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Rare Picassos big draw at Swiss art show

Posted on: Wednesday, 14 June 2006, 07:57 CDT

By Robert Evans

BASEL, Switzerland (Reuters) - Rare works by painter Pablo Picasso were a top draw for collectors and investors at the art world's biggest annual fair of modern and contemporary works which opened to the public on Wednesday.

Officials of the show, Art Basel, said buyers were purchasing canvases by Chinese and Japanese painters, as well as big-scale "project" works including a mirror maze with drills and a silver airport luggage carousel.

"Given the prices Picasso is fetching on the market, it is not surprising that a range of his works hardly seen before are here this year," said London gallery owner and Art Basel exhibitor Thomas Gibson.

At least one -- a 1969 "Man with a Pipe" -- by the Spanish artist has never before been on public display, while others have never been on the open market or even reproduced in books of his work.

The four-day Art Basel, now in its 37th year, is often dubbed the "El Dorado" of the art business and there is fierce competition among galleries -- and artists -- to be selected to set up shop there.

This year 297 commercial galleries -- ranging from one from China and three from Brazil to 56 from Germany and 68 from the United States -- were chosen by the show's expert jury to take part, out of over 800 applicants.

After a special viewing for professionals and invited guests on Tuesday, officials said one of the Picasso's -- "Reclining Nude" from 1971 -- priced at $12 million by a Zurich gallery, had been reserved by a French agent.

SELLING QUICKLY

A huge acrylic canvas from the studio of Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, completed only two weeks before the fair and with a tag of $1.5 million, also sold quickly. But no final selling price was revealed.

Across the city's Exhibition Square, annex show Art Unlimited, was doing good business, including the sale of Paris-based Kadar Attia's maze-and-drill installation, Infinities 2006, to an unidentified U.S. collector.

Also attracting potential buyers in the hall was a vast canvas on the human rights theme created in three parts in 1998 by U.S. artist James Rosenquist.

Experts say Art Basel -- which in 2002 launched an Americas-based sister fair Art Basel Miami Beach now held annually in December in the Florida resort -- is increasingly the scene of art investment activity.

Swiss global banking giant UBS, which sponsors the Basel show, has had its own Art Banking department since 1998, offering advice to wealthy clients on buying and selling and structuring their art portfolio.

Source: REUTERS

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