Art Basel Paris to Close Early in Face of Weekend Protests
With more demonstrations planned for Paris on Saturday, a week after large-scale protests gave way to looting and property damage across France, everyone in town for Art Basel has been mulling their plans. Should they stay through the weekend to catch all the museum shows? Should the fairs close early?
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On Wednesday afternoon, Art Basel organizers made a decision: The fair will close early, on Friday, at 7 p.m., “in light of potential demonstrations across Paris this weekend, and in the interest of safeguarding our visitors,” Vincenzo de Bellis, Art Basel’s chief artistic officer, and Karim Crippa, the Paris fair’s director, said in an email to exhibitors.
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The fair had been set to run at the Grand Palais through Sunday, with 211 of the world’s leading galleries showing blue-chip material, including an Amadeo Modigliani nude priced above $100 million. As details of the demonstrations came into focus, some who had planned to stay into the weekend and really savor Paris began changing their flights to leave the city before Saturday.
Art Basel Paris opened on Tuesday to select VIPs, and many big-league collectors and dealers had been planning to leave on Thursday or Friday anyway, with their business complete. But that is not true of many of their employees, or their art.
Rumors had been swirling that the fair would shut for Saturday’s protests over school conditions and the cost of living. French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has promised a “massive” deployment of police and soldiers to prevent a repeat of last weekend, when windows were smashed and shops were looted.
Design Miami Paris, which is nearby at the Hôtel de Maisons, has so far taken a wait-and-see approach. “We are monitoring developments closely, including guidance from local authorities,” a spokesperson for the fair said early today.
The venturesome little Post-Fair, an alternative event with 34 displays in the Marais, has taken a different tack: On Saturday, it will open an hour early, at 10 a.m., and then close at 1 p.m., instead of closing at 7 p.m. as planned.
A number of other satellite fairs are operating alongside Basel throughout the city, like Paris Internationale and Asia Now. They have not announced plans for Saturday.
Auction houses, which have sales scheduled this week in Paris, are also monitoring the situation with heightened security on the ground. Sotheby’s Oliver Barker said that the house is “in conversation with the authorities” and “taking their advice.” As of now, the auctions today and tomorrow are going ahead as planned.
The French house Artcurial is hosting its main 20th- and 21st-century sale on Saturday. A spokesperson said on Thursday afternoon that it will “go ahead as scheduled, despite the concerns surrounding potential riots.”
Art Basel had previously advised galleries with sculptures on view just outside the fair, as part of its public-art program, to take measures out of “an abundance of caution,” the fair’s CEO, Noah Horowitz, said.
Kamel Menour confirmed that a piece by one of his artists, Alicia Kwadje, remains on view for now.
Paula Cooper Gallery, whose booth is next to the fair’s main entrance, had been seriously considering deinstalling its booth on Friday night, regardless of the official word from the fair, citing concerns about the safety of staff and artworks, according to partner Steve Henry.
Across from it, Monica Sprüth of the Sprüth Magers gallery said that she wasn’t as worried because, if the Grand Palais is locked, no protesters would be able to get inside.
“It’s not 1789 and the storming of the Bastille,” said Andreas Gegner, the gallery’s senior director, based in London. “It will be a safe place.”
As we find out more, this post will be updated.
Andrew Russeth and Margaret Carrigan contributed reporting.