What Sold for Over $1 Million at Art Basel Online?

Prices didn't reach the heights of the physical fair in 2019, but at least 16 works exceeded the million dollar mark.

Jeff Koons' Balloon Venus Lespugue (Red) (2013-2019) fetched US $8 million at Art Basel's Online Viewing Rooms last week, the highest price reported during the event to date. That's a slightly less staggering sum than the $20 million Gerhard Richter's Versammlung (1966) brought in during the physical fair in Basel last year, where it was one of three works that sold for over $10 million.

'The total value of sales for this year's iteration of Art Basel I would imagine will be dramatically lower than last year, but the volume of sales is likely the same or possibly even more,' said Simon Fisher, Director and Co-Founder of Ocula. 'Lower priced art has been much more the focus and easier to sell without the physical fair and its emphasis on showing major blue-chip works to collectors who are there to see them in person.'

At least 16 works nevertheless sold for over $1 million. In addition to the 12 works pictured below, David Zwirner sold Joan Mitchell's Pastel (1991) and Joseph Albers' City (1928/1936) for $1 million each, Hauser & Wirth sold Ed Clark's Untitled (1972) for $1.2 million, and White Cube sold Georg Baselitz' Komplementär bräunlich (2012) for $1.7 million.

Jeff Koons, Balloon Venus Lespugue (Red) (2013-2019). Sold for $8 million by David Zwirner Gallery, Paris.

Mark Bradford, The Press of Democracy (2020). Sold for $5 million by Hauser & Wirth, Zurich.

Keith Haring, Untitled (1982). Sold for $4.75m by Gladstone Gallery, New York.

Kerry James Marshall, Untitled (Blot) (2015). Sold for $3 million by David Zwirner, Paris.

Ed Ruscha, The Nineties (1980). Sold for $2.4 million by Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art, New York.

Donald Judd, Untitled (87-33) (1987). Sold for $1.85 million by Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco.

Louise Bourgeois, The Fragile (2007). Sold for $1.5 million by Hauser & Wirth, Zurich.

George Condo, Diagonal Evolution (2020). Sold for $1.4 million by Hauser & Wirth, Zurich.

Georg Baselitz, Elke in Frankreich II (2019). Sold for $1.35 million by Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London.

Glenn Ligon, Untitled (1990). Sold for $1.2 million by Luhring Augustine, New York.

Paul McCarthy, White Snow Cake (2017). Sold for $1.2 million by Xavier Hufkens, Brussels.

George Condo, The Dreamer (2008). Sold for $1 million by Almine Rech, Brussels.

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