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 expects 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 trebling of staff and budgets since 2000.

Sender's Collection

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

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 that 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.

Works by Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Giuseppe Penone and Felix Gonzalez-Torres, who stood out at the Venice Biennale, will be sought after in Basel, said art adviser Heller.

Venice Link

``Any artist who remains with you after you've seen hundreds of works in Venice won't be available for very long in Basel,'' Heller said.

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, a neighboring fair of young artists whose prices run as high as $60,000.

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

`The Right Museum'

Painter, showing a room of Jim Shaw paintings of former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle -- and a performance by Shaw dressed as a castle -- said eight people including museums wanted Shaw's work.

``It's just a question of placing it with the right museum,'' he said.

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.''

`Just Looking'

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.''

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 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.

Last year, Sender sold at auction 30 items by artists including Richard Prince, Tom Friedman and Andreas Gursky, making a six-fold profit in five years, he said.

``The way prices have appreciated, it's foolish not to expect a correction,'' Sender said in March. His art has a virtual museum at http://www.sendercollection.com.

Zurich-based UBS AG, Europe's biggest bank by assets, is Art Basel's main backer. Robert Gober's show at the Schaulager, a private Basel museum, is a must-see, collectors said.

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

Last Updated: June 12, 2007 05:13 EDT