Top Heavy

The 49th edition of Art Basel in Basel (June 13–16) reflected variations on the dominant trend of recent years: The big keep getting bigger. The postwar secondary market remains a prime-grade investment class, and a handful of younger North American and European artists are regarded as notable successors in that lineage. The situation was less sunny in Tehran, where Teer Art Fair (June 25–28) soldiered on through its second edition despite ongoing economic woes due to sanctions imposed by the United States.

BASEL

This was the first year that Art Basel offered a sliding scale of booth prices at its flagship event in Switzerland, supposedly to make