Art Market Watch

ART BASEL LOOKS TO ASIA
by Rachel Corbett



The Art Basel art fair is facing an increasingly "Asian-ized" future, according to predictions from both art dealers and fair staff at the 43rd annual fair, June 14-17, 2012. The forecast follows logically enough from the dramatic growth of the Chinese sector of the art market. Significant here is last year’s purchase of the Art HK fair by Basel parent company MCH Group. Adding to the evidence was the announcement earlier this week on June 12, 2012, that Swiss collector Uli Sigg would donate most of his contemporary Chinese art collection -- 1,463 works worth $163 million -- to the M+ art museum that is slated to open in Hong Kong. (The museum is purchasing an additional 47 works from Sigg for $22.7 million, so the deal isn’t pure philanthropy.)

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