What Sold at Art Basel Miami Beach 2023

As the curtain falls on 2023, Art Basel Miami Beach 2023 stood as a grand finale in a packed calendar of art fairs. Attracting a staggering 79,000 visitors, North America’s largest art fair encapsulated this year’s trends and transformations. Throughout the fair, exhibitors reported a revived enthusiasm among attendees, with several galleries remarking on a robust return of collectors and the palpable energy that defined this year’s edition.

“Our exhibitors turned out with works of extraordinary quality and ambition, met with a strong attendance of local and international collectors,” Vincenzo de Bellis, director of fairs and exhibition platforms for Art Basel, told Artsy. “The energy in Miami Beach this week is palpable.”

Featuring 277 galleries, Art Basel Miami Beach yielded several seven-digit sales, with notable successes reported across the fair. Miami-based Spinello Projects, for instance, sold out its solo booth of Esaí Alfredo paintings in the first hour and a half of VIP day—including one work to the ICA Miami. This year’s fair saw several significant museum acquisitions: A painting by Alicia Adamerovich was acquired by ICA Miami from Michael Kohn Gallery, and Hales Gallery sold one work by Jordan Ann Craig to a “prominent” U.S. museum.

As the art world bids farewell to a year characterized by uncertainty and volatility, Art Basel Miami Beach was also marked by enthusiastic participation and appeared to tie together 2023 by setting an optimistic tone for the year ahead. “Sales at the booth have been strong since the opening hours of the fair, signaling an optimistic shift in this year’s sleepier market and economy,” said Fionna Flaherty, a partner at Lehmann Maupin. “We’ve transacted with private buyers and institutions alike.”

Here, we round up the top reported sales from Art Basel Miami Beach 2023.

Top sales at Art Basel Miami Beach 2023

Hauser & Wirth logged the most expensive sale reported from the fair: Philip Guston’s Painter at Night (1979) for $20 million. The gallery’s other top sales included the following:

• George Condo’s Smiling Aristocrat (2023) for $2.35 million.
• Henry Taylor’s MADE IN MEXICO (2016) for $1 million.
• Amy Sherald’s The Beauty of Change (A Happy Man) (2023) for $850,000.
• Charles Gaines’s Numbers and Trees: Arizona Series 1, Tree #5, Thunder (2023) for $795,000.
• Rashid Johnson’s God Painting ‘A New Day’ (2023) for $750,000.
• Jenny Holzer’s Working Copy (2023) for $550,000.
• Firelei Báez’s Untitled (Southern Building) (2023) for $495,000.
• Gary Simmons’s Trenchtown Dreams (2023) for $375,000.
• Flora Yukhnovich’s Bacchanalia (2023) for £320,000 ($402,000).

Almine Rech’s notable sales included the following:

• Tom Wesselmann’s Upside Down Blue Nude (2001) for $1.25 million–$1.35 million.
• Javier Calleja’s Boop-Oop-a-doop (2023) for €390,000–€430,000 ($419,000–$462,000).
• Tomokazu Matsuyama’s Cost Of The Cold Ceilings (2023) for $250,000–$290,000.
• Kenny Scharf’s LICKETY SPLIT (2023) for $210,000–$240,000.
• Nathaniel Mary Quinn’s YouTube Ray-Ray (2023) for $120,000–$145,000.
• Huang Yuxing’s Pier in the woods (2023) for $110,000–$120,000.
• Vaughn Spann’s Untitled (Marked Man) (2023) for $105,000–$115,000.
• Mehdi Ghadyanloo’s The memorial tunnel (2023) for €100,000–€110,000 ($108,000–$118,000).

David Zwirner’s notable sales included the following:

• Marlene Dumas’s The Schoolboys (1986–87) for $9 million.
• Three Robert Ryman paintings from 1961–64 for prices in the range of $2 million–$3 million.
• A 1970 painting from Alice Neel for $2 million.
• A painting by Noah Davis for $1.6 million.
• A painting by Elizabeth Peyton for $1.3 million.
• A new painting by Chris Ofili for $700,000.
• A painting by Josef Albers from 1954 for $600,000.
• A recent work by Portia Zvavahera for $400,000.
• A recent work by Barbara Kruger for $350,000.
• A new painting by Oscar Murillo for $350,000.

Top reported sales at Thaddaeus Ropac included the following:

• Robert Rauschenberg’s Copperhead-Bite IX / ROCI CHILE (1985) for $1.7 million.
• Georg Baselitz’s Alles fällt vom Tisch (2020) for €1.5 million ($1.62 million) and Grüße aus Dinard (2023) for €1.2 million ($1.3 million).
• Tony Cragg’s Points of View (2019) for €900,000 ($967,000).
• Emilio Vedova’s Dal ciclo della natura ‘56 - 1 (Brasile) (1956) for $850,000.
• Alex Katz’s Marine 1 (1999) for $725,000.
• Robert Longo’s Untitled (Windy Palm) (2023) for $700,000.

White Cube’s top sales included the following:

• Park Seo-Bo’s Ecriture No. 191-75 (1975) for $1.5 million.
• Richard Hunt’s Years of Pilgrimage (1999) for $1.2 million.
• Tracey Emin’s You Let Me Fall (2022) for £600,000 ($752,000).
• Antony Gormley’s TIE (2022) for £600,000 ($752,000).
• Imi Knoebel’s Bild 06.07.2018 (2018) for €230,000 ($248,000).

Xavier Hufkens’s top sales included the following:

• A painting by Tracey Emin for £1.2 million ($1.5 million).
• A painting by Nicolas Party for $520,000.
• A painting by Joan Semmel for $300,000.
• A sculpture by Danh Vō for €240,000 ($258,000).
• A painting by Sayre Gomez for $215,000.
• A painting by Matt Connors for $135,000.

Kasmin reported seven-digit sales, including the following:

• Alex Katz’s Leigh (2007) for $1.4 million.
• Lee Krasner’s Untitled (1950) for $1 million.
• Diana Al-Hadid’s Ala Rasi (2023) for $75,000.
• Alexis Ralaivao’s La Serviette (2023) for $75,000.

More key sales at Art Basel Miami Beach

• Perrotin—one of Artsy’s favorite booths at the fair—announced sales including seven paintings by Emma Webster in the range of $80,000–$175,000, and a painting by Emily Mae Smith for $200,000–$300,000.
• Sprüth Magers secured several significant six-digit sales, including two works by George Condo for $600,000 apiece; and sculptures from Jenny Holzer and Kaari Upson for $400,000 and $250,000, respectively.
• Mennour reported six-figure sales including a painting by Lee Ufan for €700,000–€900,000 ($752,000–$967,000), a work by Anish Kapoor for £600,000 ($753,000), and an untitled Keith Haring painting for €400,000 ($430,000).

• BLUM’s reported sales included a Mark Grotjahn painting for $650,000; four works by Yoshitomo Nara for $750,000, $400,000, $250,000, and $150,000, respectively; and a painting by Kenjiro Okazaki for $140,000.
• At Mazzoleni, a 1966 Lucio Fontana waterpaint sold for $850,000–$950,000, and a 2013 painting by Salvo sold for $200,000–$250,000.
• David Kordansky Gallery reported several sales, including Fred Eversley’s Untitled (Cylindrical Lens) (2023) for $525,000; Shara Hughes’s Giddy (2023) for $340,000–$390,000; and Rashid Johnson’s Untitled Anxious Red Drawing (2020) for $375,000.

• Lehmann Maupin’s top sales were two works by Teresita Fernandez, one selling for $500,000–$600,000 to a prominent collector in Miami with a public collection, and another work by the artist for $375,000 to prominent collectors based in Europe. Other sales announced by the gallery included a work by Lee Bul for $250,000–$300,000; and two works by David Salle for $250,000 apiece.
• Pace Gallery’s notable reported sales include a 2023 sculpture by Alicja Kwade for $500,000; a bronze cast by Isamu Noguchi for $450,000; and a marble sculpture by Elmgreen & Dragset for $275,000. Other notable sales included multiple editions of a 2023 Lynda Benglis sculpture, QT, for $200,000, one of which sold to a U.S. museum.

• Jessica Silverman’s reported sales included a painting by Loie Hollowell for $275,000; a Woody De Othello painting for $95,000; a painting by Jocelyn Hobbie for $84,000; a woven tondo by Margo Wolowiec for $55,000; a painting by Julie Buffalohead for $50,000; and a painting by Rebecca Ness for $50,000.
• Michael Kohn Gallery’s sales included Ilana Savdie’s The Old Lie, Dulce Es (2023) for $150,000; Nir Hod’s 100 Years is Not Enough (2023) for $75,000; Siji Krishnan’s Unknown families (2022) and Emotional Landscape (2021) for $58,000 and $55,000, respectively; and William Brickel’s Thank You Francis (2021) for $42,000.
• Cardi Gallery made several significant six-digit transactions, including an untitled 1980 Donald Judd work for $700,000; Mimmo Paladino’s Senzatitolo (2003) for €160,000 ($172,000); and Agostino Bonalumi’s Bianco (2013) for $90,000.

• Galerie Chantal Crousel sold Anri Sala’s Surface to Air VIII (Cipollino / Morning) (2023) for €130,000–€150,000 ($139,000–$161,000), and Jean-Luc Moulène’s Coupé-Coqué (tribord), Le Buisson (2023) for $90,000–$110,000.
• Larkin Erdmann Gallery’s top reported sale was a painting by Man Ray for $350,000, sold alongside a drawing by the artist for $45,000. Additionally, the gallery sold a tapestry by Alighiero Boetti for $85,000, and a painting by March Avery for $66,000.
• Garth Greenan Gallery sold two works from Jaune Quick-to-See Smith for just under $900,000 and two large-scale works by Howardena Pindell for $600,000–$875,000.
• At Gallery Hyundai, Lee Kun-Yong’s Bodyscape 76-1-2023 (2023) sold for $300,000–$350,000; Shin Sung Hy’s Space Painting (Peinture Spatiale) (2007) sold for $290,000–$350,000; and Chung Sang-Hwa’s Untitled 017-3-7 (2017) sold for $230,000–$270,000.

• Kukje Gallery reported sales of six works by Jean-Michel Othoniel: Collier aquamarine, noir et cristal (2023) for €91,000–€109,000 ($97,000–$117,000); Passiflora (2023) for €56,000–€68,000 ($60,000–$73,000); Collier Rose et Gris (2023) for €50,000–€60,000 ($54,000–$65,000); Amant Suspendu Rose, Gris et Cristal (2023) for €35,000–€42,000 ($38,000–$45,000); Amant Suspendu Rose, Ambre Mica et Cristal (2023) for €35,000–€42,000 ( ($38,000–$45,000); and Amant Suspendu Gris et Cristal (2023) for €35,000–€42,000 ($38,000–$45,000).
• i8 Gallery sold one Eggert Pétursson painting for $160,000 to a collection in New York and another for $32,000 to a Miami-based collector.
• Galerie Lelong & Co. reported sales including Etel Adnan’s Watching the Hours (2021) for €300,000 ($322,000); Ana Mendieta’s suite of six black-and-white photographs for around $130,000; and a Mildred Thompson painting for around $90,000.
• Luhring Augustine’s notable reported sales included Mark Handforth’s Harlequin Star (2023), which sold for $148,500.

• Galerie Nordenhake sold Stanley Whitney’s Stay Song 114 (2022) for $350,000 to a private collector in the U.S.; Sarah Crowner’s Untitled (2023) for $130,000 to a private collector from Hong Kong; and Elena Damiani’s Testigos (after A. Aalto) (2023) for $100,000 to a private collection in Boston.
• Galerie Nathalie Obadia sold Mickalene Thomas’s Qusuquzah Une Très Belle Negresse #4 (2023) for $400,000.
• At OMR, Jorge Méndez Blake’s Biblioteca de exploración. Estructura de biblioteca XXX / Exploration Library. Library Structure XXX (2023) sold for $110,000 to a private collection; and Alicja Kwade’s Impact I (2023) sold for €70,000 ($75,000) to a private collection.
• Timothy Taylor reported several sales including Hilary Pecis’s Blue Porch (2023) for $135,000; a painting by Paul Anthony Smith for $85,000; and a painting by Daniel Crews-Chubb for $80,000.
• Gavlak reported sales were led by Nancy Lorenz’s Early Moon (2023) for $100,000. Works from Marc Dennis and Nir Hod sold for prices in the region of $85,000–$100,000.

More notable sales from Art Basel Miami Beach

• Galerie Christophe Gaillard reported several sales of works by Eric Baudart, including Papier millimétré (2022) for $45,000, Papier millimétré or rose (2022) for $25,000, and conCav (2022) for $25,000. The gallery also sold Stéphane Couturier’s Series E-1027+123- Villa Eileen Gray - #1 (2021–22) for $18,000 and Pablo Tomek’s Tetris plan 3 (2023) for $12,000.

At the fair’s Nova section, dedicated to new works by one to three artists, notable sales included the following:

• Luis De Jesus Los Angeles sold Hector Dionicio Mendoza’s Coyota (2022) for $50,000–$75,000 to a prominent Southern art foundation. The gallery also sold two sets of Ken Gonzales-Day’s “Erased Lynchings V” postcards for $35,000–$40,000 to separate “major East Coast institutions.” A large-scale sculpture by Hector Dionicio Mendoza, Jalando/Pulling (2020), sold for $30,000–$40,000 to a bicoastal collector.