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"It's a little bubble, here we do not talk about crisis," says Efe Guillermo Romero, from the Madrid gallery and ibiza Parra & Romero, which shows works by Alejandro Cesarco and Ian Wallace on the second floor of the main compound, a superb architects' buildingErzog & de Meuron.
There is also no sign of protectionism that frightens other commercial sectors, from technological to industrial: in Basel's Messeplatz, the nerve center of the collection artAmerican, Asian and European buyers are looking for works from all sources.
The Chinese abound, the younger and younger Italians and many Italians who, taking advantage of the coincidence of the Venice Biennale, take the train at high speed between Milan and Basel to seek important investments.
For six days, the first two exclusive for collectors, 300 galleries from around the world exhibit in the Swiss capital art more than 4,000 works, and for many gallerists, this is the great opportunity to do business.
"This is by far the best show art in the world, the level of the collectors who come to visit it is incomparable, and the quality of the works that we present is what distinguishes it ", underlines Isabel Mignoni, of the Madrilenian gallery Elvira González, present for more than 20 years in Basel.
The gallery sells works by Antoni Tàpies, Eduardo Chillida or Miquel Barceló, In addition to one of the many popular Alexander Calder phones that can be seen at Art Basel, and that rubs on the first floor, the art Contemporary more consolidated, with elitist galleries of New York, Paris or London.
The most photographed and perhaps the most controversial piece, near there, is aSacred Heart, by Jeff Koons, who recently made with another of his characteristic stainless steel sculptures, "Rabbit", beats the most expensive work record of a living artist, up to $ 91 million.
A guard watches the big heart of metallic pink, while collectors, dressed in their finery or sometimes the most extravagant, weigh the possibility of paying the $ 15 million it could cost (gallery owners are reserved to reveal the prices ).
The millionaire Steve Cohen, who, according to the trade press, was the secret buyer of Koons' "Rabbit", was one of the guests of the first day of collectors of Art Basel, and with him from other renowned buyers in the world artlike the Mexican Eugenio López Alonso.
On the second floor of the fair, more intended for young artists, there is a large Latin American representation including Mexican women. OMR and Kurimanzutto, Argentine Barro or Colombian Casas Riegner.
"For a Latin American gallery, it is difficult to be here, because places are rare and it is a fair mainly European. We are very proud to have arrived, "says Efe Paula Bossa, Casas Riegner.
The Bogota Gallery offers a small selection that includes veteran artists from the country, from Beatriz González to Antonio Caro, father of the art conceptual in Colombia, but also young people like MAtheist Lopez or Bernardo Ortiz.
The Argentinean Barro, from the humble La Boca district, is in the "declarations" section, in which each gallery presents the solo work of a young creator, in l '. occurrence Gabriel Chaile, with a large collection of pots decorated with native motifs of his native Tucumán.
Chaile recovers them in popular kitchens where they were used to feed the poor, especially in the worst moments of crisis in Argentina, and badociates them with his past, tells gallery owner Federico curutchet, who traveled with the artist to Basel.
"Offering an elite audience what they would not buy in another situation is a sneaky criticism of this type of commercial event," confesses the gallerist, who managed to convince US or Singaporean customers to buy some pots. EFE
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