MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - From the untold millions in sales of contemporary art
to luxury brand-sponsored parties and an invasion of street artists, Miami Art
Week ended its 13th and largest annual fair on Sunday, cementing its reputation
as one of south Florida's top tourist draws.
Anchored by the contemporary art show, Art Basel Miami Beach, wealthy art
collectors mixed with penniless art enthusiasts to take in the smorgasbord of
works on show.
“The driving force behind this show, behind the art market in general is
it’s been more global this year,” said Mathias Rastorfer, co-CEO of
Zurich-based Galerie Gmurzynska. “We’ve seen collectors from Asia, Latin
America, some from Russia.”
The gallery sold a 1918 Picasso painting titled Venus and Amor to a private
collector for about $1 million as well as a pair of black and gold circles by
Robert Indiana works for $3 million.
New York City and Hong Kong-based Lehmann Maupin Gallery sold Adriana
Varejão's Polvo Portraits IV for about $400,000 and Teresita Fernández's Golden
for about $300,000.
Following record-setting auctions in New York City, galleries said
contemporary art is securing its place as both an asset and a symbol of
sophistication among the wealthy. Moreover it’s readily available, unlike works
by Renaissance or modern masters.
“After someone has bought the mansion and the yacht and everything else
they might to turn to art,” said Mary-Anne Martin, whose Latin American
specializing gallery Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art had a $1 million Wifredo Lam
painting on hold for a collector.
On Miami’s mainland, where nearly two dozen satellite fairs set up, crowds
packed the sidewalks of the hip Wynwood district, to see massive street art
murals by Shepard Fairey, Cleon Peterson, Ron English and Brazil’s Os Gêmeos.
At one of the fairs, Art Miami, Barcelona-based Galeria Mayoral sold Marc
Chagall’s 1962 painting Esquisse Sur la Branche for $550,000 while New York
City’s Dranoff Fine Art sold an Andy Warhol portrait for $460,000, director
Nick Korniloff said.
Meanwhile exclusive, luxury brand-sponsored parties were commonplace as the
first week in December in Miami has become a magnet for world’s rich, including
real estate firms marketing $50 million apartments.
Developer Craig Robins welcomed crowds to the Design District, now home to
dozens of luxury stores like Hublot, Bulgari and Christian Louboutin, while
Buenos Aires-based developer Alan Faena hosted a Argentine barbecue for his
forthcoming Miami Beach condominium and adjoining performance and exhibition
space. — Reuters
