What Sold at Art Basel Paris 2026 https://ift.tt/Uy1c9rZ

Art Basel Paris 2026 wrapped up its fifth edition on Friday, October 23rd, two days earlier than planned, as concerns over further protests in the French capital brought an abrupt end to an otherwise buoyant week of art and dealmaking. The fair, which welcomed 211 galleries from 41 countries to the Grand Palais, announced the early closure on Thursday amid fears that demonstrations over the weekend could jeopardize visitor safety. “We deeply regret that we will not be able to welcome visitors this weekend,” Art Basel said in a statement.

The decision followed widespread protests over living costs and public services, some of which had escalated into clashes and property damage the previous weekend. It left the general public with just one day to visit the fair, rather than the three originally planned. With the bulk of high-value transactions typically concentrated in the three VIP preview days, much of the week’s major business was likely already done. Still, the loss of the weekend may have been felt more acutely by smaller galleries; public days offer valuable opportunities to build relationships and introduce their program to a wider audience.

“The fair started strong. Collectors showed up, sales happened, and everyone survived the questionable temperatures,” advisor Arushi Kapoor told Artsy. “Ironically, the VIPs got their art fix while students, academics, and the broader public missed out.”

Indeed, while the Grand Palais was open, the mood had been markedly upbeat. The Avant Première VVIP day, now in its second year, drew a busy international crowd, with collectors appearing ready to make decisions. As Artsy reported earlier in the week, the fair got off to a flying start, with Hauser & Wirth selling works by Gerhard Richter and Georg Baselitz for around $10 million each, while other galleries including David Zwirner and White Cube also reported multimillion-dollar transactions.

The caliber of works showed Paris’s growing stature as one of the art market’s most important annual fixtures. Among the most eye-catching was Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu étendu (Lolotte) (1917), presented by Pace Di Donna Schrader Galleries with an asking price exceeding $100 million—a striking vote of confidence in the fair’s ability to attract the world’s biggest collectors—that the gallery said received strong interest. The city’s auction house sales also had a banner week, with Claude Monet’s Iris (1924–25) fetching €50 million ($56.2 million) at Sotheby’s, setting a new auction record for a work sold in France.

There was plenty to admire beyond the big-ticket sales, too. Under new director Karim Crippa, the fair featured 32 newcomers, an expanded Premise section dedicated to overlooked historical practices, and an ambitious array of presentations, several of which featured in Artsy’s selection of the best booths. Beyond the Grand Palais, there were also plenty of other fairs at Paris Art Week to peruse, such as Paris Internationale, Asia NOW, Post-Fair, and other satellite events. As our roundup of favorite works under $10,000 at the fairs showed, Paris had something for collectors across the price spectrum.

There had been high expectations going into Art Basel Paris 2026, and the fair’s premature ending was an unusual conclusion. The disruption may have curtailed its public reach, but the reported sales suggest that serious buyers had already made their presence felt. Here, we round up the key transactions reported by galleries at Art Basel Paris 2026.

Leading sales at Art Basel Paris 2026

In addition to the Richter and Baselitz works, Hauser & Wirth’s other sales included:

• A work by Mark Bradford for $4 million.
• George Condo’s Woman with Designer Shirt (2026) for $2.95 million.
• Lucio Fontana’s Concetto spaziale (Spatial Concept) (1961) for €1.7 million ($1.9 million).
• Henry Taylor’s WTF’s my 40 acres & my mule, you lying... (2023–26) for $1 million.
• Alexander Calder’s Four Dots and Brass Tail (ca. 1953) for just under $1 million.
• Pat Steir’s Untitled (1992) for $900,000.
• Cristina Iglesias’s Untitled (Eucalyptus Corner) (1994–97) for €500,000 ($560,000).
• Jenny Holzer’s Providing (2024) and William Kentridge’s Now Practice Heart-Work (2026) for $400,000 each.
• Lee Bul’s Perdu—Silhouette VI (2026) for $290,000.
• Roni Horn’s Just XX (1993) for $200,000.
• George Rouy’s Unknown Lovers (2026) for £195,000 ($261,000).
• Five editions of Camille Henrot’s Tristan (2026), including two for €160,000 ($179,000) each and three for €130,000 ($146,000) each.

Untitled #35, 1963
Robert Ryman
David Zwirner

David Zwirner’s reported sales were led by a painting by Richter for $8.5 million. Other transactions included:

• Five paintings by Robert Ryman for $4 million, $1.25 million, $850,000, $650,000, and $850,000.
• A painting by Joan Mitchell for $3.8 million.
• A painting by Marlene Dumas for $3 million.
• Four paintings by Josef Albers for $3 million, $900,000, $880,000, and $600,000.
• A painting by Luc Tuymans for $2.4 million.
• A painting by On Kawara for $2 million.
• A sculpture by Ruth Asawa for $1.2 million.
• Two paintings by Elizabeth Peyton for 900,000 (currency not specified) and $850,000.
• A painting by Yu Nishimura for $500,000.
• A painting by Bridget Riley for £450,000 ($602,000).
• An overpainted photograph by Richter for $110,000, alongside several editions priced between $75,000 and $350,000.

White Cube reported two major sales by Julie Mehretu, with Rise of the New Suprematists (2001) and Mumbaphilia (J.E.) (2018) each selling for $7.85 million. Other reported sales included:

• El Anatsui’s MivEvi I (2025) for $2 million.
• Tracey Emin’s You Were Part of me (2022) for £990,000 ($1.32 million).
• Cai Guo-Qiang’s Bald Eagle (2023) for $700,000.
• Antony Gormley’s OPEN DOUBT II (2026) for £500,000 ($668,000), and SMALL ADEPT (2025) for £250,000 ($334,000).
• Shao Fan’s Giant Lingzhi 0225 (2025) for $360,000.
• Francis Picabia’s Concour hippique (ca. 1932–34) for €185,000 ($207,000) and Untitled (ca. 1930) for €75,000 ($84,000).
• Pablo Picasso’s Seated woman (recto); standing woman (verso) (1924) for €150,000 ($168,000).
• Emmi Whitehorse’s Fish Pond (1998) for $150,000.
• Two works by Enrico David, Aurora (2025) and Assumption of We (2026), for £120,000 ($160,000) and £80,000 ($107,000), respectively.
• Marguerite Humeau’s Venus of Planina, A 37-year-old female human has ingested an olm’s brain (2024) for £115,000 ($154,000).
• Four works by Ibrahim Mahama, including Measure the Valleys and Down to the corner (both 2025–26) for €120,000 ($134,000) each, and Nyamuthia and Nyankwabe (both 2025–26) for €100,000 ($112,000) each.
• Louise Giovanelli’s Eleusis (2025) for £90,000 ($120,000).
• Fernand Léger’s Masque (projet pour la Création du Monde) (ca. 1923) for €65,000 ($73,000).
• Shigeo Otake’s Eye Gnats (2026) for $16,000.

Pace Gallery’s reported sales were led by Jean Dubuffet’s La chaise (1964), which sold for “more than” $5 million. Other sales included:

• Lee Ufan’s From Line No. 79061 (1979) for $2 million.
• Beatriz Milhazes’s Onde Nascem os Girassóis I (2026) for $1.2 million.
• Richard Pousette-Dart’s Eye of Autumn Snows (1992) for $650,000.
• Robert Longo’s Untitled (Peony) (2026) for $600,000.
• Dubuffet’s Site avec 3 personnages (1981) for $300,000.
• Adam Pendleton’s Black Dada (B) (2026) for $275,000.
• Robert Nava’s Bat with Lightning Cloud Clown with Several Ghosts (2024) for $185,000.
• Alicja Kwade’s Strange Attractor (2026) for €175,000 ($196,000).
• Michal Rovner’s Following (2026) for $175,000.
• Two sculptures by Arlene Shechet, Black Beauty and Pulse (both 2025), for $150,000 each.
• Julian Schnabel’s Portrait of Italy Through Its Trees Painting on Map (7:30 PM) (2026) for $125,000.
• Leo Villareal’s Golden Game (Medium) 6 (2025) for $125,000.
• Two paintings by Nigel Cooke, The Discovery of Fire and I was the Ghost (both 2026), for $100,000 each.
• Pam Evelyn’s Côte d’Azur (2026) for $80,000.
• Two works on paper by Loie Hollowell, Inverse Red Mandorla and Teal Mandorla (both 2026), for $50,000 each.

Sprüth Magers’s reported sales were led by two paintings by Condo, The Mechanical Man and Coney Island (both 2026), which sold for $2.2 million each. Other transactions included:

• Holzer and Lady Pink’s IF YOU ARE CONSIDERED USELESS... (1983) for $450,000.
• Rosemarie Trockel’s Princeton (2016) for €220,000 ($246,000).
• Anne Imhof’s Untitled (2026) for €180,000 ($202,000).
• Louise Lawler’s Formica (2011–12) for $65,000.
• Otto Piene’s Untitled (2014) for €20,000 ($22,000).

Thaddaeus Ropac reported sales led by Fontana’s Concetto spaziale (1953) for €1.8 million ($2.02 million). Other transactions included:

• Baselitz’s Per mano - an der Hand (2019) for €800,000 ($896,000).
• Marcel Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q (1919–64) for €650,000 ($728,000).
• Three works by Martha Jungwirth, Der Wal (2024) for €520,000 ($582,000), Untitled (2026) for €460,000 ($515,000), and two further works titled Untitled (2026) for €180,000 ($202,000) and €170,000 ($190,000).
• Yan Pei-Ming’s Oscar Wilde (2026) for €300,000 ($336,000).
• Two sculptures by Tony Cragg, Ivy (2024) and Integers (2023), for €280,000 ($313,000) and €275,000 ($308,000), respectively.
• Louise Bourgeois’s The Puritan Study #17 (1990–97) for €280,000 ($313,000).
• Baselitz’s Strawinskys Fuß (2026) for €275,000 ($308,000).
• Lisa Brice’s Untitled (2026) for $275,000.
• Joan Snyder’s Deep in Me (2025) for $195,000.
• Hans Josephsohn’s Untitled (1952) for CHF 175,000 ($212,000).
• Baselitz’s Ohne Titel (2012) for €110,000 ($123,000).
• Longo’s Study of Ascending F16 Jet (2026) for $90,000.
• Jordan Casteel’s Midnight Nasturtium (2026) for $45,000.

Other reported seven-figure sales included:

• Mennour—one of Artsy’s best booths from the fair—sold Fontana’s Concetto spaziale (1964) for €1.75 million ($1.96 million), Ufan’s Response (2026) for $1.05 million, and two sculptures by Ugo Rondinone for $850,000 each.
• P.P.O.W sold Martin Wong’s La Iglesia de Dios (1986) for $1.75 million to an American institution.
• Yares Art sold Kenneth Noland’s Purkinje Effect (1964) for $2.8 million and Robert Motherwell’s Open #79 (1969) for $750,000.
• Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois sold Niki de Saint Phalle’s Cat Head Totem (2000) for a price in the $800,000–$1.2 million range.

More sales confirmed by Hauser & Wirth at Frieze Masters 2026

Following Art Basel Paris, Hauser & Wirth also confirmed several additional sales from the previous week’s Frieze Masters in London, including a work by Modigliani for $15 million, eclipsing the previously reported top sale of Jan Brueghel the Elder’s Still Life of Flowers in a Stoneware Vase (ca. 1607–08), which sold for “around” £5 million ($6.64 million).

Other newly confirmed Frieze Masters transactions included Paul Gauguin’s La Maison du Pan-du (The House of Pan-du) (1890) for “around” $4.2 million, Fontana’s Concetto spaziale, Attese (Spatial Concept, Expectations) (1963) for “around” €2.5 million ($2.8 million), and Giorgio Morandi’s Natura morta (Still Life) (1963) for “around” CHF 1.6 million ($1.94 million).

Notable blue-chip sales at Art Basel Paris 2026

Several established galleries reported strong sales across the upper six-figure and mid-market price ranges. Highlights from these exhibitors included the following.

Lisson Gallery’s reported sales were led by Anish Kapoor’s Clear to Dark Brandy (2026) for £750,000 ($1 million) and Ufan’s With Winds (1991) for $900,000. Other sales included:

• Kapoor’s Oriental Blue to Clear satin (2026) for £700,000 ($936,000).
• Carmen Herrera’s Pavan #37 (1948) for $650,000.
• Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Ligurian Sea, Saviore (1993) and Sea of Japan, Oki (1987), for $400,000 each. It also sold Sugimoto’s Opticks 661 (2025) for $250,000.
• Ha Chong-Hyun’s Conjunction 25-39 (2025) for $250,000.
• Yu Hong’s Unbound (2025) for $220,000.
• Leiko Ikemura’s magic girl yellow (2025) for €140,000 ($157,000).
• Pedro Reyes’s Concordia (2026) for $120,000.

Karma’s reported sales were led by Reggie Burrows Hodges’s Hutton Modesty Club: Son Runner (2025), which sold for $650,000. Other transactions included:

• Richard Mayhew’s Southern Border (1999) for $450,000.
• Manoucher Yektai’s Untitled (1960) for $250,000.
• Kathleen Ryan’s Bad Strawberry (Blossom) (2026) for $200,000.
• Jeremy Frey’s Vapor (2026) for $140,000 and Aquamarine (yellow) (2026) for $40,000.
• William Turnbull’s Small Sculpture (Idol) (1955) for $70,000.
• Marley Freeman’s reversing engine (2026) for $60,000.
• Nathaniel Oliver’s Down by the River (2025) for $55,000.
• Two works by Henni Alftan, Spaghetti Straps and Matchbox (both 2026), for $50,000 and $40,000, respectively.
• Calvin Marcus’s Untitled (2026) for $30,000.
• Shota Nakamura’s Untitled (2026) for $20,000.
• Ryan Preciado’s Color Theory (Test for Burbank) (2026) for $18,000.

Xavier Hufkens—another of Artsy’s best booths from the fair—reported sales were led by a painting by Charline von Heyl for $475,000. Other sales included:

• A bronze sculpture by Sherrie Levine for $300,000.
• A bench by Tatiana Trouvé for €275,000 ($308,000).
• A mid-size sculpture by Gormley for $250,000.
• A painting by Qiu Xiaofei for $125,000.
• A painting by Richard Aldrich and a plaster mask by Thomas Houseago for $120,000 each.
• Two ceramic works by Sterling Ruby for $50,000–$90,000 each, and a bronze sculpture for $32,000.
• A painting by Lesley Vance for $80,000.
• A small bronze by Emin for £50,000 ($67,000).
• A painting by Nathanaëlle Herbelin for €20,000 ($22,000).

Kukje Gallery’s reported sales were led by Ha Chong-Hyun’s Conjunction 25-40 (2025) for a “sum in the” $390,000–$468,000 range. Other transactions included:

• Ha’s Conjunction 23-47 (2023) and Conjunction 91-50 (1991) for $230,000–$276,000 and $210,000–$252,000, respectively.
• Holzer’s evaluating (2025) for $185,000–$222,000.
• Kyungah Ham’s Needling Whisper, Needle Country / SMS Series in Camouflage / Big Smile C 02-01-02 (2014–15) for $150,000–$180,000.
• Rondinone’s neunundzwanzigsterseptemberzweitausendundvierundzwanzig (2024) for $120,000–$144,000.
• Two paintings by Kibong Rhee, Windward and Road to none (both 2026), for $110,000–$132,000 and $100,000–$120,000 each.
• Julian Opie’s Callie I. (2025) for £45,000–£54,000 ($60,000–$72,000).
• Two works by Jean-Michel Othoniel, both titled Wall Figure (2026), for €32,000–€38,400 ($36,000–$43,000) each.
• Two works by Haegue Yang, Grafting Order and Beau Order (both 2026), for €26,000–€31,200 ($29,000–$35,000) each.
• Two works by Lotus L. Kang for $18,000–$21,600 and $12,000–$14,400.
• Two works by Lee Kwang-Ho for $14,000–$16,800 and $8,000–$9,600.
• Koo Bohnchang’s Vessel (RH 03 BW) (2014) for KRW 15 million–KRW 18 million ($11,300–$13,600).
• Two photographs by Han Youngsoo for $10,300–$12,360 and $3,800–$4,560 each.

Jessica Silverman’s reported sales were led by Hollowell’s Yellow Brain on soft pink shoulders (2026) for $450,000. Other sales included:

• Two historic works on paper by Judy Chicago, The Butterfly Begins Again 4 (1973) and Isabella d’Este as a Majolica Plate (1976), for $125,000 and $85,000.
• Rebecca Manson’s Arctia for $85,000.
• Hollowell’s Pressure in flesh tones for $80,000.
• Matthew Angelo Harrison’s Voices Return (2026) for $65,000.
• Three paintings by Clare Rojas and two by Rupy C. Tut for prices ranging from $20,000 to $65,000 each.
• A wall sculpture by Beverly Fishman for $60,000.
• Marilou Schultz’s Horizon (2026) for $50,000.
• Paintings by Hayal Pozanti and Guimi You for $45,000 each.
• Oliver Osborne’s Portrait of the Artist’s Sons (2026) for $35,000.
• Two glass bells by Davina Semo for $28,000 each.
• Seven works by Koak for $18,000 each, alongside five paintings by Laeh Glenn in the $15,000–$18,000 range.

More six-figure sales at Art Basel Paris 2026

Tina Kim Gallery reported sales led by a painting by Ha Chong-Hyun for $250,000 and a multimedia painting by Ghada Amer for $225,000. The gallery also sold a textile work by Lee ShinJa for $50,000 and a wall sculpture by Suki Seokyeong Kang for $40,000.

Galerie Lelong’s sales were led by Etel Adnan’s Untitled (2020) for €170,000 ($190,000). Other transactions included:

• Pierre Alechinsky’s New Delhi surplombée (1981) for €150,000 ($168,000).
• Juan Uslé’s Horizonte y memoria (2026) for €90,000–€100,000 ($101,000–$112,000).
• Shechet’s Together (2026) for €75,000 ($84,000).
• Kiki Smith’s Blue witness (2024) for €25,000 ($28,000).

Unsui (Duet), 2026
Sanford Biggers
MASSIMODECARLO

MASSIMODECARLO—another of Artsy’s best booths—reported sales led by Sanford Biggers’s Unsui (Duet) (2026) and Alvaro Barrington’s Composition 10.6 (2026), each for prices between $120,000 and $140,000. Other transactions included:

• McArthur Binion’s Circle/Square (2026) for $50,000.
• Skyler Chen’s happy valley? (2026) for €30,000–€40,000 ($34,000–$45,000).
• Daniel Crews-Chubb’s Mask XXIV (2026) for £20,000–£30,000 ($27,000–$40,000).

Casey Kaplan’s sales were led by a work by Casteel for $300,000. Other sales included:

• A work by Amanda Williams for $110,000.
• A work by Hannah Levy for $60,000.
• A work by Kevin Beasley for $35,000.
• A work by Sydney Cain for $22,000.
• Three works by Johanna Unzueta for $16,000 each.

Vaso di fiori, 1943
Filippo De Pisis
P420

Quiet friend who has come so far, 2026
Rodrigo Hernández
P420

Templon reported sales led by “several” works by Gérard Garouste, with “prices reaching” €250,000 ($280,000). Other transactions included:

• A work by Chiharu Shiota for “around” €120,000 ($134,000).
• A work by Omar Ba for “around” €110,000 ($123,000).
• A work by Martial Raysse for “around” €90,000 ($101,000).
• A work by Bilal Hamdad for “around” €65,000 ($73,000).
• “Several” works by Jeanne Vicerial for €25,000–€40,000 ($28,000–$45,000).

P420’s reported sales were led by Irma Blank’s Radical Writings, Schriftzug-Atemzug, 9-11-87 (1987) for “an asking price” of €140,000 ($157,000). Other sales, also reported at “asking prices,” included:

• Filippo de Pisis’s Vaso di fiori (1943) for €70,000 ($78,000) and Natura morta (late 1940s) for €30,000 ($34,000).
• Blank’s Radical Writings (1989) for €40,000 ($45,000) as well as two further works by Blank for €33,000 ($37,000) and €30,000 ($34,000).
• Two editions of Davide Rivalta’s Scimpanzè-Chimpanzee (2025) for €35,000 ($39,000) each.
• Rodrigo Hernández’s Quiet friend who has come so far (2026) for €10,000 ($11,000).

Other notable sales at Art Basel Paris 2026

Embroidered quilt with striped shield bugs, earthworms, dandelions, wild mallows, clover, cockchafer larvae, ladybirds, green stink bugs…, 2026
Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel
Loevenbruck

Cardi Gallery sold Jannis Kounellis’s Untitled (2010) for €350,000 ($392,000) and Bourgeois’s House (1995) for $350,000, as well as two works by Agostino Bonalumi for €140,000 ($157,000) each.

Loevenbruck sold Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel’s Embroidered quilt with striped shield bugs, earthworms, dandelions… (2026) for €65,000 ($73,000).

Magnin-A sold JP Mika’s Bilele, Bilele (Les habits, Les habits) (2026) for €6,000 ($6,700).

Sales reported from the fair’s Premise section—dedicated to historical artist surveys—included:

• Galeria Raquel Arnaud sold four works by Arthur Luiz Piza, including 16 (1948) for €22,000 ($25,000), Sem título crd-149 (1955) for €15,000 ($17,000), and two works titled Untitled (1949) for €7,000 ($7,800) each.
• Blue Velvet sold Sibylle Ruppert’s Curval (1976) for €350,000 ($392,000) to a Polish private collection, and two drawings titled Rencontre sur la lune (1973 and 1974) for €25,000 ($28,000) each.
• Olney Gleason reported sales led by Robert Indiana’s Source I (1959) for $375,000. Other transactions included two works by Ellsworth Kelly, both titled Untitled (Portrait of Robert Indiana) (1957), for $110,000 each; three works by Indiana titled Untitled (1959) for $100,000 each; and two further drawings by Kelly for $65,000 each.

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Ibrahim Mahama’s Vast Installations Harvest a New Future from a Colonial Past https://ift.tt/VirHNfL

If we are lucky, we will experience several great loves in a lifetime. For Ibrahim Mahama, art has always been number one. “I always loved art,” he said. “It’s my first love. I would do anything for it.” And when he says “anything,” he means it. His work has seen him envelop entire buildings with swathes of hand-stitched sacks, and build monumental installations out of hollowed-out aircraft, colonial-era bridges, and decommissioned railway carriages.

And yet, Mahama told me: “I never thought that I was going to become a contemporary artist. I only thought I was going to make art.” This changed in 2013, when Saatchi Gallery took an interest in his work, including him in the show “Pangaea: New Art from Africa to Latin America” in 2014. “Before this, I was just experimenting in the studio, doing guerrilla exhibitions around the city and sharing my work with local communities. When the international aspect came, I realized that there was more to do.”

Since then, the Ghanaian artist has exhibited all over the world and founded three art centers in his hometown of Tamale in Ghana. In 2025, he was named top of ArtReview’s Power 100. Utilizing archives, reclaimed materials, and everyday objects, his practice confronts history, global trade, and the enduring legacies of colonialism in Africa head on. His latest exhibition, “The Harvest Season,” is opening to coincide with Art Basel Paris this week at the Fondation Cartier. It’s an ambitious, collaborative undertaking which brings together nine artists and collectives, including James Barnor, Zohra Opuku, Gideon Appah, and Fera Wardak.

Throughout Mahama’s practice, he transforms discarded materials into repositories of memory, recognizing how objects are marked by the economic, social, and political systems through which they have passed. “Humanity has a way of cleaning its history and its image, but material forms come to embody the histories that they live through. I like using old materials because they contain a lot of truth within them.”

The exhibition features the original jute sacks that Mahama began working with in 2012, that were once used to transport cocoa beans, alongside rubber from a decommissioned rubber company, terra-cotta pots made by women in northern Ghana, and charcoal drawings on historical receipts. Together, these materials trace the entanglement of labor, commerce, and colonial history, revealing how ordinary objects can bear witness to much larger systems of exploitation and exchange.

“I believe that audiences are really going to connect with this exhibition, both materially and architecturally,” Mahama said. The artist has worked closely with the architecture of Cartier’s new space, which opened in October 2025. Defined by glass and steel, with long bay windows and expansive skylights, the building offers a sense of openness that has informed the exhibition’s design. “We built the exhibition so that nothing is blocked, and at any point in time, you are able to see through it from one end to the other.” As in much of his work, scale is equally important. Several monumental installations occupy the vast spaces, commanding attention while drawing the viewer into a shared, physical experience. “It becomes so magnificent that people cannot deny it. It becomes part of their reality.”

The exhibition opens with Mahama’s iconic Parliament of Ghosts (2025–26), an assembly of traditional wooden Asante stools, arranged to resemble a life-size parliamentary chamber, a space for gathering and discussion. “The stools were carved in the southern part of Ghana in the 19th and 20th centuries, and they hold a history of craftsmanship. A lot of them were broken, and we had to repair them before bringing them to Paris.” The act of repair is central to Mahama’s approach; these objects are not simply preserved as relics of the past, but also open new conversations. “Through these objects, we can ask new questions.”

Historically, stools of this kind were taken from Ghana as colonial loot, subsequently entering Western museum collections and presented as ethnographic objects. Here, they reclaim a different kind of agency, inviting audiences to reconsider whose voices are historically remembered.

For Season of Migration to the North (2025–26), Mahama was inspired by the Aboso Glass Factory in western Ghana. Founded in 1966, it was once the largest glass factory in sub-Saharan Africa, before being decommissioned and demolished despite community protests in 2025. Reflecting on a visit to the abandoned site, which he called a “living archive,” Mahama recalled: “There are plants, animals, and trees growing in between spaces. I thought that was important to pay attention to.”

Using funds from the Fondation Cartier commission, Mahama acquired materials from the defunct factory and partly reconstructed it at the Fondation Cartier. Here, Mahama has filled a red-brick swimming pool with emerald-green bottles, produced during Ghana’s post-independence era, topped with an assortment of terra-cotta pots that evoke the region’s rich craft traditions. The artwork invites audiences to consider the fate of collective infrastructure and the possibilities of rebuilding from remnants of the past.

Throughout his practice, Mahama has consistently embraced working collectively. For the artist, this approach enables collaborators to pool their intellectual resources and aspirations in order to build something that otherwise could not be achieved. Accordingly, “The Harvest Season” includes nine artists with whom Mahama has previously worked, including the radical Congolese collective CATPC (Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise) whom the artist visited in 2018. Its members approach art as a means of economic and political emancipation, using capital generated from art sales to buy back contaminated land to repair and restore it. Here, their surreal sculptures of animalesque figures are cast primarily from plantation-harvested cacao, critiquing the exploitative structures of the global commodity chain.

For CATPC, as for Mahama, art is inseparable from the social and political realities it inhabits. “One of the most important things that an artist can exercise is a sense of responsibility. And I think it is the responsibility of the artist to find a way to redistribute art and whatever sensibilities that come along with it. Because what point is there in making art when many people cannot access it?”

In this show, as in Mahama’s previous works, harvesting is not simply an act of gathering what history has left behind, but a way of reckoning with the past. “We are harvesting the decay of history, colonial memory, and our present human condition,” as Mahama put it. “At the same time, we are harvesting promises for the future. We are harvesting how we want to see the world going forward.”

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$56.2 million Claude Monet “Iris” painting sets a French auction record at Sotheby’s. https://ift.tt/zLBUpk0

Claude Monet’s Iris (1924–25) sold for €50 million ($56.2 million) at Sotheby’s Paris on October 22nd, the highest price for any artwork sold at auction in France, according to the house. The painting led “Le Temps Retrouvé: The Schlumberger Collection,” which made €74.4 million ($83.7 million), with every lot sold. According to Sotheby’s, this makes it the most valuable fine art sale it has held in Paris. All prices include fees.

Iris carried an estimate of €22 million to €30 million ($24.6 million to $33.5 million). It topped the previous French record, €43.2 million ($48.4 million), paid for Amedeo Modigliani’s sculpture Tête de cariatide (ca. 1909–14) at Christie’s Paris in 2010, Artnet News reported. Bidding for the Monet work lasted 45 minutes, Sotheby’s said. Jen Hua, the house’s deputy chairman for Asia, won it by phone on behalf of a private collector in Asia. According to the auction house, the work, which measures almost six feet across, is the largest painting from Monet’s 20-work “Iris” series still in private hands.

“Six bidders, 45 minutes, €50 million, and a new record high for France,” said Thomas Bompard, Sotheby’s France co-director of modern and contemporary art. “Tonight, Paris belonged to Monet.”

Other Monets were also sold by the auction house during the evening. Saule pleureur (L’arbre de feu) made €9.7 million ($10.9 million), within its €9 million to €12 million ($10.1 million to $13.5 million) estimate. Two artists also set high marks. Pierre Bonnard’s La Cueillette des Prunes sold for €2.5 million ($2.8 million), the most paid for a Bonnard at a French auction. Gustave Moreau’s Rêve d’Orient made €1.4 million ($1.6 million), a new high for a Moreau on paper. Sotheby’s says 74 percent of lots topped their high estimates.

Three works were withdrawn from the evening sale: Paul Cézanne’s La Ferme, Arbres au bord de la rivière, and Ciel entre les arbres, painted between 1862 and 1864, which France had named national treasures. The town of Aix-en-Provence, backed by the Ministry of Culture, plans to buy them for the Musée Granet. The three works carried a combined estimate of €1.4 million to €2 million ($1.6 million to $2.2 million).

The collection sold at Sotheby’s, comes from Jeanne Schlumberger, an heir to the Schlumberger oil company. She built the collection from the 1950s with the dealer Katia Granoff. Granoff, backed by the Schlumberger fortune, bought the studio holdings Monet left for his son Miche.

The sale fell during Paris Art Week, anchored by Art Basel Paris at the Grand Palais. Hauser & Wirth reported selling works by Gerhard Richter and Georg Baselitz for about $10 million each during the fair’s VIP days. The fair will now close October 23rd, two days early, citing planned protests across Paris. Sotheby’s Paris sales continue October 23rd.

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From Carmelo Anthony to Kevin Love, 5 NBA Stars Who Collect Art https://ift.tt/Y8zqHst

Basketball, 1983
Robert Peak
RoGallery

Basketball at its best is a form of art. A point guard slithers and swoops through the lane. A center skies for a rebound among a sea of outstretched, sinewy arms. Even the free throw has a utilitarian, stripped-down grace. Some plays even carry the character of an abstract nightmare.

The game—frantic, physical, and at times poetic—is a form of expression on a gigantic wooden canvas.

It’s fitting that many NBA stars, past and present, have a deep appreciation for fine art. Several have established themselves as major collectors (some like Desmond Mason become artists of renown—and, in his case, concern). Collecting isn’t uncommon in this world. The average NBA player’s salary for the upcoming season is $11.9 million. They travel to major cities. The offseason provides ample time to pursue interests.

And increasingly, many players are finding that art is a worthwhile investment. “Rather than take that trip to Miami or buy a Range Rover or blow the money in the club, you’re better off putting it on your wall,” prominent sports agent Rich Paul told the New York Times in a 2023 feature that explored the rising prominence of NBA players in the art market.

With the NBA season starting on Tuesday, October 20th, here is a starting five of all-star art collectors.

Carmelo Anthony

Hall of Fame forward, Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks

Carmelo Anthony entered the NBA in 2003 at 19 years old, an age where mentorship is essential. He flourished on the court, winning three Olympic gold medals and retiring in 2023 as the NBA’s 10th all-time scorer.

For his art education, the ex-Syracuse University superstar had Nuggets teammate Juwan Howard to explain how art went beyond “the Van Goghs and the Rembrandts and the Picassos.”

Anthony, who admired album covers as a child, now has a collection so extensive he cannot fit everything in his Westchester, New York, home. Among the highlights: five works by Nelson Makamo, plus pieces by Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Ernie Barnes, and Marcus Jansen.

His tastes veer toward street art and photography, but one theme that particularly resonates with him is the Black experience.

“A lot of the Black artists…They’re talking to me about things that I’ve gone through or been a part of,” Anthony told Cultured in 2025. “I like to be able to extend that story to people who enter the house or ask me about my collection. That experience has to surround me at home, because it’s what I relate to.”

Kevin Love

Power forward-center, formerly with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Cleveland Cavaliers

How important is art to Love, a former rebounding champ and a starring member of the Cavs’ 2016 championship team? The five-time NBA All-Star renovated his New York City apartment around his collection.

Love became interested in art in his early twenties; a conversation with Anthony, a teammate on the 2012 U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team, stuck with him. (Another art buddy: Love’s former Cavs teammate LeBron James.) Before he put money on the wall, he wanted an education. So he collaborated with British art advisor Jane Suitor, and the pair embarked on a running dialogue.

“What I’m looking for in artwork is something that makes you feel something. You have a visceral response to it. In a lot of ways, it’s cathartic,” Love told Penta in September 2023, when he selected eight works for Sotheby’s “Contemporary Curated” auction. “I want to feel emotion. I want to feel it when I walk into a room.”

Love’s collection features works by masters such as Cy Twombly, Antony Gormley, Ed Ruscha, and Gordon Parks. He’s an avid fan of Rashid Johnson; George Condo piqued his interest in art. Both are part of a collection that is also heavy on ’80s contemporary artists such as Richard Prince and John Baldessari. For Love, these artists’ backstories also factor into the appeal.

Amar’e Stoudemire

Hall of Fame power forward-center, Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks

Stoudemire’s passion for collecting art exploded when he joined the Knicks in 2010. He broke into the league straight out of high school in 2002, spending eight high-flying, electrifying seasons in Phoenix.

“The friends that I was starting to be close with were major art collectors,” he told WhiteWall in 2016 about a group that included the artist Rob Pruitt. “And they were constantly talking about art and the art world and the importance of it and recommended certain books for me to read.”

Since he retired from the NBA a decade ago, Stoudemire’s “Melech Collection” has swelled to a reported 70 pieces. (Melech is “king” in Hebrew; Stoudemire is devoutly Jewish.) According to a New York Times profile from that time, it was “largely composed of ’80s Pop art, street art, and works by contemporary artists like Eddie Martinez and Bradley Theodore.”

Stoudemire has also served as an arts advisor to former teammates and started “In the Paint,” a program where he collaborated with artists in his network “to set up art workshops for underprivileged youth in major U.S. cities,” reported Sotheby’s.

The six-time NBA All-Star—who was profiled by Artsy in 2016—has also written books and acted. More recently, he has found his way into wine and has ramped up his philanthropic efforts.

Grant Hill

Hall of Fame forward, Detroit Pistons

The current NBC Sports and TNT Sports announcer’s interest in art was inspired by his father, Calvin, a former professional football player, who had a fondness for artwork from developing countries.

As a history major at Duke University, the younger Hill discovered art could be another way to study the past. Hill’s interests are African American history and the Harlem Renaissance. Those subjects became the thrust of his collection, he told Athletes Quarterly. Hill started in 1995, early in an NBA career that spanned 18 seasons and 6 All-Star appearances, a time when art was a rare subject of locker room talk.

Highlights in the 120-piece collection include multiple works from Romare Bearden and sculptor/printmaker Elizabeth Catlett. Hughie Lee-Smith, John Biggers, John Coleman, and Arthello Beck are also represented.

“Something All Our Own,” an exhibition of 48 works collected by Hill and his singer-songwriter wife, Tamia, visited seven cities over three years in the 2000s. Duke University Press published a book connected to the event.

“There are so many challenges facing today’s youth,” Hill told Resource Library Magazine. “I believe that an appreciation of art can help provide the forum to help tackle some of these challenges.”

Darrell Walker

Guard, most notably the New York Knicks and Washington Bullets; longtime coach

When Walker and Bernard King, an incendiary Hall of Fame scorer, were teammates with the Knicks and Bullets, King urged the younger Walker to expand his interests. The advice didn’t click until Walker, nearing the end of a 10-year career as a defensive menace, was traded to the Detroit Pistons in 1991.

“I just took it upon myself to start collecting and visiting museums and visiting galleries, artists’ studios and educating myself on the road,” Walker told Arkansas Money and Politics in 2024. “Just got hooked on it.”

Walker’s collection numbers about 90 pieces. His collection, which he described to ARTnews as “eclectic,” features works by Sam Gilliam, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Kehinde Wiley, Carrie Mae Weems, and Hank Willis Thomas. His earliest acquisitions were pieces by Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, and Robert Colescott.

A hoops star at the University of Arkansas, Walker has gifted nine works—including pieces by Juan Logan, James Phillips, Herbert Gentry, and Joyce Wellman—to his alma mater. He has also donated pieces to the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Tubman Museum in Georgia.

Walker has continued King’s efforts. He mentored Elliot Perry, another former NBA player, on art.

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Our 6 Favorite Artworks Under $10,000 from the 2026 Paris Art Fairs https://ift.tt/gLwuVft

Paris this week is a city of contrasts. Protests and unrest have given the streets a more unsettled atmosphere, even as the art world descended on the French capital for its annual flurry of fairs, gallery openings, and museum shows. With Art Basel Paris now set to close its doors on Saturday and Sunday, the week’s events have taken an unexpected turn. Still, with art popping up everywhere from the Grand Palais to tucked-away spaces in the Marais, even the most seasoned art lovers have their work cut out.

Art Basel Paris 2026 is, of course, the main attraction, drawing the international art world to the Grand Palais for a suitably majestic affair. But some of the week’s most interesting discoveries were made elsewhere. Paris Internationale, in its new home beside Canal Saint-Martin, offered a characteristically adventurous lineup, while Asia NOW brought a rich mix of artists and galleries from across Asia and its diaspora to the Monnaie de Paris. Newcomer Post-Fair added a dose of Los Angeles energy to the Marais, and the intimate, four-gallery Coucou Paris is among the week’s unexpected highlights.

There was plenty to tempt collectors with deep pockets, naturally, but you don’t need a six-figure budget to find something special. From delicate photography to sculptures that gave familiar objects a mischievous twist, here are six artworks under $10,000 that caught our eye.

Art Basel Paris

Through October 25

Grand Palais. Avenue Winston Churchill, 75008

The grand dame of Paris Art Week, Art Basel Paris is back at the Grand Palais, bringing the art world’s biggest players beneath its magnificent glass roof. With blue-chip heavyweights, buzzy emerging galleries, and plenty of spectacle, it’s the week’s main event—though its run has been cut short by the announcement that it will close on Saturday and Sunday amid unrest in the French capital.

Miguel Afa, Céu no quintal, 2026

Presented by A Gentil Carioca

Price: $8,000

Céu no quintal, 2026
Miguel Afa
A Gentil Carioca

Who says you need to venture far to find a good subject for a painting? Brazilian artist Miguel Afa makes a strong case for staying close to home. His Céu no quintal (2026), which translates to “Sky in the Backyard,” captures a barely there yard scene in dusky pinks, purples, and browns, with plants, hanging fabrics, and a figure resting in the foreground.

Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Afa got his start painting graffiti on the streets of Complexo do Alemão in 2001. He has since traded the spray can for the paintbrush, turning his attention to the homes, people, and everyday routines of his neighborhood. His layered brushwork gives even the most ordinary details plenty of character.

—Arun Kakar, senior art market editor

Paris Internationale

Through October 24

187–189 Quai de Valmy, 75010 Paris

The cooler, scrappier cousin of Art Basel Paris, Paris Internationale returned for its 12th edition with a new home along Canal Saint-Martin. Bringing together 56 galleries and 5 nonprofit spaces, the independent fair traded polished booths for raw architecture, experimental presentations, and some of the week’s most exciting emerging talent.

Agnès Waruguru, Heavens, 2026

Presented by Vistamare

Price: €6,000 ($6,734)

Heavens, 2026
Agnès Waruguru
Vistamare

Agnès Waruguru is happy to let her materials have a mind of their own. The Kenyan artist—who was featured in The Artsy Vanguard 2025—often leaves drawings out in the rain and washes textiles in the ocean, allowing water to play an active role in her work. In Heavens (2026), presented by Italian gallery Vistamare, she brings this experimental approach to a modest sheet of salted watercolor paper, using acrylic ink and natural pigments to create a delicate abstract composition.

Born in 1994 and based in Nairobi, Waruguru draws on techniques passed down by the women in her family, incorporating embroidery, beadwork, and natural dyes into her practice. Her works are often inspired by landscapes, though she is less concerned with recording specific places than capturing her experiences of them. In Heavens, the pigments soak, spread, and settle into the paper, leaving delicate traces of the artist’s hand and the materials’ own unpredictable behavior.

—A.K.

Post-Fair

Through October 24

74 and 79 Rue du Temple, 75003

The newish kid on the block. Formerly known as Place des Vosges, Post-Fair makes its Paris debut this year, bringing a little Los Angeles cool to the Marais. Spread across two neighboring spaces on Rue du Temple, the fair’s 34 solo and duo presentations put artists in the spotlight, offering a refreshing alternative to the city’s bigger fairs.

Anouk Tschanz, Blatt, 2019

Presented by Galerie Tschudi

Price: CHF 3,000 ($3,634)

Some of the best portraits are of subjects that can’t pose. Swiss artist Anouk Tschanz takes her camera into the wild, photographing the plants and foliage she encounters along the way. This particular leaf, she told Artsy, was spotted on one of her walks in Glasgow. In Blatt (2019), presented by Zürich’s Galerie Tschudi, she gives her botanical discovery the full portrait treatment, isolating its delicate, perforated form against a softly blurred background.

Shot in velvety black and white, the photograph draws attention to the leaf’s unusual architecture, from its gently curling edges to the lopsided pattern of holes running along its surface. There’s something rather wonderful about the fact that Tschanz found her subject entirely by chance, without having to arrange a single thing.

—A.K.

Asia NOW

Through October 24

Monnaie de Paris, 11 Quai de Conti, 75006 Paris

Asia NOW returns to the historic Monnaie de Paris for its 12th edition, bringing together around 60 galleries, institutions, and foundations showcasing artists from across Asia and its diaspora. The fair offered an adventurous mix of materials, traditions, and fresh perspectives under this year’s theme of “Sentimental Value.”

Berna Dolmacı, Vikaye, 2023

Presented by Vision Art Platform

Price: €4,000 ($4,489)

Vikaye, 2023
Berna Dolmaci
Vision Art Platform

Coffee, tea, henna, and waste paper are some of the unlikely ingredients that Berna Dolmacı uses in her art practice. Born in Akşehir, Turkey, in 1994, the artist began by keeping visual diaries, collecting everything from leaves and flowers to receipts and sweet wrappers. These everyday scraps eventually found their way into her collages, which she makes using discarded paper dyed with natural materials.

At Vision Art Platform’s booth at Asia NOW, I had a difficult time picking a favorite from the many works that make up Dolmacı’s Vikaye (2023), which is hung across the booth (individual pieces are available separately for €4,000 each). Built up from irregular fragments of paper, the abstract collages are dense with earthy colors, delicate textures, and torn edges. Their layered surfaces create intricate abstract compositions, with each scrap retaining something of its original character. Up close, these works look almost weathered, thanks to the natural dyes used to make them.

Vikaye translates to “protection” or “preservation,” a fitting choice for an artist who gives discarded materials a second life. The only trouble is deciding which one to take home.

—A.K.

Coucou Paris

Through October 23

19 Rue de Poitou, 75003

One of the week’s best surprises, Coucou Paris proved that good things can come in small packages. Conceived by Milan gallery Studiolo, the nomadic contemporary art platform returned to the Marais for its second Paris outing, bringing together just four galleries in an intimate pop-up exhibition.

Rike Droescher, Through the Thicket, 2026

Presented by Alice Amati

Price: €3,000 ($3,367)

Through the Thicket, 2026
Rike Droescher
Alice Amati

German artist Rike Droescher has a talent for sculpting familiar objects in rather unexpected situations. In the pocket-size ceramic sculpture Through the Thicket (2026), presented by London gallery Alice Amati, the top of a gnarled, brown branch is covered with delicate white fabric. This pale ceramic hood is decorated with pink flowers and fine blue stripes, while a real clothing label hangs from the end of the branch. Here, the contrast between the rough, twisting branch and its rather prim floral dressing is particularly delightful: humorous in its contrast between its natural subject and man-made objects.

Born in 1990 and based in Düsseldorf, Droescher studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where her teachers included Andreas Gursky and Alexandra Bircken. Her practice brings together ceramics, textiles, and sculpture, often re-creating familiar objects entirely by hand rather than using found materials. She works intuitively, allowing unexpected connections between the domestic and natural worlds to emerge as she goes.

—A.K.

Ceramic Art Fair + Glass

Through Oct. 25

Maison de l’Amérique latine, 217 boulevard Saint-Germain / 1 rue Saint-Dominique, 75007

Ceramic Art Fair + Glass returns to Paris for its second edition, bringing nearly 40 international galleries to the elegant Maison de l’Amérique latine on the Left Bank. The festive fair celebrates the expressive possibilities of these age-old media, with works ranging from minimalist to maximalist, from austere to whimsical, by artists who make these rich traditions their own.

Ebony Russell, Foliate Rocaille: Blue and Pink Petite Urn, 2026

Presented by: Cynthia Corbett Gallery

Price: £1,100 ($1,470)

Foliate Rocaille: Blue and Pink Petite Urn, 2026
Ebony Russell
Cynthia Corbett Gallery

In a city famous for its exquisite pâtisserie, Australian artist Ebony Russell creates porcelain vessels that could almost pass for decadent confections. Drawing on cake decorating, her distinctive technique involves piping ruffled layers of pastel-colored porcelain by hand to create dainty yet sturdy vases. The resulting works are exuberant, recalling the decorative flair of the Rococo while feeling distinctly contemporary.

Russell’s practice also engages with the gendered history of craft and the decorative arts, long excluded from art history. In her work, decoration is no afterthought; the porcelain embellishment forms the basis of the vessel’s structure.

Presented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery, this small piece exemplifies that balance of delicacy and rigor, combining a whimsical appearance with remarkable control of the medium. With Russell’s work entering the Victoria and Albert Museum’s collection in 2025, her inventive approach is gaining the institutional recognition it deserves.

—Casey Lesser, director of editorial and content

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