It’s been a whirlwind 2026 already. The year kicked off with a bang at Art Basel Qatar and barrelled forward into a spring marked by a much-talked-about Venice Biennale, a jam-packed week of fairs in New York, and a blockbuster series of sales at the auction houses. For the indefatigable collectors, dealers, and yes journalists that constitute the art world, there’s one more marquee event before summer takes hold: Art Basel’s flagship fair in the otherwise tranquil Swiss canton of Basel.
The Swiss edition of Art Basel still carries a reputation for presenting the most museum quality work, even if that reputation has waned somewhat as fairs in Paris, and now the the Gulf, take hold. This year, the fair introduced Basel Exclusive, a new opt in program in which exhibitors agree to withhold at least one top work from the pre fair PDFs and previews, in the hopes of generating some you had to be there-to see it buzz. Of the 240 exhibitors in the main galleries section, 193 have opted in to the initiative, according to the fair.
Thus, there are bound to be some big ticket artworks missing in our preview. Nevertheless, with a focus on art dealers with reputations for bringing the freshest (and highest-priced) secondary market works, here’s some of what will be hanging on the walls in Basel.
Galerie 1900-2000
Francis Picabia, Sans titre, ca. 1926–30.
Photo : Courtesy Galerie 1900-2000
Paris’s Galerie 1900-2000, known for sourcing top notch Dada and Surrealism, will bring works priced from as low as $5,000 up to $600,000 for a canvas by Francis Picabia. On offer are works by canonical figures such as André Breton, Leonora Carrington, Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Hannah Höch, Man Ray, and Roberto Matta. Also on offer will be works from later decades by artists like William Copley and On Kawara.
“I hope Basel Exclusive works, because it’s a very good thing,” gallery principal David Fleiss. “Even if they do come to fairs, people don’t necessarily visit every booth because they feel they’ve seen everything in previews. I’ve been on fair selection committees for years. We need to bring people back into fairs. I’m keeping four important works out of my previews.” He added that it might take time for the initiative’s impact to be seen, saying, “I think it will take time for people to understand that you have to be there.”
Speaking more broadly, Fleiss said, “I think the market is quite good,” though he noted that his fellow dealers who showed at fairs like TEFAF New York last month found themselves in competition with major auctions. “People were distracted. That’s one of the big strengths of Basel: there are no competing auctions. People come for the fair, not for something else. So I’m quite positive about the market in Basel.”
Gladstone
Robert Rauschenberg, Awn / ROCI MEXICO, 1985.
Photo : ©2026 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/Courtesy Gladstone
The gallery shared a 92-page PDF , outlining works by some three dozen artists it will bring to the fair, including Matthew Barney, Cecily Brown, George Condo, Keith Haring, Arthur Jafa, Shirin Neshat, Amy Sillman, and Carrie Mae Weems. Among them is a 10-foot-square Robert Rauschenberg work combining silkscreen ink, acrylic paint, fabric and graphite on canvas; Awn / ROCI MEXICO (1985) comes from a series that debuted at the Museo Rufino Tamayo in Mexico City in 1985. Also likely to make a splash is a 1984 Keith Haring, Untitled (May 29, 1984), a nearly eight foot square, partly fluorescent painting produced for a show at Milan’s Salvatore Ala Galery in 1985 and whose packed multifigure composition draws on Milan’s nightclub scene. The gallery declined to reveal prices.
“The market is actually quite good,” gallery partner Max Falkenstein. “It’s been much better since last September than anybody anticipated. I’m sure it’s different for smaller galleries but for us, since February or March it’s been excellent. In general, across the board, art fairs have been very strong, even in the last year. I feel quite optimistic.”
White Cube
Georg Baselitz, Ein zerrissener Hund, aufwärts (A Torn Dog, Upwards), 1968.
Photo : ©2026 Georg Baselitz/Courtesy White Cube
White Cube, with locations in London, Hong Kong, Paris, New York, and Seoul, will offer works by artists including Michael Armitage, Georg Baselitz, Antony Gormley, Richard Hunt, Gabriel Orozco, Isamu Noguchi, and Howardena Pindell. The gallery will also support presentations of Tracey Emin and Theaster Gates in the Unlimited section.
On Wednesday the gallery opened “Back Again,” a Baselitz exhibition at its Bermondsey, London showroom. To Basel, the gallery will bring an early canvas by the artist, who died in April. The painting, Ein zerrissener Hund, aufwärts (A Torn Dog, Upwards), from 1968, is tagged at $2.8 million. It last sold at Christie’s London in 2014 for $1.6 million, above estimate.
Thaddaeus Ropac
Andy Warhol, Statue of Liberty, 1986.
Photo : ©2026 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and Bildrecht, Wien
“On the heels of the New York auctions, the market at Art Basel will be strong,” dealer Thaddaeus Ropac predicted. “There is solid demand. Not many of the great American collectors are coming to Basel, which has been the case for a while, but all the European collectors will be there, as well as the Latin American collectors and even those from the Middle East. Basel is still one of our most successful fairs and the same will be true this year.”
Among the highlights in Ropac’s stand will be a six foot square Warhol, Statue of Liberty from 1986. “We haven’t seen one in the market for a long time,” said the dealer. It will be priced in the $5 million range. Ropac got the piece at Sotheby’s New York in 2020 for $3 million; it had last come to auction at Christie’s New York in 2016, when it fetched $3.7 million. It had previously sold, both times for about a half million, at Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg New York in 2002 and at Sotheby’s New York in 1999.
A Marcel Duchamp sculpture, Trébuchet (a 1964 replica of a lost 1917 original), a readymade from a coat rack, is priced around $3 million. This year, Duchamp has been top of mind for many galleries as the artist is the subject of a retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and features in the Venice Biennale. He’s also offering a Pierre Soulages for €2.8 million ($3.3 million) and Alex Katz’s painting Larry No. 1 (1974), priced at $1.6 million. In the Unlimited sector, he will show an Oskar Schlemmer sculpture unseen in many years, priced at $1.6 million Swiss francs ($2 million).
“It’s an interesting experiment,” said the dealer of Basel Exclusive. “There’s the question of whether at 11 a.m. you have a significant number of important collectors coming all at one time if you’ll have enough time with each speaking about the artist or the provenance of an important secondary market piece. When you can share information in advance there’s the opportunity to do this and even speak several times before seeing the work in person, so collectors can have time to reflect. We put about five important works into this section and collectors have responded positively so far.”
Berry Campbell
Elaine de Kooning, Thomas Hess, 1963.
Photo : Courtesy Berry Campbell
New York’s Berry Campbell will be exhibiting at the Swiss edition of the fair for the first time in June. For its debut, the gallery is bringing a star-studded lineup, including a 1968 painting by Lynne Drexler, Eventide, priced at $975,000, and Elaine de Kooning’s 1963 portrait of former editor Thomas B. Hess, for $465,000.
The de Kooning offering is something a preview for the gallery’s upcoming solo exhibition by the artist set to open October 29. The show, her first since a retrospective at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s in 2015, will survey the full breadth of her 40 year career, bringing together early abstractions, portraits of figures like John F. Kennedy, and more.
Hauser & Wirth
Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild (940-7), 2015.
Photo : ©Gerhard Richter/Courtesy Hauser & Wirth
As revealed in the Financial Times on Monday, Hauser & Wirth is bringing Gerhard Richter’s 2015 abstract painting Abstraktes Bild (940-7). Marian Goodman showed the work in her gallery when it was fresh from Richter’s studio and sold it to Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté. Laliberté sold it in June 2021 at Phillips Hong Kong for a within-estimate HK$95 million ($12 million). Hauser & Wirth has not revealed the price for the work at the fair.
Cardi Gallery
Giorgio de Chirico, Les Muses du Foyer, 1926.
Photo : Courtesy Cardi Gallery
Milan’s Cardi Gallery is bringing a 1926 de Chirico painting, Les Muses du Foyer, from the beginning of his Neoclassical period, priced in the range of $4.5 million, as well as a 1930 still life by Fernand Léger, La Feuille Jaune (La Toupie), in the range of $3 million. The gallery also plans to bring works by several postwar artists aligned with Spazialismo, Arte Povera, Minimalism, and Transavanguardia, including Carla Accardi, Vincenzo Agnetti, Alighiero Boetti, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Mimmo Rotella, and Mario Schifano.
Gagosian
Henry Moore, Large Four Piece Reclining Figure, 1972–73, cast 1984.
Photo : Courtesy Gagosian
The centerpiece of Gagosian’s booth at Art Basel will be a monumental bronze by Henry Moore, Large Four Piece Reclining Figure, 1972–73.
Created at the height of Moore’s late career, the work represents a synthesis of the artist’s lifelong exploration of the reclining form, uniting scale, landscape, fragmentation, and the human figure. Measuring 78¾ × 158¼ × 71⅝ inches, it will have a commanding presence at the fair. Gagosian declined to comment on price, but all of Moore’s top ten auction results have been achieved by reclining figure sculptures, with one work reaching $32.7 million at Christie’s in March.
Gagosian has a long history with Moore, having presented numerous shows of the artist since 1994 in New York, London, Paris, and Athens. This year also marks the 40th anniversary of Moore’s death.
Pace
Alexander Calder, White Ordinary, 1971.
Photo : © Calder Foundation, New York/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
For Pace’s presentation at Basel, the gallery is bringing works by Agnes Martin, Louise Nevelson, Jean Dubuffet, Alexander Calder, Donald Judd, and more. The highest value piece in a preview PDF reviewed is a 1976 Calder sculpture, titled White Ordinary, priced at $12.5 million.
The Dubuffet work, a large scale 1971 acrylic titled Echec à l’être, is priced around $2.8 million. It last sold in February 2025 at Sotheby’s New York at its Contemporary Curated sale for $1.54 million with fees, from the collection of architect John Portman.
The Martin painting, Untitled #7 from 1984, is priced at $7.5 million. It sold most recently at Christie’s New York in 2018 for $5.7 million with fees.
Helly Nahmad Gallery
Pablo Picasso, Nature Morte à la Bougie, 1944.
Photo : Courtesy Helly Nahmad Gallery
New York based Helly Nahmad Gallery is well known for selling work by Impressionist and modern masters. Its offering for this year’s edition of Art Basel has many of the usual suspects: Picasso, Calder, Francis Bacon, Wassily Kandinsky, and Joan Miró, among others. While the gallery did not provide prices, many of the works on offer have recent auction history.
The 1944 Picasso canvas Nature Morte à la Bougie most recently sold at Christie’s London in 2024, where it hammered for a price of $2.2 million, on a $3.1 million to $4.4 million estimate, according to data from art analytics firm ARTDAI. It sold prior to that in 2010 at Sotheby’s London for $3.8 million.
Also on offer is Henri Matisse’s 1919 painting Femme à l’ombrelle verte, which sold just last year at Sotheby’s London for a hammer price of $2.77 million, on a $2.71 to $4.06 million estimate. It also sold in 2015, also at Sotheby’s London, for roughly the same price $2.84 million.
The Kandinsky, a nearly 19 inch square canvas titled Trois ovales (1942), sold at Christie’s New York in May 2025 for a hammer price of $1.07 million, on a $800,000 to $1.2 million estimate. Notably one of the previous owners of the work, according to Christie’s published provenance, was Davlyn Gallery, the gallery purchased by Nahmad in 2000, which the dealer subsequently renamed. However, it seems that the work was sold to another gallery in 1985, well before Nahmad took over the gallery.
Pace Di Donna Schrader
Claude Lalanne, Pomme de Londres, 2007.
Photo : Courtesy Pace Di Donna Schrader
Just six months after forming, Pace Di Donna Schrader, the super-group comprised of Pace Gallery, dealer Emmanuel Di Donna, and former auction executive David Schrader, is bringing a booth packed with high end secondary market works. The headline work featured in preview PDFs reviewed by ARTnews is seven foot high painting by Willem De Kooning from 1984. A source familiar with the gallery’s planning for the booth suggested that the price of the work is in the region of $10 million, with most other works including pieces by Calder, Richter, Warhol, Claude Lalanne, Cy Twombly, and others pegged between $1 million and $5 million.
Luxembourg + Co.
Edgar Degas, Madame May auprès d’un berceau, 1881–82.
Photo : Courtesy Luxembourg + Co.
Among the more exquisite historical pieces at Basel will be a Degas pastel from 1881–82, Madame May auprès d’un berceau (Madame May beside a cradle), at the booth of Luxembourg & Co. At just over four feet high, it is the largest pastel the artist ever made, according to the gallery. It depicts the wife of Jewish financier Ernest May, who appears in Degas’s earlier pastel Portraits at the Stock Exchange (1878–79), in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The gallery did not provide a price but said another highlight of the booth will be two drawings by Seurat.
