Art market

Art marketfeature

Art crowd saddles up at the High Desert Art Fair

A motel in Pioneertown, a community in California's Mojave Desert, offers local grit and an antidote to art fair fatigue

Trey the Triceratops sells for $5.5m via Pharrell Williams's auction site

The skeleton of a young adult dinosaur, excavated in Wyoming during the 1990s "Bone Rush", sold on the musician's online Joopiter platform

Art marketanalysis

Art trade stays buoyant amid global turmoil

Strong results in the London spring auctions suggest ultrarich are regaining confidence, despite escalating war in the Middle East

Guillaume Cerutti departs Christie's and other positions in Pinault’s companies

The news follows his sudden departure as president of the Pinault Collection

Chile's leading art fair foregrounds affordable works, often with a political edge

The 16th edition of Chaco boasts a plethora of affordable works by Latin American artists in an inclusive atmosphere

Guillaume Cerutti departs as president of the Pinault Collection after 13 months

The former chief executive officer of Christie’s moved to Paris to focus on the collection and its museums in 2025

Sales at Art Basel Hong Kong reflect a deepening Asian market

The region's growing institutional infrastructure is helping to counteract a diminished presence from the West

Important collection of Minimalist art could bring big results at auction

Henry S. McNeil Jr.’s collection, led by a major Judd "stack" sculpture, is expected to exceed $30m at Christie's this spring

Ten must-see works in Art Basel Hong Kong's new section

The fair’s Echoes section is dedicated to art created in the last five years

Art marketcomment

Comment | All hail the rise of the art internship

Against a backdrop of a contracting job market for graduates, initiatives such as the Sotheby’s Institute’s fellowship programme are supporting the next generation of art industry experts

Hong Kong’s contemporary art scene is blossoming in difficult times

With four new art spaces opening, cultural workers see a bright future for the city

French government blocks sale of newly discovered drawing by German Renaissance master Hans Baldung

The portrait has been deemed “a work of major historical and artistic interest“ for France’s national heritage

Gullah artist Sam Doyle’s narrative portraits shine at Outsider Art Fair in New York

His works, painted on found wood and discarded tin, illuminate culture on the remote Saint Helena Island

New Museum extension opens, NextGen collectors, a Wardian Case in Oxford – podcast

In this week's episode of The Week in Art, Ben Luke discusses the newly-enlarged New Museum, talks to Georgina Adam about her new book on the latest generation of art collectors, and hears from the curator of a new exhibition on botany at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by David. Clack and Alexander Morrison

Mexico’s culture ministry urges eBay to halt sales of pre-Hispanic artefacts

The Florida-based seller claims the listed objects were purchased legally, adding: “I suggest you research the laws”

Major collection of Indian paintings and calligraphy to be offered at Christie's

Following the success of the Aga Khan sale in October, works from the collection of Seattle-based Mary and Cheney Cowles will be sold in London in April

Art Dubai 2026 to be postponed and adapted in response to regional conflict

The fair’s 20th edition will be rescheduled to mid-May and have a “more focused and flexible format”, as Iranian strikes in the UAE show no signs of abating

Art marketcomment

Comment | Why doesn't Tefaf Maastricht move to Brussels?

The out-of-the-way Maastricht offers travel complications and inferior accommodation—but its intimate size is its advantage

US congress passes revamped Holocaust recovery bill that sidesteps many legal defences

The Hear Act of 2025, which now only needs president Trump’s signature to become law, extends and expands the reach of its 2016 predecessor

Art marketanalysis

Can Tefaf Maastricht keep up with the experience economy?

The venerable fair continues to offer a trove of historic treasures, but that might not be enough to draw in today's wealthy buyers

Art marketanalysis

The rise and fall of ‘buy-one, give-one’ art sales

A once-popular mechanism that allowed collectors to secure an in-demand work if they gifted a second to an institution, market shifts have made "bogos" less viable

Comment | Cow in MSCHF project survives, but should the project have happened at all?

The artist collective allowed buyers to decide the fate of a cow’s life (thankfully they chose a sanctuary over the slaughterhouse), but the intended awareness-raising gave way to polarising digital discourse

Art communities and heritage in Iran, moderate recovery in the art market, Sydney Biennale—podcast

Ben Luke talks to Sarvy Geranpayeh about the continuing violence in the Middle East, discusses the new Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report with its author Clare McAndrew, and speaks to our reporter in Australia, Elizabeth Fortescue, about a new installation at the Sydney Biennale.

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by David. Clack and Alexander Morrison

Tefaf Maastricht: the wish list

From a painting by a leading Australian Indigenous artist to a bejewelled book of Shakespeare poems, a Modernist beach buggy and a fine Greek marble, here are some of the works to look out for at the fair

'What does the second F in Tefaf truly stand for?'

The Maastricht show, which has been described as “a bit like the Davos of the art world”, has a unique position in the fair world—as well as being a place for selling art, the not-for-profit supports dealers and cultural NGOs

Global art sales grew 4% in 2025 but remain below pre-pandemic levels, Art Basel and UBS report finds

Political volatility and mounting operational costs weigh heavily on the trade, which ticked up to an estimated $59.6bn in 2025 after two years of decline

New rules on importing cultural artefacts create headaches at Tefaf Maastricht

Even the customs authorities responsible for enforcing the regulations seem unsure when and how they apply

Thoroughly Modern Maastricht: why Tefaf is embracing the 20th century

Despite ongoing management turmoil, there is a buzz around this year’s fair, as it welcomes more works from the past 100 years to its traditional roster

New York’s Independent fair reveals 76 exhibitors for first edition at Pier 36

The fair is foregrounding its reputation as a place to discover new galleries and artists, with nearly half of exhibitors showing at Independent for the first time