Miami Art Week 2025, captivated collectors with elite fine art fairs in Miami. From Wynwood, Herald Plaza, Fiana Art District, the Beach to the Convention Center, there truly was a fair for every interest. As featured throughout the week, Convention Center fairs – Art Basel and Design Miami – ensured the end of 2025 remained strong.
Beeple’s Elon Musk Regular Animal. Image: Art Quarterly Staff Photographer.
Art Basel Miami Beach 2025, held December 5-7, featured over 280 galleries. The event spotlighted multimillion-dollar sales, emerging artists, and innovative works amid a booming art market. Key themes included digital art integrations and socio-political pieces, with powerhouse galleries like David Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth, and Lévy Gorvy Dayan driving record transactions. For fine art enthusiasts searching for key sales, here’s a summary of the 10 most significant artists, galleries, and iconic works.
- Frida Kahlo – Autorretrato en miniatura (1938), a rare 5cm self-portrait, priced at $15 million by Weinstein Gallery—marking Kahlo’s fair debut and highlighting her surging market post-$54.7 million record.
- Andy Warhol – Muhammad Ali (1977) fetched $18 million at Lévy Gorvy Dayan, the event’s pinnacle sale.
- Gerhard Richter – Abstract work sold for $5.5 million at David Zwirner, igniting opening-day buzz.
- George Condo – Untitled (Taxi Painting) (2011) achieved nearly $4 million at Hauser & Wirth.
- Alice Neel – Pregnant Nude (1967) went for $3.3 million at David Zwirner.
- Louise Bourgeois – Persistent Antagonism (1946-48) sold for $3.2 million at Hauser & Wirth.
- Willem de Kooning – Untitled Woman (1978) fetched $2.85 million at White Cube.
- Pablo Picasso – Painting sold for $2.8-3 million at Almine Rech.
- Alex Katz – Orange Hat 2 (1973) achieved $2.5 million at Thaddaeus Ropac.
- Beeple – Regular Animals robot dogs installation totaled $1 million at Zero 10.
Self Checkout – Image: Art Quarterly Staff Photographer.
While not the most expensive, Zero 10 presented the highly engaged solo artist installation, “Self Checkout, by Jack Butcher.” Linking our digital world to the underlying asset was on full display. Self-checkout underscored commerce’s role and why the creative economy spurs at least Capitalism. Kudos to Jack for the final sale of the complete installation to none other than X-Museum, Beijing, China. The booth turned a net profit from 5837 receipts totalling $114,706.51. That was before Jack’s celebration. As Matt Damon famously stated as Will Hunting: “How do you like them apples?”
