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

Spotlight Art Basel Viewing Rooms: Advisory Highlights Ocula Advisory

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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Main image: George Condo, Diagonal Evolution (2020). Acrylic, pigment stick and metallic paint on linen. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.