June 12 (Bloomberg) -- Todd Levin, hedge-fund manager Adam Sender's art curator, did most of his shopping before going to Art Basel, which previews today.

``We don't buy much at the fair,'' said Levin, who oversees the $100 million Sender Collection from New York, in a telephone interview. ``Art fairs have morphed into a `fairorama' and consumer paradise or hell that is not conducive to spending time to investigate a work.''

The Swiss fair's organizers expect 56,000 people to spend $500 million at 300 dealers, including Larry Gagosian and Doris Ammann, through June 17. Sender bought new works by John Baldessari, Jeff Wall, Alighiero e Boetti, Sterling Ruby, the Tobias Brothers and Andro Wekua from galleries in advance of the event, Levin said. Another hedge-fund manager said he reserved five works at the fair.

Hedge-fund managers are reshaping the art market, often working through advisers. They're also caught in a wave of buying by new billionaires from Russia and Asia.

``Some of the hedge funds are changing or driving the market,'' said Sam Keller, Art Basel's director. ``But they aren't the whole market.''

MCH Messe Schweiz AG, which owns Art Basel, named journalist Marc Spiegler director of strategy for the fair, succeeding Sam Keller, who leaves in January 2008, said Chief Executive Officer Rene Kamm. The fair also named finance and artistic directors after a tripling of staff and budgets since 2000.

`Strange Precedents'

Price tags in Basel reflect recent auctions, where some artists tripled or quadrupled their previous records. ``These are strange precedents,'' said Andrew Fabricant of the Richard Gray Gallery before the VIP opening. ``There will be a day of reckoning.''

At Barbara Gladstone's stand, a 2007 Richard Prince painting of three women was sold before the VIP opening. Prices for Prince's big new works run from $5 million to $7 million, said a gallery assistant who declined to be named.

Francis Bacon's 1982 ``Two Figures'' is priced at $11 million at Van de Weghe. Large Basquiats run $3 million to $4 million at the gallery and at L&M Arts. Prices of works at SCOPE, a neighboring fair of young artists where items run as high as $60,000, has more than doubled in five years.

``I remember when they cost $10,000 to $15,000,'' said Asher Edelman, a New York investor and collector. Prices today are high relative to the artists' experience, he said.

Edelman; Lori DeWolfe, wife of News Corp.'s MySpace Chief Executive Officer Chris DeWolfe; Don and Mera Rubell, who have a private Miami museum; and Belgian collector Charles Berkovic were among those buying or preparing to acquire art in Basel.

Sender's Collection

Sender, who runs Exis Capital Management Inc., has bought 800 works since 1998, when Levin, 46, joined him. Based on current prices for his artists, including Damien Hirst, the art is worth more now than in March, when Sender, 38, valued it at ``more than $100 million,'' though he wouldn't give a new estimate.

Daniel Loeb, David Ganek, Steven Cohen and Sender are all big collectors, said Tobias Meyer, worldwide head of contemporary art at Sotheby's. Cohen made $900 million last year, according to Alpha magazine, and buys some of the most expensive works.

As many as 8,000 VIP collectors, museum curators and art professionals are expected at the Messe Basel between 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. today. Art consultant Sandy Heller, who advises hedge-fund managers and real-estate entrepreneurs, will be there. ``It's the one fair I would never miss,'' Heller said.

Private Jets

About 60 NetJets planes flew collectors to Basel yesterday, and bookings through June 17 may run to 200 -- twice as many as last year -- estimated NetJets Europe Ltd., the European unit of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s NetJets Inc. The unit's Chief Executive Officer Mark Booth, who collects art, wouldn't say at his party, which kicked off the fair, what he might buy at Art Basel.

Guests included the London hedge-fund manager Noam Gottesman, Royal Dutch Shell Plc Chairman Jorma Ollila and London jeweler Laurence Graff.

On the stands are works by artists such as Luc Tuymans, Baldessari, Jim Lambie and Francis Alys, though collectors entering the fair ``may find these works already on hold,'' Levin said. Young artists whose pieces may be hard to find include Wangechi Mutu and Banks Violette, according to Levin's research.

Edelman, DeWolfe and the Rubells all stopped at California dealer Patrick Painter's booth yesterday at Art Unlimited, a hall of installations.

DeWolfe said she'd bought a work by Christoph Schmidberger, one of Painter's artists, priced at around $100,000. Edelman said he'd bought a ceramic television set at SCOPE.

Flashy Art

``I have no budget,'' Edelman said. ``I always spend too much.''

Twenty-five years ago, contemporary art dealers convened at one or two big fairs annually in Basel and Chicago, Levin said. Now, they may go to 12 events a year in cities including London, Miami, Moscow and Dubai. They don't have enough good works, and they tend to peddle flashier art that doesn't have to be explained, he said.

``There's been a proliferation of `art fair art' produced specifically for art fairs,'' said Levin, who previously worked for Sotheby's and as an independent curator. ``It has a certain kind of wall power and can be digested and consumed very quickly.''

Today's opening isn't what he's going for, he said.

``When things calm down later, I'll have a chance to see all these galleries. We'll have lunch or coffee or time in the booth. They can show me some young artists, or talk about exhibitions they're planning.''

`Just Looking'

Today, Levin will be mostly ``just looking,'' notably at Galerie Michael Janssen's Tobias Brothers installation. The work is a room of Paul Klee-style paintings and drawings, priced at 150,000 euros ($200,160) to 250,000 euros, and has been reserved by a museum, Janssen said.

``One also goes hoping for those `wow' experiences where one will encounter a true masterpiece by Picasso or Fontana or Warhol,'' Levin said.

Zurich-based UBS AG, Europe's biggest bank by assets, is Art Basel's main backer.

To contact the reporter on this story: Linda Sandler in London at lsandler@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 12, 2007 09:21 EDT