Art Basel Paris 2026:
The Insider’s Guide with Ugo Scalia

Every October, Paris becomes the centre of the international art world. This month, Paris-based art advisor Ugo Scalia, who has spent more than a decade advising collectors on acquisitions and sales of exceptional works of art, shares his perspective on why Art Basel Paris has become the season’s defining event. Drawing on an international network of collectors, galleries and auction houses—and experience handling works by artists including Pablo Picasso, Gerhard Richter, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol and Keith Haring—he reflects on Paris’s remarkable resurgence as a global art capital and highlights the exhibitions collectors and art enthusiasts should not miss.

US Advisory was founded in 2017. The firm’s mission is to support international collectors in developing their collections. Recent investments in prestigious collections include major works by contemporary artists such as Georg Baselitz, Pierre Soulages, George Condo, Yayoi Kusama, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lee Ufan, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Yoshitomo Nara, Lucas Arruda, and many others.

Why Art Basel Paris Matters

Art Basel Paris is, in my opinion, the most anticipated event of the year in the art market. When you consider the progress made since the last editions of FIAC, the transformation is spectacular.
In a context where many international art fairs are struggling to regain their momentum, Art Basel Paris has established itself as the essential event on the calendar. The quality of the participating galleries, the exceptional concentration of international collectors, and the renewed energy of the Parisian art scene now make it a must-attend event.
Paradoxically, this rise to prominence has come partly at the expense of Art Basel. While the Swiss fair probably still boasts the highest level of artwork in the world, Paris is now attracting more international collectors, particularly Americans, drawn by the capital’s cultural appeal and the sheer volume of its offerings (not just in art!).

A Symbol of Parisian Renewal

Beyond the fair itself, Art Basel Paris is part of the return of Paris to the world’s great capitals of the art market.
Long considered the artistic heart of Europe, the city is gradually regaining a central place alongside New York and London. This revival is the result of several factors: Brexit, which weakened London’s position, investments made by major international galleries, the opening of new private foundations, and a particularly ambitious museum program.
Art Basel Paris acts as a formidable accelerator. For one week, the city concentrates auctions, institutional exhibitions, gallery openings and private events, attracting collectors, curators, museum directors and professionals from all over the world.
Let’s hope that this momentum can continue in the coming years and that it is not called into question by political uncertainties.

Ugo Scalia’s Exhibition Picks

Lee Krasner at Gagosian

This is Lee Krasner’s first solo exhibition in France. Dedicated to her works on paper from the 1960s, it offers the opportunity to rediscover a major figure of Abstract Expressionism, long overshadowed by Jackson Pollock. Her remarkably free work deserves far greater recognition today.

Photography at the Bourse de Commerce

The Bourse de Commerce brings together nearly 700 works by more than 70 artists in order to explore the full richness of contemporary photography, between documentary, experimentation and artistic research.

At a time when photography is going through a more discreet period on the contemporary art market, I find it particularly courageous and necessary that a major institution is dedicating an exhibition of such magnitude to it.

Tracey Emin at White Cube

White Cube presents new paintings and sculptures by Tracey Emin, a major figure in contemporary British art.
Her work has always explored intimacy, the body, memory, and vulnerability. This new exhibition testifies to an evolution towards an increasingly free and expressive painting style, in dialogue with an increasingly assertive sculptural practice.

For those who would like to delve deeper into her work, I recommend the episode we dedicated to her in the podcast, Rather a Braque.

Cézanne at the Grand Palais

This major retrospective revisits the work of Paul Cézanne, whose research on the construction of space, colour and form profoundly revolutionized the history of painting.

More than a century after his death, his influence remains considerable. From Picasso to Jasper Johns, from Richard Diebenkorn to Peter Doig, few modern and contemporary artists have not, in one way or another, engaged with his legacy.

Polimeno x Sotheby’s

My friend Valerio Polimeno, whose eye and sense of staging I greatly admire, will present in October, in collaboration with Sotheby’s, an exhibition recreating the decor of a restaurant in order to stage works from the secondary market.
Valerio regularly conceives remarkable exhibitions, always highly theatrical and particularly entertaining. I can’t wait to discover the result of this new project, which promises to be one of the most original offerings of the Parisian season.