How can an art fair lure customers and make sales in a down market? Pitching its tent next to billionaires is a start.
A down art market? Depressed dealers? Fatigued buyers?
None of that matters in Aspen, Colo. At least, that is the theory behind a new art fair in the city when the global arts industry is in a slump. Aspen is both rich and spendy, with one of the highest concentrations of ultrawealthy homeowners in the country.
Even the worst of times is not all that bad here, said Doug Leibinger, a longtime real estate agent in Aspen, who represented the seller in a $77 million cash deal for an eight-bedroom home in April, setting a Colorado sales record during a downturn in the U.S. housing market. The record was broken again with another Aspen deal just a week later.
“Our marketplace is anomalous to the rest of the planet,” Leibinger said. “There are people who find Aspen desirable regardless of what happens in the greater economy. “
All those bursting wallets and bare walls add up to a consistent demand for paintings and sculpture, enough for Rebecca Hoffman, the co-founder of the Aspen Art Fair, to plunge ahead confidently with her event, even when trade reports show international art spending down more than 10 percent in 2023.
The inaugural fair, staged at the Hotel Jerome, a 135-year-old resort, ends on Friday. Visitors were elbow to elbow during Monday’s opening preview, and there were bustling crowds the first few days; many of the 22 galleries reported multiple sales by Wednesday. Prices varied, with a number of offerings in the $12,000 to $40,000 range, in line with the leading fairs of comparable size. (Art Basel Miami Beach in 2023, with its nearly 300 exhibitors, still dwarfed this fair.)
