Art Basel Miami Beach 2025 is set to take place, bringing together leading galleries, artists, and collectors from around the world for its annual edition in Miami. The fair will feature a curated selection of modern and contemporary art, with special sections dedicated to emerging artists and large-scale installations.
Art Basel 2025 opened with strong preview-day sales, surprising many galleries after a tough year in the art market. Dealers reported a 'buyer's market' with price reductions and flexibility, while high-priced works by Jeff Koons, Michael Armitage, Adrian Ghenie, and Frank Bowling sold. The fair introduced a new section called Premiere for works made in the past five years, aimed at easing participation for small to mid-sized galleries. Satellite fairs including Africa Basel, Liste, Volta, and Maze Design Basel also launched or celebrated anniversaries. Other highlights include the Baloise Art Prize awarded to Rhea Dillon and Joyce Joumaa, a Holbein drawings rehang at Kunstmuseum Basel, and a visa denial for artist Richard Mudariki. Qatar took center stage ahead of a new fair in 2026, and limited-edition Labubu figurines caused a frenzy at the Art Basel Shop.
Frieze London 2025 has opened with a wide-ranging program spanning contemporary art, photography, antiquities, and performance. Key highlights include the inaugural Echo Soho fair celebrating women-run galleries, the London edition of Dallas Invitational set to open at the former US embassy in 2026, and strong sales at Frieze Masters including a Triceratops skull. Christie's and Sotheby's auctions during the week showed a mixed market: Peter Doig's 'Ski Jacket' sold for £106.9m, but overall estimates and price corrections indicated caution. The fair also features Sophia Al-Maria performing stand-up as winner of the Frieze London Artist Award, a new pricing structure for greater gallery diversity, and a pop-up by The Art Newspaper and L'OFFICIEL.
The Art Newspaper is promoting its digital newsletter, which delivers a daily digest of essential news, views, and analysis from the international art world directly to subscribers' inboxes. The article serves as a brief call-to-action for readers to subscribe.
Art Basel has announced the launch of Art Basel Qatar, a new international art fair set to debut in Doha. The fair will be held under the patronage of Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, chairperson of Qatar Museums, and is expected to bring together leading galleries from around the world. The announcement marks a significant expansion of the Art Basel brand into the Middle East, following its existing fairs in Basel, Miami Beach, Hong Kong, and Paris.
This podcast episode from The Art Newspaper covers three major art-world stories. Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" (1914-16) sold for the second-highest price ever at auction during Sotheby's New York sale of works from the late billionaire Leonard Lauder's collection, a "white-glove" auction that has sparked debate about a market recovery. Additionally, the episode discusses COP30-related art commissions appearing on posters across the UK and Brazil under the theme "It's Not Easy Being Green," alongside the Gallery Climate Coalition's new Stocktake Report on carbon emissions. The episode's Work of the Week is Caravaggio's "Victorious Cupid" (1601-02), which has traveled from Berlin's Gemäldegalerie to the Wallace Collection in London for an upcoming exhibition.
The fourth edition of Frieze Seoul (3-6 September) will host around 120 galleries at the Coex convention centre in Gangnam, including mega-galleries like Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Pace, David Zwirner, and White Cube. The fair welcomes about 20 new exhibitors, such as 10 Chancery Lane Gallery and de Sarthe from Hong Kong, The Breeder from Athens, Carvalho from New York, Make Room from Los Angeles, and Ota Fine Arts from Tokyo. However, more than 40 galleries are not returning, including Karma, Mariane Ibrahim, Michael Werner, and Neugerriemschneider. The event unfolds amid significant political and economic turbulence in South Korea, including the impeachment of former president Yoon Suk Yeol after a martial law declaration, the election of new President Lee Jae Myung, and ongoing tariff negotiations with the United States, all contributing to a climate of uncertainty.
The article is a promotional piece for The Art Newspaper's digital newsletter, inviting readers to subscribe for a daily digest of essential news, views, and analysis from the international art world. It includes a brief call to action and standard footer information with social media links and copyright details.
Zero Art Fair held its first New York City edition at the Flag Art Foundation, offering artworks for free under a novel contract system. Instead of paying upfront, collectors took home 179 works valued at $537,500 by presenting a paper card, with artists retaining certain rights. The fair, co-founded by artists William Powhida and Jennifer Dalton, involved over 300 applicants and 90 participating artists, with costs underwritten by Flag Art Foundation and Gagosian.