The 47th edition of Art Basel in Basel closed on June 19 with a reported attendance of 95,000 across the six show days, including leading private collectors from around the world and representatives from more than 300 museums and institutions.

The 286 participating galleries from 33 countries reported buoyant sales throughout the fair, despite pre-fair art market jitters amid increased economic and political volatility.

One of the most prominent sources of major sales was the Unlimited sector for works “that transcend the traditional art fair stand.” Highlights of the Unlimited sales include Hauser & Wirth’s sale of Paul McCarthy’s Unlimited project “Tomato Head (Green),” 1994, to an American private collection for $4.75 million, and Skarstedt’s sale of Mike Kelley’s “Reconstructed History,” 1989, for $1.5 million.

Esther Schipper, who presented AA Bronson’s live work “Folly” in Unlimited said that the sector is the only well-functioning and successful commercial platform where important large-scale projects can be properly shown. “Personally, I think that much of Unlimited’s commercial success has to do with the fact that the works shown here can be a lot more experimental than elsewhere, which, as our received feedback showed, strongly appeals not only to collectors, but also to curators,” said Schipper.

James Koch, Executive Director at Hauser & Wirth, told BLOUIN ARTINFO in an email that Unlimited gives Art Basel an edge over every other art fair. “It is exactly as the title suggests – ‘unlimited,’ meaning there are no restrictions on the size or art form that an artist might want to present. It gives galleries and artists the freedom to exhibit ambitious works within an important, international commercial forum.”

SALES REPORT: ART BASEL 2016 (FINAL DAY)

- Galerie Jocelyn Wolff (Paris) reports the sale of Miriam Cahn’s “Sarajevo” series of small drawings for CHF 15,000 to a private collection in Paris, another painting by Cahn for CHF 60,000 to a private collection in Beijing, and more than 10 of the artist’s small paintings in various formats to France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, and Japan; Francisco Tropa’s “Antipodes” sculpture to a private collection in New York for €15,000; Guillaume Leblon’s “Portrait” sculpture to a private collection in Zurich for €15,000; Katinka Bock’s “Zorba Konsa” sculpture for €25,000 to a private collection in Toronto; a series of sculptures and drawings by Franz Erhard Walther for a total of €200,000 to various European private collections; a Prinz Gholam diptych photo plus drawing for €12,000 to a private collection in Frankfurt; and two wall sculptures by Philippe Schwinger and Frederic Moser to a corporate collection in Basel.

- Galerie Urs Meile (Lucerne and Beijing) reports the sale of Wang Xingwei’s “The Divine Anti-Japanese Goose No. 2,” 2015-2016 for $360,000 to a European collection; Xie Nanxing’s “Postcard No. 4,” 2015 for $150,000 to a major European collection; Hu Qingyan’s “Airhead,” 2015 for $16,000 and the artist’s “Idiots (big),” 2015 (No. 1) for $18,000 to European collections; Li Gang’s “Oil Painting,” 2016 for $25,000 to a Swiss collection; Chen Fei’s “His Name,” 2016 and “Your Name,” 2016 for $20,000 to collections in Asia; Tobias Rehberger’s “some things tend to change at all C,” 2015 for €42,000 to a collection in The Netherlands; and Cheng Rang’s Unlimited work “In Course of the Miraculous,” 2015 for $150,000 to an Italian museum.

- Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac (Salzburg, Paris)added the sale of Adrian Ghenie’s “Degenerate Art,” 2016 for €400,000; Robert Rauschenberg’s “Untitled (Spread),” 1983 for around $1 million; three paintings by Georg Baselitz for around $500,000; and Arnulf Rainer’s “Orange auf Gelb auf Weiß,” 1961 for €880,000.

Thaddaeus Ropac says about Basel:

“Although we felt that interest before the fair was as high as the previous years, we came to the fair this year with mixed feelings. After the first few months of 2016, when the art market hadn’t lived its best moment, we were delighted to see such a strong interest in the works we brought to the fair. This year, collectors took very quick decisions when it concerned very important art works. In this sense, Art Basel was, once again, a very successful fair for us.”

- SPROVIERI (London)Margherita Molinari, Director at Sprovieri, reports: “We are extremely satisfied with our first participation in Art Basel with, for example, the sale of Kabakov's “Black Corner” painting  to a prestigious Italian private Foundation (asking price $550,000); a work by [Jannis] Kounellis to the Margulies Collection (asking price €200,000), which will be included in their Kounellis exhibition during Art Basel in Miami in December; the work by Pedro Cabrita Reis in Unlimited that has found a home in Switzerland. In addition, we have two major institutions in the US and Spain as well as a French private foundation who want to show the Feature project Art & Language and Kabakov – The Non-Objective World in the next two years.”

- Andréhn-Schiptjenko (Stockholm) reports the sale of all their works by Per B. Sundberg.

- 303 Gallery (New York) reports the sale of Alicja Kwade’s Unlimited work “Out of Ousia,” 2016, presented in conjunction with Konig Galerie and Kamel Mennour, for €250,000 to a French museum; and Doug Aitken’s “FREE,” 2016 for $300,000.

SALES FROM DAY 4:

-Mitchell-Innes & Nash (New York) adds the sale of Tom Wesselmann’s “Still Life #53,” 1964, for $2 million.

-Galerie Gmurzynska (Zug, Zurich, St. Moritz) reports the sale of works by Robert Indiana, Yves Klein, Kurt Schwitters, and Joan Miró at prices ranging from $500,000-$2 million.

-Blondeau & Cie (Geneva) reports the sale of Albert Oehlen’s “Freier Stress,” 1996, for around $1.5 million; Jim Shaw’s “Untitled (Monster Face #2),” 2004, for near its $25,000 asking price; and Louise Lawler’s Unlimited sector work “Helms Amendment,” 1989, for around its asking price of $1.6 million.

-Hauser & Wirth (Zurich, New York, London, Somerset, Los Angeles) adds the sale of Lygia Pape’s “Book of Night and Day,” 1963-1976 for $2.8 million.

-Acquavella Galleries (New York) reports the sale of a Tom Wesselmann still life from 1964 for $3.5 million.

-Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert (London) reports the sale of four signed and dated 1965 Bridget Riley works on paper, and Sean Scully’s “Enough,” 1981, for around $1 million.

-Sies + Höke (Dusseldorf) reports the sale of a Jonathan Meese work sold for €40,000, and a Michael van Ofen work for €18,000.

-Alison Jacques Gallery (London) reports strong sales in the opening days of Basel, with works in bronze and plaster by Maria Bartuszova in the range of €35,000 - €125,000 selling well. The gallery also sold a flower painting from the late 90s by Dorothea Tanning for $175,000.

Alison Jacques told us: “There is a definite shift in focus away from the young and new towards historically important work. People are realizing the holes that need to be filled in regarding overlooked female artists, and it's reassuring to see institutions such as the Tate leading the way. We did particularly well with works by Maria Bartuszova, Dorothea Tanning and Lygia Clark.”

SALES FROM DAY 3:

- David Zwirner (New York, London)reports the sale of all five works by Josef Albers for $300,000-$1.2 million to clients from Asia, Europe, and the United States; Donald Judd’s “stack,” 1987, to a client from the US; two works by Michaël Borremans, including a new large-scale painting sold to a client from the United States for $1.2 million and an earlier painting from 2011 to a client from Asia; a new large-scale painting from 2016 by Kerry James Marshall for $1 million to a client from the United States; two still life paintings by Giorgio Morandi for over $1 million each to clients from Europe and the US; two works by Sigmar Polke, including a large-scale work from 1988 to a client in Europe for €6,500,000, and another work from 1997 to a client from the Unites States; and Luc Tuymans’ “Painting (portrait),” 2007, for over $1 million to a client from Asia.

- Lehmann Maupin (New York, Hong Kong) adds the sale of Teresita Fernandez’s “Fire (America) 2,” 2016 in the range of $400,000-$500,000; Nicholas Hlobo’s “Idabi,” 2016 in the range of $80,000-$120,000; Tony Oursler’s “E[rV],” 2016 in the range of $40,000-$50,000; and Tracey Emin’s large-scale neon installation, “The more of you the more I love you,” 2016, in the Unlimited sector, presented jointly by Lehmann Maupin, White Cube, and Xavier Hufkens.

- Kewenig (Berlin), Magazzino (Rome), Mai 36 Galerie (Zurich), Sprovieri (London) report the sale of Pedro Cabrita Reis’ “South Wing,” 2015 in the Unlimited sector in the range of €300,000- €400,000.

- Galerie Thomas (Munich) reports the sale of a graphic by Edvard Munch and a work by Sam Francis in the range of €250,000-€500,000.

- GallerySKE (Bangalore, New Delhi) reports the sale of Bharti Kher’s “Love knot (sweet pink),” 2016, to an Indian private collector for €70,000; Sudarshan Shetty’s “No title,” 2016, to a private collector in France for €40,000; and Prabhavathi Meppayil’s “tw/one,” 2016, in the Unlimited sector, presented jointly by Pace, Esther Schipper/Johnen, and GallerySKE.

- Fergus McCaffrey (New York, St. Barth, Tokyo) reports the sale of works in a broad price range of $60,000 to $550,000 from their booth featuring pieces by Carol Rama, Sigmar Polke, Toshio Yoshida, and Jiro Yoshihara to clients from the US, Japan, Hong Kong, France, Norway, Lebanon, and Greece.

“After a quiet first quarter of the year in the art market, Art Basel has once again proven to be the rallying point for great art and art collectors. Basel has always been a strong fair for us, and our four-artist presentation of Carol Rama, Sigmar Polke, Toshio Yoshida, and Jiro Yoshihara has been a magnet for serious collectors. On the first two days of the fair we sold 14 works [...] Given the scope of these new and existing clients and the geographical diversity of the work we are showing (an Italian, a German, and two Japanese [artists]), it suggests an ever-globalizing art market and a growing sophistication for rigorous and thoughtful art. It has been a most rewarding beginning to our week in Basel,” commented Fergus McCaffrey.

- joségarcía ,mx (Mexico City) reports the sale of a work by Mario García Torres for $35,000 to a Brazilian collector; three works by Marie Lund for €8,000 each; and works by Rometti Costales to a European collector.

- Foxy Production (New York) reports the sale of three editions of Sara Cwynar’s “Soft Film,” 2016, in the range of $15,000-$20,000.

- Selma Feriani (Tunis) reports the sale of two series by Massinissa Selmani for £15,000 each, one to a Swiss collector and the other to an Asian collector.

- Chemould Prescott Road (Mumbai) adds the sale of Archana Hande’s Unlimited work “Of Panorama,” 2014, to a Malaysian collector for $15,000.

- Hauser & Wirth (Zurich, New York, London, Somerset, Los Angeles) adds the sale of six works on paper by Louise Bourgeois; a 1965 canvas by Takesada Matsutani, “La Propagation Rouge-1”; and Mary Heilmann's “Redondo Beach,” 1994, to an important American collection.

SALES FROM DAY 2:

- Andréhn-Schiptjenko (Stockholm) reports strong interest in Per B. Sundberg ceramic works and has placed them in several private collections. The gallery has also sold major works by Xavier Veilhan.

- Galerie Nathalie Obadia (Paris/Brussels) reports the sale of Mithu Sen’s “Museum of Unbelongings,” 2016, to a Swiss private collection for €200,000; Mickalene Thomas’ “Portrait of Qusuquzah #7,” 2016 to a Swiss private collection for $105,000; the artist’s “Portrait of Din #5,” 2016, to a Belgian private collection for $105,000; Jessica Stockholder’s “#505,” 2010, to a French private collection for $35,000; and Andres Serrano’s “Fool’s Mask IV, Hever Castle, England (Torture),” 2015 to a French private collection for $36,000.

- Von Bartha adds the sale of John Wood and Paul Harrison’s new sculpture “Crowd,” 2016, as well as Andrew Bick’s mixed media work “Variant t-s/OGVDS (compendium),” 2009-2016; the historically significant Fritz Glarner work “Relational Painting,” 1943, for CHF 500,000 to a museum; and Walter Dexel’s “Untitled,” 1929, to a prestigious private Swiss Collection.

- Waddington Custot reports the sale of two Josef Albers works to European and US-based collectors from the artist’s “Homage to the “Square” series, including the large-scale painting “Homage to the Square: ‘Started’,” 1969. The gallery also sold an important early Jean Dubuffet work, “L’Outrage, 1er novembre 1979,” 1979, from the artist’s later period.

- Blum & Poe (Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo) reports the sale of Karel Appel’s 1966 painting (oil on canvas) titled “Couple with Dog” for €325,000; Yoshitomo Nara’s new painting “MIA” for $700,000; Julian Schnabel’s 1990 painting “Painting Without Bingo II” for $375,000; a Ha Chong-hyun painting from 2013 for $150,00; a Yun Hyong-keun  painting from 1975 for $110,000; Zhu Jinshi’s 2007 painting “Accident Making 1” for $150,000; Shio Kusaka’s 2015 stoneware vessel “dinosaur 28”; Alexander Tovborg’s 2016 painting “Rape of Eurphora”; Friedrich Kunath’s 2016 painting “On the Fence”; Pia Camil’s 2015 stitched fabric “Valparaiso green cloak”; and two paintings by Henry Taylor for $90,000 and $80,000 respectively.

- Andrea Rosen (New York) reports the sale of Alina Szapocznikow’s “Illuminowana [L'Illuminée] [Illuminated Woman],” 1966-1967, for €1.9 million.

- Skarstedt (New York, London) adds the sale of Mike Kelley’s Unlimited work “Reconstructed History,” 1989, for $1.5 million.

- Bergamin & Gomide (São Paulo) reports the sale of three works by Mira Schendel ranging from $60,000-$80,000 to North American collectors.

- Chemould Prescott Road (Mumbai) adds the sale of Mithu Sen’s “Untitled,” 2014, to a private collector.

- Lisson Gallery (London, Milan, New York) adds the sale of works by Stanley Whitney, Tony Oursler and Jason Martin ranging in price from $35,000-$1 million.

- Hauser & Wirth (Zurich, New York, London, Somerset, Los Angeles) adds the sale of the new Paul McCarthy sculpture “Picabia Idol, Black,” 2016, for $750,000.

- Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac (Salzburg, Paris) reports the sale of two paintings by Georg Baselitz, each priced at around €500,000; a sculpture by Antony Gormley for £350,000; a painting by Emilio Vedova for €425,000; and six studies on board by Alex Katz, each priced at around $45,000.

- Mitchell-Innes & Nash (New York) reports the sale of Kenneth Noland’s “Hot Spot,” 1960, for approximately $350,000; Allan D’Arcangelo’s “Aspen,” 1967, for approximately $250,000; Pope.L’s “Gold People Dick the Mist,” 2015-16, for approximately $85,000; Max Ernst’s “Table Mise,” 1954, for approximately $80,000; Eddie Martinez’s “Butterfly Soup,” 2016, for approximately $75,000; and Brent Wadden’s “Untitled,” 2016, for approximately $20,000 to an Asian museum.

- Galeria Fortes Vilaça (São Paulo) adds the sale of Erika Verzutti’s “Deus Cisne Cerebro Cisne,” 2016, for around $100,000; Simon Evans’ “The Legend of Humor Mountain,” 2015, for around $100,000; and Los Carpinteros’ “Espuma Cubica III, Diptico,” 2016, for around $60,000.

- Galerie König (Berlin) reports the sale of a sculpture by Jeppe Hein for €60,000; two works by Camille Henrot for €45,000; two works by David Zink Yi for €42,000; a new work by Elmgreen & Dragset for €85,000; and a Claudia Comte work for €35,000.

- Galerie Urs Meile (Lucerne, Beijing) reports the sale of paintings by Wang Xingwei and Xie Nanxing to great European collections, as well as that of lots of younger generation artists such as Yan Xing, Li Gang, and Hu Qingyan to US, Asian, and European galleries.

- Alison Jacques Gallery (London) reports the sale of a work by Ian Kiaer for £25,000; works by Erica Verzutti ranging from $25,000-$30,000; a work by Sheila Hicks to a non-European museum; works by Maria Bartuszová ranging in price from €35,000-€75,000; and an important work by Dorothea Tanning from her final series for $175,000.

SALES FROM DAY 1:

- Massimo De Carlo (Milan)reports the sale of a Rudolf Stingel for $1.8m; Dan Colen paintings, among them a small 15 x 22 oil on canvas work for $140,000; a Matthew Monahan for $60,000; and the gallery sold out the presentation they had in the booth of works by Günther Förg.

- Galerie EIGEN + ART (Berlin)reports the sale of works by Neo Rauch, Swiss artist Rémy Markowitsch, and Tim Eitel.

- Grey Noise (Dubai) reports the sale of their entire booth of works by artist Lantian Xie to a private foundation in the Middle East.

- Galerie Max Hetzler reports the sale of André Butzer’s “Untitled,” 2013, to a German collection for €57,000; Raymond Hains’ “La Grande Illusion,” 1958, to a French Collection for €100,000; Hains' “Seita,” 1971, to a UK collection; Albert Oehlen’s “Doppelbild,” 2002, for $800,000 and “Untitled,” 2016, for €185,000; Bridget Riley’s “Fleeting Gaze 1,” 2015, to a European collection for £650,000; and Edmund de Waal’s “ostracon,” 2016, for $140,000 to a Swiss collection.

- Von Bartha reports an early 11:11am sale of a historically significant Fritz Glarner work, “Relational Painting,” 1943, to a museum for over half a million Swiss Francs; a sale of one of the most important works by Walter Dexel titled “Untitled,” 1929, to a prestigious private Swiss Collection; as well as strong sales of works by contemporary artists Florian Slotawa and Daniel Robert Hunziker.

- Mnuchin Gallery (New York) reports the sale of Brice Marden’s “First Window Painting” for $4.5 million and John Chamberlain’s “Honest 508” for $3 million.

- Jack Shainman Gallery (New York) reports the sale of Barkley L. Hendricks’ “The Twins,” 1977, for $450,000; Kerry James Marshall’s “Untitled (Looking Man),” 2016, for $350,000; and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s “Peregrine,” 2016, for $100,000, all within the first 15 minutes.

- Goodman Gallery (Johannesburg, Cape Town)reports the sale of William Kentridge’s “Patrice Lumumba,” 2016, to a private African collection for $120,000; the artist’s “Shadow Figure Bronzes (full set),” 2016, for $320,000; Walter Oltmann’s “Caterpillar Suit IV,” 2016, to the Dokolo Collection (Angola) for €25,000; Kudzanai Chiurai’s “Untitled (Office for the Enregisterment of Slaves),” 2016, to a private European collection for $30,000; Nolan Oswald Dennis’ “No conciliation is possible I,” 2016, for €3,500, Gerald Machona’s “The Iris,” 2016; Machona’s “The Chrysanthemum,” 2016, for €3,000; three editions of David Goldblatt’s “The Watchman, Hillbrow, June 1972” to private collectors for €7,000 each; Tracey Rose’s “Lucie’s Fur Version 1:1:1 – L’Annunciazione – Mme. OEUF!” 2003, for €15,000; and Hasan and Husain Essop’s “Untitled (Minibus),” 2016, for €3,000.

- Hauser & Wirth (Zurich, New York, London, Somerset, Los Angeles) reports the sale of Paul McCarthy's Unlimited project, “Tomato Head (Green),” 1994, to an American private collection for $4,750,000; the artist’s “Michael Jackson Inflatable Drawings,” 2003, for $650,000 and the sculpture “WS, White Snow Flower Girl #3,” 2016, for $575,000; the Vija Celmins drawing “Sea Drawing with Whale,” 1969, for in excess of $1,500,000; the Maria Lassnig paintings “Macht des Schicksals (The Power of Fate),” 2006, and “Das Traumpaar (The Dream Couple),” 2004, sold for $1.2m and €550,000 respectively; Pipilotti Rist’s new video work “Sole,” 2016, for $120,000; Zoe Leonard’s new work “American Falls from Below,” 2016, for $120,000; Lee Lozano’s “No title,” 1962, for $280,000; a Philip Guston 1968 acrylic on panel; and Dieter Roth’s “Materialbild,” 1986-1989, to a Swiss private collection, in addition to the sale of other works not in the booth.

- Spruth Magers (Berlin, London, LA) reports the sale of Frank Stella’s “Olyka I,” 1973, for $1.1 million to a private Asian collection; George Condo’s “Untitled (Painting Drawing 7),” 2011, for $650,000 to a UK collection; Jenny Holzer’s “isms. Text: Selections from Truisms 1977-79,” 2015, for $350,000; Cindy Sherman’s “Untitled #108,” 1982, for $250,000; and Andreas Gursky’s “Aletschgletscher,” 1993, for €450,000.

- Pace Gallery, with co-presenters Esther Schipper and GallerySke, reports the sale of two of Prabhavathi Meppayil’s Unlimited sector installations “tw/one” to a museum and a prominent private American collector. Pace also sold works by Josef Albers, Nigel Cooke, Keith Coventry, Adrian Ghenie, Agnes Martin, Prabhavathi Meppayil, Yoshitomo Nara, Robert Rauschenberg, Julian Schnabel, and Brent Wadden during the opening hours of the Vernissage.

- Pace/MacGill reports the sale of a group of eight black and white civil rights portraits by Richard Avedon in the high six figure range to a prominent American collector.

- Galeria Pedro Cera reports the sale of Adam Pendleton’s Unlimited installation “Victim of American Democracy” to a private Spanish collector for $300,000.

- White Cube (London, Hong Kong) reports the sale of Raqib Shaw’s “Self Portrait in the Sculpture Studio at Peckham (After Mocetto) II,” 2015-2016, for $1.1 million.

- Van Doren Waxter (New York) reports the sale of multiple works on paper by Richard Diebenkorn totaling well over $1 million.

- Lehmann Maupin (New York, Hong Kong) reports the sale of Tracey Emin’s “Feeling Sexy and Beautiful,” 2015, in the range of £150,000-£200,000; Nicholas Hlobo’s “Intili,” 2016, in the range of $50,000-$75,000; and Hernan Bas’s “Pink plastic lures,” 2016.

- Maureen Paley (London) reports the sale of Wolfgang Tillmans’ “Greifbar 29,” 2014, for $180,000; Gillian Wearing’s “My Mother’s Charms,” 2016, for £78,000; and Michael Krebber’s “MP-KREBM-00103,” 2016, for $75,000.

- Lisson (London, Milan, New York)reports the sale of Cory Arcangel’s “Mig 29 Soviet Fighter Plane, Clouds and OSX,” 2016, and Stanley Whitney’s “Rough Rider,” 2016, with prices for the works ranging from $35,000 to $1 million.

- Galerie Thomas (Munich) reports the sale of a watercolor by Emile Nolde for €250,000.

- Gerhardsen Gerner (Berlin, Oslo) reports the sale of Magnus Plessen’s “Untitled (20),” 2016, for €130,000 to a private Indonesian collector.

- Cheim & Read (New York) reports the sale of three pastels by Joan Mitchell for $200,000 each.

- Chemould Prescott Road (Mumbai) reports the sale of Shilpa Gupta’s "Untitled," 2015, to a Belgian collector for $30,000; Jitish Kallat’s “Sightings D19M12Y 2015,” 2015, for $30,000; and Mithu Sen’s Unlimited work “MUO (Museum of Unbelongings),” 2016.

- Grimm (Amsterdam) reports the sale of Ger van Elk’s “Conclusion” painting for €40,000 to an international collection, and the artist’s video work for €35,000 to an international collection.

- Stevenson (Johannesburg, Cape Town) reports the sale of almost their entire booth on the first day, including a photograph by Zanele Muholi to an American museum, a Viviane Sassen to a museum in Europe, a Kemang Wa Lehulere sculpture to a foundation in Southern Africa, a Meleko Mokgosi to a private collection in London, a work by Barthelemy Toguo, and a drawing by Robin Rhode.

- Galeria Fortes Vilaça reports the sale of Valeska Soares’s “Any Moment Now... (Summer),” 2014, for $120,000.