Collecting
At Art Basel’s First Paris Fair, Great Expectations Meet Great Wealth
Paris+ par Art Basel is either a sign the city has arrived … or is simply a very successful art fair.
Visitors on the first day of Paris+ par Art Basel.
Photographer: STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFPIt’s a small art fair saddled with massive expectations.
Well before it opened on Wednesday, Paris+ par Art Basel had become a symbol of Paris’s ascendance as a contemporary art capital. London, the story goes, is hobbled by self-inflicted economic wounds, while Paris is newly business-friendly, filled with fresh galleries, and ready to return to its 19th century cultural dominance.