In brief
- Art Basel Paris 2026 will open to the public at the Grand Palais from Friday 23 to Sunday 25 October, from 11:00 to 19:00, following two VIP days and a paid vernissage on Thursday 22.
- Day ticket: €47 (€30 concessions); vernissage: €120; Premium Connection Pass: €1,400.
- The fair brings together 211 exhibitors from 41 countries and territories: 183 galleries in the Galeries sector, 16 in Emergence and 12 in Premise.
- In 2025, the most expensive sale announced by Art Basel was a Gerhard Richter sold for $23 million by Hauser & Wirth.
- UBS is the global lead partner; Louis Vuitton, Audemars Piguet, Miu Miu, Guerlain and Ruinart are among the official partners.
- The same week, Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Artcurial are holding their major sales, including a Monet estimated at €11 to €15 million.
For its fifth edition, the first under the direction of Karim Crippa, Art Basel Paris returns beneath the glass roof of the Grand Palais with a clear ambition: to make Paris Art Week as much a cultural occasion as a commercial one. Leading galleries, outdoor sculptures, luxury houses and multi-million auctions: here is everything you need to know before going.
Dates, opening times and ticket prices
The First Choice preview, reserved for galleries and their principal clients, will take place on Tuesday 20 October. This will be followed by VIP days by invitation: Wednesday 21 October from 10:00 to 20:00, and Thursday 22 October from 11:00 to 14:00. The vernissage on Thursday 22 October, from 14:00 to 20:00, is accessible with a €120 ticket, including a glass of champagne.
Public days, from Friday 23 to Sunday 25 October, run from 11:00 to 19:00. The day ticket is priced at €47, the concession rate at €30 (students, under-26s, holders of Louvre Jeunes, Professional or Family cards), and the evening ticket at €40 for Friday from 17:00 to 19:00. The Full Pass costs €130 (€220 including the vernissage). Admission is free for accompanied children up to 12 years old. Tickets are sold online only.
For collectors, the Premium Pass at €650 provides access to the collectors’ lounge, VIP entry and a guided tour; the Premium Connection Pass at €1,400 adds a programme of private experiences.
Who is exhibiting under the glass roof this year?
Art Basel announces 211 exhibitors from 41 countries and territories, 64 of which have a space in France. Thirty-two galleries will participate in the Parisian fair for the first time, and a record number of 12 booths will be shared by two galleries. On the Parisian side, exhibitors include Templon, Chantal Crousel, Lelong, Perrotin, Almine Rech, Mennour and Applicat-Prazan; on the international side, Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, David Zwirner, White Cube, Thaddaeus Ropac and Marian Goodman.
According to the official press kit, Hauser & Wirth will pay tribute to Louise Bourgeois, to whom the Bibliothèque nationale de France is devoting an exhibition starting 20 October. White Cube will display two gold paintings by Georg Baselitz dated 2025 and a canvas by Tracey Emin. At Larkin Erdmann, an On Kawara date painting, NOV 7, 1977, will return to the market for the first time in nearly half a century, alongside Man Ray’s Le Violon d’Ingres and Marcel Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q.
The Premise sector, dedicated to art history, moves to the larger Salon Seine: Tarsila do Amaral at Almeida & Dale, Derek Jarman at Amanda Wilkinson. Emergence brings together 16 young artists on the balconies of the nave.
A popular new addition: the Oh La La! re-hanging initiative, which allows galleries to change their works on Friday and Saturday, will be under the artistic direction of actress Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, who plays Sylvie Grateau in the series Emily in Paris, around the theme “Myths and Legends”.
In 2025, a Richter for $23 million
The report published by Art Basel on 27 October 2025 gives a sense of the stakes. The fourth edition welcomed more than 73,000 visitors. Hauser & Wirth sold Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild (1987) for $23 million as early as the First Choice preview. White Cube sold a 2007 canvas by Julie Mehretu for $11.5 million, and Pace sold a Modigliani, Jeune fille aux macarons (1918), for just under $10 million.
These were followed by a Ruth Asawa sculpture for $7.5 million at David Zwirner, a Calder mobile for $4.85 million at White Cube, Baselitz’s bronze Cowboy for $4 million at Thaddaeus Ropac and a Morandi for $2.3 million at Tornabuoni Art. These figures are those disclosed by the galleries to Art Basel.
According to the 2026 Art Basel and UBS report, art sales in France reached $4.5 billion in 2025 (+9%), making it the fourth largest global market.
The public programme spills out across Paris
Free of charge, the public programme takes over nine locations around the Grand Palais and beyond. On Place Clemenceau, Almine Rech installs Robert Indiana’s LOVE Wall, four Corten steel LOVE sculptures stacked together. At the Petit Palais, Cosima von Bonin presents her leather and velvet sculptures Dollys & Beaux. On Avenue Winston-Churchill, eight artists exhibit outdoors, including Niki de Saint Phalle, Yinka Shonibare, Alicja Kwade and Carmen Herrera. These works can be viewed from 20 to 25 October.
At Trocadéro, on the Parvis des Droits de l’Homme, three monumental bronzes by Tracey Emin presented by White Cube will remain in place from 14 October to 1 November. At the Palais d’Iéna, Miu Miu presents Geste de Consolation, the first exhibition curated by filmmaker Alice Diop, open from 21 to 25 October, featuring Simone Leigh’s bronze Sentinel (Mami Wata) as its focal point. Guided tours have been available to book on the Miu Miu website since 8 October.
In the Grand Palais auditorium, the free Conversations series will notably feature the president-director of the Louvre, Christophe Leribault, in conversation with Claire Chazal on Saturday 24 October at 11:30.
UBS, Louis Vuitton, Miu Miu: the partners
Swiss bank UBS is the global lead partner of Art Basel. For the first time, it will open its UBS Lounge to the public from Friday to Sunday, featuring an exhibition of works from its collection, Earthly Paradise: Nature Reimagined. Qatar Airways completes the duo of premium partners.
Among the associate partners, Louis Vuitton will once again hold a booth at the fair, alongside Audemars Piguet, BMW and NetJets. Guerlain celebrates the launch of its new fragrance L’Heure Bleue with an exhibition of modern and contemporary art, while Ray-Ban presents “Impossible Frames”. Zegna designs the bags presented to VIP guests, Vitra furnishes the collectors’ lounge, and Maison Ruinart, the official champagne, exhibits Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata. Partner hotels include Le Royal Monceau-Raffles Paris, Shangri-La Paris, Castille Paris, SAX Paris and B Signature Hotels & Resorts.
Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Artcurial: the auctions
At Christie’s, on Thursday 22 October, the sale Durand-Ruel, Generations of Vision brings together 27 lots linked to the Impressionist dealer dynasty. Its star lot, Bord des falaises à Pourville by Claude Monet, is estimated at €11 to €15 million, ahead of Renoir’s Jeunes filles au bord de la mer (€4 to €6 million). On the same day, the 20th/21st Century evening sale offers a Concetto spaziale by Lucio Fontana (€5.5 to €7.5 million), Modigliani’s Minoutcha (€5 to €7 million), Jeff Koons’s Ode to Love (€2.5 to €3.5 million) and the unique Singerie bed by Claude Lalanne (€1.4 to €1.8 million).
Sotheby’s will hold its Modernités evening sale on Friday 23 October at 17:00, with Celine as partner for the Paris sales. The lot with the highest estimate, František Kupka’s Espace non-descriptif, is estimated at €6 to €8 million; followed by Claude Monet’s Sur la falaise près de Dieppe (€3 to €5 million), Pablo Picasso’s Tête d’homme, profil (€3 to €4 million) and Alberto Giacometti’s Tête crâne (€2 to €4 million).
Artcurial is organising its first auction entirely dedicated to ceramics, Earth and Fire: Ceramics, on Friday 23 October at 16:00, followed on Saturday 24 October at 16:00 by the Louis Grandchamp des Raux collection, La Modernité en partage: nearly 75 works, including Maurice Denis’s L’Île Chevalier estimated at €700,000 to €1 million. Estimates recorded on 11 October 2026 from auction house websites and press releases. To see how these compare with the top of the market, view our ranking of the most expensive paintings in the world.
