intentionally curated.
Even so, conclusions drawn from sales reports require a healthy grain of salt. As a Pace spokesperson told ARTnews in an email, publicly reported figures represent only a portion of the deals done at fairs, and, for Pace, most sales don’t make it to the report. Galleries may withhold data due to client confidentiality, and some include presales in their tallies while others exclude them. Then there are the deals that begin at a fair but don’t close for weeks or months. And, finally, these numbers are self-reported by the galleries; there’s no way to verify the prices.
Even when the sales numbers are apples-to-apples, they don’t tell the full story. One gallery representative told ARTnews that while their total sales dipped between the 2023 and 2024 editions of Basel, the margins were stronger last year, thanks to a higher proportion of primary market deals—where profits are typically split 50/50 with artists—versus consigned works, which yield slimmer cuts for galleries.
These numbers also offer a narrow glimpse into a gallery’s overall sales activity. White Cube, for instance, told ARTnews that while it saw a slight slowdown this year, its total remains 15.5 percent above 2022 levels.
But the question stands: Is Art Basel’s flagship fair losing its market sway? Or are these just signs of a broader shift toward more primary market sales at lower price points?
It’s a crucial question for Art Basel’s parent company, MCH Group. The Swiss edition of the fair has long served as the company’s bellwether. In March, MCH reported that Art Basel had returned to profitability for the first time since 2016, posting a $3.4 million profit in 2024. Executives struck a cautious tone, citing the need to balance “financial discipline” with growth ambitions in 2025.
The fair’s cachet among top collectors has historically hinged on its stringent selection process and its knack for coaxing galleries into bringing A+ material to Basel. Whether that formula still holds may depend on whether “more is more” becomes the new normal—or just a passing phase.
