Tuesday, October 27, 2026

Art Basel Qatar announces 82 exhibitors for 2027 edition.
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Art Basel Qatar will return to Msheireb Downtown Doha for its second edition, running January 28–30, 2027. Invitation-only preview days will take place on January 26th and 27th. The fair has announced 82 participating galleries from 37 countries and territories, each presenting a solo artist presentation under the curatorial theme “between / بين,” conceived by Iraqi curator Wassan Al-Khudhairi in collaboration with Vincenzo de Bellis, Art Basel's chief artistic officer and global director of fairs. Roughly half of the artists on view hail from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia (MENASA) region and more than a third of participating galleries operate spaces there. Over 30 galleries are taking part in Art Basel Qatar for the first time. The fair unfolds across the M7 and Doha Design District venues, plus public sites across Msheireb Downtown Doha.

“For me, the theme between / بين is a liminal space of possibility, where different perspectives, histories and ideas meet and new ways of seeing emerge,” Al-Khudhairi said in a statement. “The show explores the dynamic relationship between the MENASA [Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia] region and the wider world: how global currents have shaped the region, and, equally, how the region's artistic practices, ideas and cultural histories have shaped, and continue to shape, the world.”

Regional galleries confirmed for the 2027 edition include Athr (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia), Lawrie Shabibi (Dubai), Tabari (Dubai), Hafez Gallery (Jeddah, Riyadh), al markhiya gallery (Doha), and The Third Line (Dubai), alongside first-time regional exhibitors including Efie Gallery (Dubai). International participants include Galerie Krinzinger, Matthew Marks Gallery, Mendes Wood DM, Sprüth Magers, White Cube, David Zwirner, Paula Cooper Gallery, and Gagosian. Notable solo presentations will include Gagosian showing Maurizio Cattelan, David Zwirner showing Oscar Murillo, Acquavella showing Andy Warhol, and White Cube showing Park Seo-Bo.

Alongside the exhibitor announcement, Art Basel unveiled a new year-round market development initiative in Qatar. Called the “Collectors Majlis,” the invite-only pilot program is for roughly 30 to 40 new, emerging, and art-adjacent collectors. It will launch this October ahead of the fair. The program combines pre-fair masterclasses, on-site engagement during the fair, and a post-fair salon, with sessions led by Art Basel leadership and regional figures including Her Excellency Sheikha Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, chairperson of Qatar Museums. “Our ambition extends well beyond the fair week: through our new year-round program, we aim to deepen collector engagement between editions and contribute to the sustained growth of the regional art market,” Noah Horowitz, CEO of Art Basel, said in a statement.

Art Basel Qatar’s fair week will also anchor a broader slate of institutional programming in Doha, including the second edition of Design Doha (November 5, 2026–January 31, 2027) and the inaugural edition of the contemporary art quadrennial Rubaiya Qatar, opening November 21st. Also on view will be a survey of Giuseppe Penone at the National Museum of Qatar and an exhibition on the Baghdad Modern Art Group at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art.



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Monday, October 26, 2026

Rembrandt House Museum opens temporary tattoo studio in Amsterdam.
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The Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam is hosting a working tattoo studio on its premises through November 7th. “The Poor Man's Rembrandt Project,” a collaboration with tattoo artist Henk Schiffmacher and his studio Schiffmacher & Veldhoen, returns for a second run following its debut in 2023. From October 26th through November 7th, visitors can book a tattoo based on Rembrandt van Rijn’s etchings and drawings, with prices ranging from €100 to €350 ($110 to $390) and a €50 deposit ($56) required at booking. Some walk-in slots are reserved each day.

“Worldwide, more tattoos are sold than works of art to hang on your wall,” Schiffmacher said in a statement. “An old tattoo artist once called tattoos ‘the poor man's Rembrandt’: a work of art that is more affordable than a painting by one of the old masters, but no less carefully executed and selected…For us, it is an incredible honor to work in the place where Rembrandt's soul can still be felt, and to work with his etchings and drawings. Grand and small art coming together.”

The museum frames the project as a dialogue between two printmaking traditions. Both etchings and tattoos begin as a drawing before being transferred with ink and needle, in Rembrandt's case onto a copper plate and sheet of paper, and in the tattoo artists’ case onto skin. Schiffmacher’s team is setting up in the museum’s modern wing, on the Jodenbreestraat site where Rembrandt and his own assistants and pupils once worked collaboratively on their art. “This is all about content,” museum director Milou Halbesma told the Art Newspaper. “We are a museum of craftsmanship, and we are trying to throw open the craft of Rembrandt and his students as widely as possible. If you translate that to today, we have a number of world-famous Amsterdam creators… And this is a chance to get a tattoo from one of these masters.”

The museum also organized the giveaway of a free, full Rembrandt–based back piece, executed by a team of artists from Schiffmacher & Veldhoen in Amsterdam and St. Catharina in Antwerp. The winner, Bo Kwakernaak, a 28-year-old from Amersfoort, volunteered his back after Schiffmacher's studio put out a call on Instagram. The team of tattoo artists has spent over 20 hours in sessions, recreating Rembrandt's The Descent from the Cross (1633) across his back.

The final session takes place at the museum during Museumnacht on November 7th. “I have always felt a connection with Rembrandt paintings,” Kwakernaak told the Art Newspaper. “I'm not religious, but I've always been drawn to religious imagery. Here, it is the emotion in the faces, the feeling of grief. There is a whole story in one image.”

Schiffmacher says he sees the tattoo as echoing Rembrandt’s time as well. “There were so many different people in Amsterdam at the time; there would have been tattooed sailors." The finished tattoo needs roughly a year for its pigment to settle into the skin.

The resident tattoo team for the two-week studio includes Schiffmacher, longtime partner Tycho Veldhoen, Morrison Cheyenne Schiffmacher, Rupa van Teylingen, Antwerp-based Frederik Moens, and Swedish artist Olof Arrevik.



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What Sold at Art Basel Paris 2026
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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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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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Friday, October 23, 2026

Ibrahim Mahama’s Vast Installations Harvest a New Future from a Colonial Past
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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.
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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
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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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