What Sold at Art Basel 2024

The 2024 edition of Art Basel’s flagship fair concluded on Sunday after a sunny week at the Messe. Some 91,000 visitors attended the fair—up from 2023’s attendance of 82,000—which featured 285 exhibitors from 40 countries and regions.

Alongside the main fair again this year was the Unlimited sector, which presented 70 large-scale projects including installations, video projections, and paintings. Elsewhere, the Parcours sector featured several site-specific installations throughout the city, popping up everywhere from empty storefronts to hotels. New this year was the busy Art Basel Shop, a new concept store that featured a range of design, fashion, and publishing products. Down the road from the Messe, meanwhile, Liste Art Fair Basel hosted more than 90 tastemaking galleries that put on an impressive display of emerging art.

This year’s edition of Art Basel got underway with a slew of blockbuster sales reported at its VIP opening last Tuesday, and the overall tone from the week was one of careful optimism. Several dealers reported stronger sales from this year’s edition of the fair compared to 2023, and many struck a resilient note against the backdrop of the tricky current art market.

“Despite the recent challenging market environment, this edition of Art Basel managed to excite and energize collectors and brought solid sales for our artists from the first preview day,” said Philomene Magers and Monika Sprüth, co-owners of exhibiting gallery Sprüth Magers. “There was a lot of great energy from collectors and curators both at the fair and around the city.”

Many dealers, however, reported that sales were more uneven beneath the raft of blue-chip sales figures, noting that the more cautious moment for the art market at large is not over. Still, as illustrated by the sales listed below, it was clear that strong interest from both collectors and institutions was pervasive across the fair.

Here, we share a rundown of what sold at Art Basel 2024.

Top sales

David Zwirner quickly emerged from the fair’s VIP day as one of the most talked-about galleries after the sale of Joan Mitchell’s Sunflowers (1990–91) for $20 million—the most valuable reported transaction from the fair. The Mitchell painting topped a formidable list of reported sales from the blue chip gallery, which included the following:

• Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild (Abstract Painting) (2016) sold for $6 million.
• Yayoi Kusama’s Aspiring to Pumpkin’s Love, the Love in My Heart (2023), featured in the Unlimited sector, sold for $5 million.
• Josef Albers’s Study for Homage to the Square (1966) sold for $1.6 million and On the Other Side (1952) sold for $1.1 million.
• Robert Ryman’s Untitled (1997) sold for $1.5 million.
• Scott Kahn’s Wolf Moon (2023) sold for $900,000.
• Elizabeth Peyton’s Yes! (Vampire) (2024) and Ang in London (Ang Tshering Lama) (2022–24) sold for $900,000 apiece.
• Liu Ye’s El Aleph (2023) sold for $800,000.
• Works by the likes of Steven Shearer, Oscar Murillo, Neo Rauch, Lisa Yuskavage, Joe Bradley, Lucas Arruda, and Sherrie Levine sold for six-figure sums.

Hauser & Wirth also made a big splash at the fair. The gallery, which opened a new Basel space last week, reported a strong slate of sales including more than 10 works that sold for more than seven figures on the VIP day alone. Co-founder Iwan Wirth remarked that “in spite of the ‘doom porn’ currently circulating in the art press and along gossip grapevines, we are very confident in the art market’s resilience and the first day of Art Basel has confirmed our perspective.” Top sales from the gallery included:

• Arshile Gorky’s Untitled (Gray Drawing (Pastoral) (1946–47) sold for $16 million.
• Georgia O’Keeffe’s Sky with Moon (1966) sold for $13.5 million to a “major private collection.”
• Alexander Calder’s Snowflake Tree (1960) sold for $12 million.
• Philip Guston’s Orders (1978) sold for $10 million.
• Agnes Martin’s Untitled #3 (2002) sold for $5 million.
• Francis Picabia’s Nu assis (Seated Nude) (1942) sold for $4.85 million, and Untitled (1942–43) sold for $1.5 million.
• Blinky Palermo’s Ohne Titel (Untitled) (1975) sold for “a price in the region of” $4 million.
• Louise Bourgeois’s Woman with Packages (1987–93) and Untitled (1954) sold for $3.5 million apiece.
• Mark Bradford’s Pink Pearl (2024) sold for $3.5 million.
• Jack Whitten’s Xzee III (1977) sold for $2.2 million.
• Alina Szapocznikow’s Buste étincelant I (Glowing Bust I) (1967) sold for €1.6 million ($1.71 million), and Sculpture-lampe XIII (ca. 1970) sold for €1.25 million ($1.33 million).
• Henry Taylor’s Untitled (2022) sold for $1.5 million to a European foundation.
• Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Still #48 (1979) sold for $1.5 million.
• Glenn Ligon’s Stranger Study #45 (2023) sold for $800,000.
• Avery Singer’s Karen (2024) sold for $800,000.
• Other six-figure sales at the gallery included works by artists such as Roni Horn, Luchita Hurtado, Thomas J Price, Allison Katz, Pipilotti Rist, Catherine Goodman, Verena Loewensberg, George Rouy, Anj Smith, Zhang Enli, Angel Otero, Flora Yukhnovich, William Kentridge, Nicolas Party, Günther Förg, and Lorna Simpson.

Thaddaeus Ropac’s slate of reported sales was led by Robert Rauschenberg’s Market Altar / ROCI MEXICO (1985), which sold for $3.85 million. Other sales reported by the gallery included the following:

• “Several editions” of Georg Baselitz’s Dresdner Frauen - Die Elbe (1990/2023) sold for €2 million ($2.14 million) apiece. Baselitz’s St. Anna vereinigt Feld (2010) also sold for $1.8 million, Bei Willem (2009) for €1.2 million ($1.28 million), and Welten, die es nicht gab, mit Filzhut (2023) for €1 million ($1.07 million).
• Robert Longo’s Untitled (After Rubens; The Massacre of the Innocents, c. 1610) (2024) sold for $800,000.
• Antony Gormley’s HERE (2021) sold for £600,000 ($760,107).
• Sean Scully’s Midday Blue (2024) sold for $450,000.
• Daniel Richter’s the share fitting (2024) sold for €420,000 ($449,902).
• Martha Jungwirth’s Ohne Titel, aus der Serie “Édouard Manet, Der Spargel” (2023) sold for €420,000 ($449,902).
• Joan Snyder’s Magic Meadow (1994) sold for €400,000 ($506,738).
• David Salle’s “Hand-in-Glove” from the series ‘New Pastoral’ (2024) sold for €350,000 ($443,395).
• The gallery also reported six-figure prices for works by artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe, Alvaro Barrington, Alex Katz, and Tom Sachs.

White Cube’s sales were led by Julie Mehretu’s Untitled 2 (1999) for $6.75 million, and included the following:

• Mark Bradford’s Clowns Travel Through Wires (2013) sold for $4.5 million.
• Jeff Wall’s The Storyteller (1986) sold for $2.85 million.
• David Hammons’s Untitled (2009) sold for $1.95 million and Untitled (Body Print) (ca. 1974) sold for $750,000.
• Tracey Emin’s Hellter Fucking Skelter (2001) sold for $1.45 million.
• Lynne Drexler’s Red Bud (1964) sold for $850,000.
• Howardena Pindell’s Tesseract #3 (2023) sold for $650,000 and Tesseract #16 (2024) sold for $500,000.
• Antony Gormley’s HIDE (2021) sold for $500,000.
• Gabriel Orozco’s Untitled (2024) sold for $600,000.
• Isamu Noguchi’s Rain Mountain (1982–84) sold for $450,000.
• Christine Ay Tjoe’s Holly Species #01 (2024) sold for $225,000.

Pace Gallery—one of Artsy’s standout booths from Art Basel—reported a slate of sales including:

• Wayne Thiebaud’s Sliced Pie Stand (2017/2018) sold for $2.25 million.
• Three editions of Jean Dubuffet’s sculpture Banc-Salon (1970/2024)—exhibited in collaboration with Galerie Lelong & Co—sold for €800,000 ($1.01 million) each.
• Loie Hollowell’s Split Orbs in fuchsia, yellow, blue and purple (2024) sold for $450,000.
• Torkwase Dyson’s Errantry (2024)—presented in collaboration with GRAY at Art Basel Unlimited—sold for $380,000 to the Inhotim Museum.
• Nigel Cooke’s The Nurture of Jupiter (2024) sold for $330,000.
• Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s Yam Story (1995) sold for $250,000. Kngwarreye’s Emu - Yuyara and Yam - Annlara Dreaming at Alalgura (1990) also sold for $220,000.
• Paulina Olowska’s The Philosophin (Verena in Vienna) (2023) sold for $250,000.
• Jules de Balincourt’s When Figures Get Lost (2024) sold for $200,000.
• Michal Rovner’s Glass Flowers (2024) sold for $175,000.
• Qiu Xiaofei’s The Couch (2022) sold for $170,000.
• Gideon Appah’s All of Our Days (2023) sold to a museum for $120,000.
• Hank Willis Thomas’s Fy-ah (2024) sold for $110,000.
• Alicja Kwade’s Continuum (2024) sold for $100,000.
• The gallery also sold several five-figure works from artists on its roster, including Mika Tajima, Pam Evelyn, Kylie Manning, and Torkwase Dyson.

Almine Rech’s reported sales were led by Tom Wesselmann’s Man Ray at the Dance (2004), which sold for a price in the range of $2.5 million–$3 million. Other key sales reported by the gallery included the following:

• A painting by Serge Poliakoff for €600,000–€700,000 ($642,888–$750,036).
• A painting by Javier Calleja for $350,000–$370,000.
• A painting by Ha Chong-hyun for $350,000–$400,000.
• A painting by Larry Poons for $350,000–$400,000.
• Another painting by Wesselmann for $350,000–$400,000.
• A painting by Vivian Springford for $150,000–$170,000.
• A painting by Mehdi Ghadyanloo for €120,000–€150,000 ($128,578–$160,722).

Brussels dealer Xavier Hufkens remarked that Art Basel was the “standout fair of our year and the perfect way to kick off the summer.” The gallery’s top reported sales from the fair included the following:

• A sculpture by Donald Judd for $1.45 million.
• Two paintings by Leon Kossoff for $1.2 million and $200,000, respectively.
• Two sculptures by Louise Bourgeois for $1.2 million and $185,000 apiece, as well as a gouache by the artist for $175,000.
• A “sold-out edition of a large-scale sculpture” by Thomas Houseago each sold for $375,000.
• A painting by Zhang Enli for $270,000.
• A painting by Qiu Xiaofei for $265,000.
• A sculpture by Lynda Benglis for $250,000.
• A painting by Thierry De Cordier for €125,000 ($133,935).

Sprüth Magers’s reported sales were led by George Condo’s Rosemary’s Baby (2024), which sold for $1.95 million to a U.S. collector. Other reported sales from the gallery included the following:

• Barbara Kruger’s Untitled (Being and nothingness) (2024) sold for $450,000 to a collector in Asia.
• Jenny Holzer’s Truisms: MONEY CREATES TASTE (2013–22) sold for $400,000 to a collector in the EU.
• Rosemarie Trockel’s Milieu (2022) sold for €380,000 ($407,160) and Pot (2006) sold for €220,000 ($235,813) to collectors in the EU.
• Anne Imhof’s Untitled (Silas) (2024) sold for €250,000 ($267,870) to a collector in the EU and Suicidal Tendencies (Bunnies and Clown) (2024) sold for €185,000 ($198,223).
• Kara Walker’s Petechiae and Purpura in the Underworld (2024) sold for $250,000 to a collector in the EU.
• Peter Fischli and David Weiss’s Prototype and Middle Ages from Suddenly this Overview (1981–2012) sold for €190,000 ($203,580) to a collector in the EU.
• Salvo’s Untitled (1994) sold for €120,000 ($128,580).

Other major big ticket sales reported by galleries at the fair included the following:

• Gladstone Gallery’s sales included Jannis Kounellis’s Untitled (Wooden Rose) (1966) for $2.5 million; a work on paper by Keith Haring for $1.5 million; and two paintings by Elizabeth Peyton for $1.5 million and $1.35 million each.
• Gray sold a painting by Ellsworth Kelly for $2 million.
• Alison Jacques sold a sculpture by Hannah Wilke for $1.25 million.
• Levy Gorvy Dayan sold Lucio Fontana’s Concetto spaziale (1955) for a price in the range of $3.8 million–$4.2 million, Joan Mitchell’s Untitled (1962) for $2 million–$3 million, and Lee Ufan’s From Line (1981) for $1.5 million–$2 million.
• Tornabuoni Art sold a work by Giorgio de Chirico for a price in the range of €1.2 million–€1.6 million ($1.29 million–$1.71 million) and Claudio Parmiggiani’s Untitled (2023) for €100,000–€150,000 ($107,148–$160,722).

More key sales

Goodman Gallery—one of Artsy’s top booths from the fair—reported a bevy of sales that featured the following:

• William Kentridge’s Washer (2024) sold for $600,000 to a private foundation in Belgium. Three editions of Kentridge’s sculpture Seven Figures (2023) also sold for $275,000 each, and Drawing for Self-Portrait as a Coffee Pot (Large jug) (2020) sold for $200,000.
• Yinka Shonibare’s Refugee Astronaut VI (2024) sold for £250,000 ($316,790).
• Carrie Mae Weems’s Painting the Town #2 (2021) sold for $100,000 to a “prominent U.S. collector.”
• “Several” works by Atta Kwami each sold for a price in the range of $40,000–$200,000 to institutions in Asia, the U.S., and South Africa.
• Kudzanai Chiurai’s Black Vanguard Comunique 4 (2024) sold for $150,000 to a private foundation in Japan.
• Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s You’ll be sorry (2023) sold for $100,000 to a private foundation in Jakarta.
• Other five-figure sales at the gallery were for works by artists including Kapwani Kiwanga, Pélagie Gbaguidi, and Claire Gavronsky.

Lisson Gallery’s key sales included the following:

• Anish Kapoor’s Black (2023) sold for £950,000 ($1.2 million), Mipa 5 Light to Prussian Blue Satin (2023) sold for $675,000, and Mipa 5 Blue to Clear (2023) sold for £625,000 ($791,975).
• Lee Ufan’s Response (2024) sold for $850,000.
• Sean Scully’s Pieta (2022) sold for $675,000, and Wall of Light Green Mountain (2022) sold for $562,500.
• Rodney Graham’s Refraction Study after Jerry Lewis (Artists and Models, 1955) (2020) sold for $250,000.
• Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Opticks 025 (2018) sold for $250,000, and Opticks 479 (2018) sold for $250,000.
• Olga de Amaral’s Soles A (2014) sold for $200,000.
• Ding Yi’s Appearance of Crosses 2023-12 (2023) sold for $170,000.
• Wael Shawky’s Al Araba Al Madfuna, Paintings (2019) sold for $120,000.
• The gallery also sold works for five-figure sums by artists including Li Ran, Otobong Nkanga, Ryan Gander, and Laure Prouvost.

BLUM’s top reported sales included the following:

• Ha Chong-hyun’s Conjunction 24-08 (2024) sold for $390,000.
• Yoshitomo Nara’s Untitled (2013) sold for $175,000 and Worry Girl (2020) sold for $110,000.
• Eddie Martinez’s Untitled (2020) sold for $125,000.
• Friedrich Kunath’s This Is My Song (2023–24) sold for $115,000.
• Koji Enokura’s Figure A—No.1 (1982) sold for $110,000.
• Aaron Garber-Maikovska’s Chino Hills (2024) sold for $105,000.
• Other five-figure sales at the gallery included works by artists such as Christopher Hartmann, Alma Allen, Tom Anholt, and Asuka Anastacia Ogawa.

Lehmann Maupin’s reported sales included the following:

• Cecilia Vicuña’s La migranta (2024) sold for a price in the range of $400,000–$450,000 to “an important institution in South Korea.”
• Teresita Fernández’s Manigua(Apparition)2 (2023) sold for $375,000 to “a prominent collector.” Fernández’s Dark Earth(Groundwater) (2023) also sold for $375,000.
• Lee Bul’s Perdu 197 CXCVII (2024) sold for $190,000 and Perdu 195 CXCV (2024) sold for $190,000.
• Dominic Chambers’s The Zone (2023) sold for $125,000, Thunderscape #1 (When I am Among the Trees) (2024) sold for $100,000, and Shadow Hour (2023) sold for $100,000 each.
• Works by artists including Mandy El-Sayegh, Catherine Opie, Loriel Beltrán, and Oren Pinhassi also went for five-figure prices.

David Kordansky Gallery’s top reported sales included the following:

• Jonas Wood’s Japanese Night Landscape (2023) sold for $650,000.
• Fred Eversley’s Untitled (cylindrical lens) (2024) sold for $550,000.
• Shara Hughes’s Wide Net (2024) sold for a price in the range of $400,000–$450,000.
• Mary Weatherford’s Sakura (2024) sold for $300,000.
• Hilary Pecis’s Black Tablecloth Arrangement (2024) sold for $200,000.
• Joel Mesler’s Untitled (Love Life) (2024) sold for $155,000.
• Lesley Vance’s Untitled (2024) sold for $150,000.
• Works by artists including Sam McKinniss, Maia Cruz Palileo, Jason Fox, Ricky Swallow, and William E. Jones sold for five-figure sums.

MASSIMODECARLO’s top reported sales included the following:

• Alighiero Boetti’s Seicentoventicinque lettere dai cento colori i colori del mondo nel mese di marzo dell’anno mille nove 100 ottanta nove (1989) sold for €800,000 ($857,184).
• Maurizio Cattelan’s TBT (2024) sold for “around” €600,000 ($642,990).
• Yan Pei-Ming’s Léon Tolstoï (2024) sold for “around” €300,000 ($321,495).
• Elmgreen & Dragset’s This is How We Play Together, Fig. 3 (Marble) (2023) sold for €250,000 ($267,870).
• Dominique Fung’s Tang Dynasty Horses as Offering (2024) sold for $170,000 and Translucent Hand Fan (2024) sold for $110,000.
• Lenz Geerk’s Rest (2024) sold for $120,000. Works by Gianfranco Baruchello, Austyn Weiner, Massimo Bartolini, France-Lise McGurn, and Ludovic Nkoth also sold for five-figure totals.

Annely Juda Fine Art’s top sales included the following:

• David Hockney’s Water Lilies in the Pond with Pots of Flowers (2021) sold for a price in the range of $600,000–$800,000, Some gladioli (2021) sold for $100,000–$150,000, and Portrait of Simon (2003) sold for $80,000–$100,000.
• Christo’s Curtains for La Rotonda, Milan (1970) sold for $150,000–$200,000 to a private collection in Italy. The artist’s Untitled (Cans) (1959) also sold for $100,000–$150,000.
• Leon Kossoff’s Embankment Underground Station (1993) sold for $70,000–$100,000 to a private collection in the U.S.

More notable sales from Art Basel 2024

• Garth Greenan Gallery—an Artsy best booth from the fair—reported the sale of “multiple works” by Fritz Scholder for $350,000–$700,000 apiece, a painting by Howardena Pindell for a price “in the range of” $300,000–$500,000, and “multiple” paintings by Emmi Whitehorse for “prices in the range of” $200,000–$250,000.
• Templon’s reported sales were led by a €110,000 ($117,863) painting by Omar Ba, and also included “several” works by Chiharu Shiota for prices ranging from €12,000–€180,000 ($12,858–$192,866) as well as several paintings by Alioune Diagne for a price range of €30,000–€80,000 ($32,144–$85,718).
• Galerie Nordenhake’s reported sales were led by Stanley Whitney’s Bird Call (2024) for $450,000, and Minjung Kim’s History (2022) for $125,000. The gallery reported five-figure sales for works by John Zurier, Ayan Farah, Paul Fägerskiöld, Frida Orupabo, and Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa.

• Kukje Gallery’s sales were led by Lee Ufan’s Dialogue (2021), which sold for a price “in a range of” $800,000–$960,000. The gallery also sold works by Haegue Yang, Kim Yun Shin, Sungsic Moon, Louise Bourgeois, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Gimhongsok, and Daniel Boyd for five-figure prices.
• Mennour’s top sales included a painting by Lee Ufan for $900,000, Anish Kapoor’s Prussian Blue (2023) for £650,000 ($823,654), Daniel Buren’s Les Tableaux, quatre éléments - Bleu Marine, Mai (1991) for €500,000 ($535,740), and a painting by Zao Wou-ki for €380,000 ($407,162). The gallery also sold a Ugo Rondinone sculpture for $390,000 and two works by the artist for $370,000 and $351,000 apiece, as well as two works by Alberto Giacometti each sold for €350,000 ($375,018).

• Tina Kim Gallery’s reported sales were led by a trapunto work by Pacita Abad for a price “in the range of” $300,000–$400,000. The gallery also reported the sale of “multiple early tapestry works” by Lee ShinJa for prices in the range of $90,000–$120,000 apiece, as well as five-figure sales for works by Mire Lee, Suki Seokyeong Kang, and Maia Ruth Lee.
• Casey Kaplan’s reported sales were led by Amanda Williams’s “What black is this you say?—‘Your brown is blacker than thou’—black (07.06.20)” (2023), which sold for $110,000, and Igshaan Adams’s Byron (2024) for $105,000. The gallery also sold works by Ella Walker, Sydney Cain, and Kaveri Raina for five-figure sums.
• Buchmann Galerie reported the sale of Tony Cragg’s Point of View for €195,000 ($208,940) to a private collection in Germany and Bettina Pousttchi’s Vertical Highways A34 for €90,000 ($96,433) to a private collection in Switzerland.