With Art Basel Paris closing two days early, ahead of planned protests this weekend, dealers have yet to figure out how to get their artworks out of the Grand Palais.
The fair will shut its doors at 7 p.m. Friday, rather than Sunday as originally planned, leaving exhibitors to rearrange tight shipping schedules and decide whether to pack up early or wait until the unrest has passed.
Multiple dealers told ARTnews they’d received an email announcing the decision at around 3:30 p.m. on Thursday. By then, many had already suspected Saturday’s opening might be canceled. The loss of Sunday came as more of a surprise.
“Everyone individually is figuring out who can get their crates in,” Wendy Olsoff, whose New York gallery P.P.O.W is exhibiting at the fair, told ARTnews.
Dealers will be allowed to bring packing crates into the Grand Palais after the fair closes Friday, but no one will be permitted inside on Saturday, sources said. Depending on conditions, they may be able to return Sunday to pack up their booths.
Olsoff said her gallery will probably stick to its original plan to pack up Monday, though that could change, depending on what its shipper can arrange.
Evan Reiser, a director at Bortolami manning the booth in Paris, said dealers typically hire their own art handlers and shipping companies, so the biggest headache will be rearranging schedules that were already in place. Reiser called it his most successful edition in recent years and said Paris has become one of the most important stops on the art market calendar, adding, “It’s really become the best audience and the most international audience, and the most condensed action in the market. Secondary dealers are making millions, but our level is making very good profit.”
Others had a different experience. Smaller and medium-sized galleries that don’t typically hire a separate team for deinstalling will be worse off from the early closure, said Vienna-based dealer Emanuel Layr, who added that he felt the fair had made the right decision to shut early.
“What’s going on is quite crazy,” he said, adding that this was a historical, “charged moment” of social strife. As he spoke to ARTnews, Layr and his team were in the midst of deciding their next steps: who would leave town early, when and how they would travel, and what to do about inventory. He said that it would be impossible to fully remove artworks before Monday, since the fair must stay open until Friday night, and Saturday is the protest.
Sales would also be impacted, said Layr. “There are a lot of medium-sized, smaller collectors who work during the week, who come on the weekend, and no longer can,” he said. “This is going to hit smaller and medium-sized galleries.”
A representative for another small gallery said they agreed. Asking not to be named, the representative said, “Smaller galleries like ours will be particularly affected by losing the weekend for two reasons: First, the fair is as much a marketing opportunity for our gallery and artist as it is a sales opportunity. We are introducing this artist to many people for the first time, so the more eyes on the work, the better. The public days are just as valuable to us as the VIP days. Second, many collectors don’t make it to the second floor during the preview days and return over the weekend specifically to see the Emergence section. We’ve heard that these are often among the more transactional days for galleries in the sector.”
Layr had not received word from fair organizers about possible financial compensation, but said that “everyone hopes” there will be some, especially given an already slower art market context.
In response to ARTnews’s query about compensation, an Art Basel spokesperson said: “It is too early to comment on any financial or contractual implications. We remain in direct contact with our galleries and will share further information with them in due course.” The spokesperson added, “These are extraordinary circumstances, and our immediate priority is ensuring the safety of our visitors, teams, and exhibitors, protecting the artworks, and delivering a secure and orderly move-out.”
The early closure comes at the end of what some dealers described as an exceptionally strong fair. For its part, Olsoff’s gallery, P.P.O.W, had sold Martin Wong’s monumental 1986 painting La Iglesia de Dios, priced at $1.75 million to an unnamed American institution. But Olsoff also expressed unease about what good commerce might mean right now.
“For me, personally, selling art while there’s a huge protest about people facing a lack of [economic opportunity] … it wouldn’t be a good feeling,” she said.
More troubling to her was what would happen to the people who depend on the fair for work. She said she’d just spoken to a woman selling drinks at the fair who was losing shifts because of the closure.
“People don’t realize how many people this place employs, and these people need money,” Olsoff said. The losses, she added, will also be felt by taxi drivers, restaurants, and other businesses that depend on the crowds the fair brings to Paris. She described the situation as a “big shitshow.”
Since Art Basel Paris made its announcement, other galleries have announced plans to shutter. Marian Goodman said it would shutter its Paris gallery on Saturday, adding they would reopen on Tuesday, with their regular hours, and that the exhibition Tacita Dean and Bruce Nauman remains on view through December 19.
Though Paris’s art scene will be altered by the protests this weekend, it will not be entirely brought to a standstill.
“Anyone who had intended to come to the fair over the weekend has changed their plans to visit today or tomorrow, so it’s all condensed over a shorter time,” said Thaddaeus Ropac in a statement to ARTnews. “People will certainly be leaving the city earlier than they’d initially planned, but those remaining are looking at the options of what will be open in areas of the city that are safe. We’ll assess as events unfold, but plan to have our gallery open in Pantin for the final weekend of Anselm Kiefer’s exhibition and the first weekend of David Salle’s show, where the area isn’t affected by the demonstrations.”