Art Basel in Paris: an earthquake in the fair landscape

The news that Art Basel has evicted Fiac from its October slot in the Grand Palais has had the effect of a bomb in the French art market.

The change could spell the end for the 48-year-old event, which is operated by the Dutch fair organiser RX (previously known as Reed). Will it return in another form, I asked RX’s president Michel Filzi: “We are reflecting about its future, as we own the name and the brand, but it’s too early to say,” he said.

It is no secret that RX did not have a good relationship with the RMN-Grand Palais (Reunion des Musees Nationaux—Grand Palais), which rents out the building. Currently RX owes the Grand Palais €630,000 for rental of the space for the two fairs in 2020, Fiac and Paris Photo, which never happened because of the pandemic. “We have already brought one court case against RMN-Grand Palais for breaking the contract,” he told me. “And we are thinking about bringing another, that’s all I can say for the moment.”

Art Basel hardly comes out unscathed either. Long-term critic Daniel Hug, the director of Art Cologne, had this to say via his personal Instagram: “MCH Group [parent company of the Art Basel brand] is only interested in making money and keeping Art Basel the number one fair worldwide...it means Paris will never have an art fair of equal stature to Basel...”

Then there is the question of how many French galleries will figure in the new fair. Some have already voiced fears of not getting in, although MCH says there will be a “strong presence” of French galleries—perhaps not totally reassuring. There is also concern that Fiac will lose its identity as a more sophisticated alternative to London’s Frieze. Will MCH turn it into a homogenised Art Basel brand, just as happened to Art Hong Kong after 2013?

But others—among them leading figures such as Kamel Mennour—believe that the Basel takeover is good for Paris, and that the group’s pre-eminence and acknowledged efficiency will produce a better fair.

As for Fiac’s outgoing director Jennifer Flay, while she is universally credited with transforming Fiac into a successful operation—even if she is not universally liked—I wondered if she might join the Art Basel team. She is “taking a pause” said a spokesperson for RX, which announced on 3 February that Florence Bourgeois, the head of Paris Photo, has been appointed the new director of Fiac.

It is also difficult not to interpret the news as being bad for London. Paris looks increasingly likely to regain much of the art market importance it lost after the 1950s, thanks to a swathe of new institutions that have opened in the French capital. Francois Pinault’s magnificent Bourse de Commerce, the Cartier Foundation’s move to massive new premises slap bang beside the Louvre in 2024, the Hotel de la Marine on the Place de la Concorde. Foreign galleries are moving in—David Zwirner, Mariane Ibrahim and White Cube—while others such as Mennour and Perrotin are expanding.

Why did MCH do this? Since receiving funding from James Murdoch’s private investment firm Lupa Systems, the firm appears to have reversed its previous retrenchment and is beefing up its network. It has bought a 15% stake in the Singapore fair Art SG and already owns Masterpiece London.

Hug certainly thinks this is the plan and launched a final Exocet: “Ten million euros is peanuts for James Murdoch to kill the most viable competition,” he wrote on Instagram.