This week: the Art Basel fair has opened in Switzerland, but are the collectors back and are they buying? We talk to Jane Morris, an editor-at-large at The Art Newspaper, about the art on show and whether the galleries’ jitters ahead of the fair have proved founded. Read our guide to the fair here.
Monster Chetwynd's Messeplatz Project at Art Basel Photo: Art Basel
Also, we hear from the classicist Mary Beard about her new book, Twelve Caesars, looking at representations of power across 2,000 years of art history, from Roman coins and busts, to 18th-century fakes, lost Titian masterpieces and Tudor tapestries.
Mary Beard's new book Twelve Caesars
And in this episode’s Work of the Week, we focus on Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped—the last ever wrapping project by the late duo. Vladimir Yavachev, Christo’s nephew, who has overseen the final stages of the project in Paris, describes the technical challenges of cloaking one of Paris’s most famous monuments.
• Listen to our 2018 podcast interview with Christo from our archive here and hear our discussion on his legacy in this 2020 episode.
The Week in Art podcast by The Art Newspaper is available every Friday on our website and all the usual places where you find podcasts. This podcast is sponsored by Christie's.