Photo: Pipilotti Rist's Wasserschatz (Schwarzlicht) Water Treasure (Black Light), 2019
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Art Basel that has more than 240 international galleries was canceled in February as the coronavirus gripped China. Now more than 90 per cent of exhibiting galleries have opened their online “viewing rooms” for VIP collectors. Artsy has also began hosting a digital-only version of Art Central Hong Kong, a satellite fair, and will continue to host all exhibitors that were scheduled to show at the fair through May 1. Despite an initial glitch as the Art Basel site became overwhelmed by users and went down for 25 minutes, several galleries reported significant online sales. As the art market grapples with its new digital status, dealers reported a steady trickle of sales during the first two days of Art Basel’s online viewing rooms—albeit with the majority of transactions taking place via their own virtual platforms or for other works in their inventory. 
Several dealers, including Thaddaeus Ropac, launched their own viewing rooms just ahead of Art Basel’s VIP opening on March 18. The Austrian dealer says the gallery saw online visitor figures double as soon as Art Basel’s digital platform opened two days after his. “People clicked through either to see the videos that couldn’t be hosted on the Art Basel platform or to view further works,” he says. The gallery sold one work by Jules de Balincourt, priced at $140,000, an hour before Art Basel’s rooms went live. Three further works that were not marketed online, including one by Lee Bull which went to a collector in Asia for $90,000, were sold privately. “We didn’t have huge expectations given the crisis and we didn’t exhibit our most expensive works,” Ropac says. “More importantly, it’s a platform that is keeping us connected with the art community.” |
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