Riots
It is difficult not to begin a reflection on the state of the art market today by mentioning the seemingly unrelated riots that took place in Paris on Saturday, October 17, 2026, just days before Art Basel Paris.
Art Basel Paris has recently become the focal point of the global art market. Meanwhile France is accustomed to demonstrations and strikes. They are practically part of its DNA.
But that Saturday, beyond the demands of the population, young people launched ferocious attacks on businesses associated with luxury and on symbols of consumerism. The authorities had not anticipated violence of this magnitude.
Meanwhile, some exhibition openings took place on Saturday and Sunday evenings. On Tuesday, October 20, 2026, the art world’s super-VIPs are invited to the Grand Palais for Art Basel Paris. The timing could hardly be worse. Insecurity is no friend of art buying.
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Extensive security measures
At the time of writing, it is difficult to gauge the impact of Saturday night’s riots. But one can imagine that images of devastation circulating abroad may have prompted some visitors to cancel their trips to the supposed capital of romance. On Sunday, the French organizers of Art Basel sent an email to their VIP guests stating: “Extensive security measures remain in place. Additional security personnel have been deployed to patrol the interior and exterior perimeter of the fair.”
Now consider what has been happening over the past few months. The fair also arrives at a crucial moment, when desires are shifting across the entire spectrum of consumption of creative work.
Brunos Verjus
In the world of gastronomy, for instance, a recent announcement came as a bombshell. On September 8, 2026, Bruno Verjus, a high-profile, self-taught chef, announced the closure of his Paris restaurant Table, which holds two Michelin stars. In a video posted on Instagram, he declared: “Fine dining is dead. I don’t feel comfortable with the idea of excluding certain people from my table. I want to feed people, but not just a select few.” The restaurant will close on December 22. Until then, its menu is priced at €480.
blum
A similar crack appeared in the art market in July 2025, when Blum, an emblematic Los Angeles gallery, announced that it was closing. Tim Blum explained his decision without mincing words: “The number of collectors has unquestionably declined. I’m tired of the art world system.” In other words, just as with fine dining, something in the contemporary art market had died for him.
Why compare these two worlds? Because both reflect a growing weariness within the creative sphere with the relentless pursuit of growth at all costs.
psychologically fragile
Usually, when it comes to contemporary art, we are accustomed to a different kind of behavior. The art market is a psychologically fragile sector, like an eternal adolescent whose spirits must constantly be protected, since any loss of confidence can set off a chain reaction. So when a crisis hits, its leading players tacitly agree to maintain the appearance that everything is fine.
Their method is simple: talk only about what is working. It isn’t lying. It’s being clever. And it works. Auction houses continue to trumpet their record prices, while art fairs highlight their biggest transactions.
In recent years, Sotheby’s and Christie’s have also cautiously refocused their offerings on established names. There is far less room for emerging talent. Almost all their efforts are directed toward modern masters and the classics of contemporary art, from Gustav Klimt and René Magritte to Jackson Pollock.
too expensive
Yet a crisis has been gripping the very contemporary art market for a little over two years. The unbridled enthusiasm for young artists who had scarcely proved themselves, but whose works were already changing hands for hundreds of thousands of dollars, no longer appeals to collectors.
Too young. Too expensive.
Paying $300,000 or $500,000 at a gallery for a painter who has been working for only a few years requires an extraordinary appetite for risk. Spending several million dollars at auction on artists who may be excellent but are still only midway through their careers also seems increasingly difficult to justify.
On October 7, 2026, at Sotheby’s in New York, a 2018 painting by Avery Singer (born in 1987), which had fetched $2.1 million at auction in 2022, sold this time for $243,200. It depicts a robotic female creature, Kundry, whose name comes from Wagner’s opera Parsifal. The value of Kundry had fallen by approximately 88%, and news of the result spread across Asian social media.
But let’s keep a sense of perspective: Singer is an important artist, and $243,200 remains, relatively speaking, a substantial sum.
pace
Since the Blum announcement in 2025, numerous galleries around the world have closed, and the bad news has kept coming. The most striking development concerned Pace, one of the four behemoths of the global art market. In June 2026, the American gallery announced that it was laying off 50 of its 250 employees. In September, it was looking to sublet part of its 7,000-square-meter New York headquarters.
I spoke to Marc Glimcher, who runs Pace, during Art Basel in June. To his credit, he does not try to conceal the truth and is confronting the situation head-on.
Like many others in the business, he acknowledges one thing: the art market’s paradigm needs to change. But how? The answer has yet to emerge.
david zwirner
Among the quartet of mega-galleries at the top of the industry, alongside Hauser & Wirth and Gagosian, is David Zwirner.
Zwirner, whom I first interviewed over Zoom before catching up with him for a very brief, impromptu conversation during Frieze London, maintains that things are improving.
“Certainly, two years ago, the market changed: it slowed down and prices fell. We made some adjustments to our organization. But the past eight months have been very good. When prices fall, collectors get scared and stop buying. We saw that over several seasons, particularly at auction. I would rather ask them to look at the opportunities.”
Ups and downs are woven into the history of this son of a Cologne art dealer, who opened his own gallery in New York in 1993, in the midst of a severe downturn in the sector.
Today, his gallery is a substantial operation employing 300 people. Its roster includes 86 of the most sought-after artists of our time, with a strong emphasis on figurative painting, including the work of the American Kerry James Marshall and Michael Armitage.
“My motto, ever since I started, has been that my clients are not the people who buy works from me. They are our artists. If you show great art, the buyers will come.”
There is, however, an important qualification. Galleries, including his own, considerably bolster their revenues through what is known as the secondary market: the resale of works by various artists, whether or not those artists are represented by the gallery. This side of the business now seems crucial to its financial health. And it, too, has slowed.
wealth creation
According to David Zwirner, the economic and geopolitical uncertainty hanging over the world coexists with an extraordinary expansion of wealth that allows the art market to keep going.
“I have a theory nobody wants to hear: in today’s market, it’s better to be a big gallery than a small one. We have a presence on three continents. And art fairs are creating new audiences. That’s why we participate in the New Delhi fair and will be taking part in the upcoming Art Basel Qatar. China has put an end to its speculative activity involving young artists. That’s a good thing. There are important collections there. In the Middle East, there is still a great deal to be done. But the United States still accounts for 50% of the global market, and probably 80% of the market for works priced above $10 million.”
And what about Trump’s second presidency?
“The far right has no interest in culture. We are a private gallery, free to show whatever we want. But the atmosphere is depressing. An important election is approaching, and things could change relatively quickly.”
The dealer, who has remained German despite living in New York for many years, is now a strong believer in Paris’s growing importance. The interview took place before the riots of October 17, 2026, in Paris.
