Art Basel Paris opens amid Louvre heist, bringing global art scene back under Grand Palais dome

PARIS, France — Art Basel Paris kicked off its fourth edition on Wednesday, returning to Grand Palais for two consecutive years after its renovation.

The historic venue, renowned for its monumental glass dome and symbol of modern French culture, was packed with collectors, curators and art lovers, drawing attention to the world’s fourth largest art market.

The fair opened amid an uneasy mood in Paris following a daring heist at the Louvre Museum — just 2 kilometers from Grand Palais — on Sunday, where royal and imperial jewels valued at more than 100 million dollars were stolen. “The investigation is underway, and it will be significant to see how this event impacts the museum,” a person familiar with the issue told The Korea Herald at the fair.

While the incident was one of the hot topics among visitors, it did little to dampen the atmosphere, with 206 galleries from across the world participating. While it appeared relatively calm in the morning, the space soon began to fill by the afternoon.

The European gallery Thaddaeus Ropac had a strong sale at avant-premiere day, the exclusive early preview for selected guests on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s VIP opening. Among the works sold was Italian artist Alberto Burri’s “Sacco e oro” at 4.2 million euros ($4.8 million).

“This is the most important fair in the world, so every collector from America, Europe and Asia is coming here,” Thaddaeus Ropac, founder of the gallery, told The Korea Herald. “At Art Basel Paris, we always try to strike a balance between significant historical works and very new works from the studio.”

Among the highlights at the gallery’s booth were Robert Rauschenberg’s 1983 ceramic painting “Able Was I Ere I Saw Elba,” depicting Napoleon, and a recent work by Romanian painter Adrian Ghenie that arrived from the artist’s studio just three weeks ago, the gallerist said.

New York-based Paula Cooper Gallery presented the moss sculpture “Moss Bed, Twin” by American artist Meg Webster, roughly the size of a twin mattress. The piece echoed the ongoing exhibition “Minimal” at the Pinault Collection’s Bourse de Commerce in Paris.

“The atmosphere is very good. It has been a tough couple of years in the art market everywhere. So things were a little uncertain, but I feel like the fair started very well,” said Anthony Allen, partner of Paula Cooper Gallery.

One popular booth was New York-based gallery Nahmad Contemporary’s, which exclusively showed Pablo Picasso’s paintings from 1918 to 1960, including “Still Life (Flowers and Fruit by Window),” which Picasso completed over a week in April 1934 while staying with his mistress Marie-Therese Walter at his estate in Boisgeloup, France. The painting reflects the master’s surrealist influence and emotional tension, as explained in the gallery’s description of the painting.

Brussels-based gallery Lodovico Corsini, showing works by four artists from emerging to late — Meriem Bennani, Calvin Marcus, Rene Heyvaert and Lili Reynaud-Dewar — is one of the galleries hosting a booth upstairs.

“It was a bit calm here yesterday (on avant-premiere day). There were a lot of people downstairs but not here in this area. Today we just started, so we will see,” said Anna De Sutter, gallerist from Lodovico Corsini.

She described Belgian artist Rene Heyvaert as “a historical figure who was mostly active from the 1950s to the 1970s, working across different forms of art such as minimalism and architecture.” Having passed away at 55, he left a strong influence on later generations of Belgian artists.

Coinciding with the art fair, the city is filled with significant museum exhibitions, including “Gerhard Richter” at Fondation Louis Vuitton, a retrospective of the living artist, which is unprecedented in scale.

Fondation Cartier will open its new space to the public on Saturday at Place du Palais-Royal with an inaugural collection show, “Exposition Generale,” bringing together more than 600 works that marked the foundation’s history. Designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, the building opens generously to the city through vast bay windows.

Kukje gallery, Korea’s home-grown gallery, showed works by globally prominent Korean female artists, including Yang Hae-gue, Kim Yun-shin, Suki Seokyung Kang and Ham Kyung-ah. Works by the leading art masters of dansaekhwa, such as Lee Ufan, Park Seo-bo and Ha Chong-hyun were also on view.

“We have come to the fair since the first edition in 2022,” said Charles Kim, CEO of Kukje Gallery. “The market has its challenges with the war and everything going on, but it is holding up fairly well.”

Yang Hae-gue’s new work “Tinkle Feelered Chalky,” created this year, features cotton twine tied hanging from the ceiling at the center of the booth.

“While large-scale blind installations are composed by arranging refined modules, these works can be seen as sculptures meticulously constructed through labor-intensive craftsmanship. In particular, this piece embodies a stronger sense of handcraft than any of Yang’s previous works,” said Yoon Hei-jeong, senior managing director at Kukje Gallery.

The gallery’s sales list included three paintings from Ha Chong-hyun’s Conjunction series, sold on the avant-premiere day.

Tina Kim Gallery, joining the fair for the first time for the “Premise” section, where 10 selected galleries present highly singular curatorial proposals, introduced artist Lee Shin-ja in Paris.

Lee’s four textile works were sold for $150,000, $70,000 and $90,000 for each of two pieces. The gallery also revealed that it is currently in discussions with a major American museum regarding the potential acquisition of Lee’s work showcased at the fair.

“Lee Shin-ja is an artist who has long deserved international recognition and we believe this presentation finally provides that opportunity,” Tina Kim, founder of the gallery, told The Korea Herald.

“This presentation situates her work within the postwar European textile tradition, in dialogue with Sheila Hicks, Olga de Amaral and Magdalena Abakanowicz, reaffirming Lee’s place in the global textile art discourse,” Kim added.

Art Basel Paris opened on Wednesday for two-day VIP days and is open for general audiences from Friday to Sunday. The avant-premiere day, launched for the first time this year, was Tuesday for the most select invitees to the fair.

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