According to the report, the United States is the largest national art fair market in 2024, accounting for 24% of all global events. North America accounted for 26% overall, a slight decrease from 28% in 2019 – a net loss of 27 fairs during that period. Europe continues to dominate, accounting for 54% of all fairs, including 12% in the UK and 10% in France. Compared to 2019, Europe held 39 fewer 39 fairs in 2024, in the UK (down 10%), Switzerland (down 3%) and Germany (down 3%), famously falling (down 10%). Asia’s share is stable at 10%, with mainland China and Hong Kong accounting for 4%. Overall, the region’s fairs are only three fewer than in 2019. South America and Oceania remain stable while the Middle East loses three games – and despite Basel’s debut in Qatar this year, there may be some regaining victory this year. Africa still has only a few fairs, and is the only region with registered growth, increasing from five events to six.
Although the industry has long lamented the global ruthless art fair, the conversation has caused a sense of urgency. With sales stagnant and the pandemic booming adrenaline now a distant memory, galleries are increasingly reluctant to conduct expensive low-yield events around the world that barely exceed what the major fairs offer. In this climate, many dealers are doubling in-house programming and building deeper relationships with existing and local collectors who provide more consistent support with elusive one-time buyers around the world. In recent months, several dealer observers have said they plan to skip many of the fairs they once regularly attended (especially domestic art fairs) and instead go back to shrinking and recalibrating their strategies to enter 2026.
The Art Basel & UBS report also notes that many galleries struggled to maintain profitability in 2024, while reported profits fell (43%) rather than increased in 2023 (32%). Take the rise in operating costs as the main contributor. Dealers have always said they now weigh more carefully the cost-effectiveness ratio of fair participation. While expenses vary by size of the business, the entire biggest external costs in 2024 are art fairs, packaging and transportation, and travel – all with the highest year-on-year inflation rates.
Art Fairs accounted for 27% of the total external cost cost in 2024 (limited to booths and exhibition fees), an increase of 2% over the previous year. The fees associated with equity increase by 10% per year on average, but for dealers attending multiple fairs, that number jumps to 16%. Packaging and shipping costs accounted for 15% of total expenditure, up 3% year-on-year and were identified as one of the most prone categories in the past three years, with a reported annual growth of 15%.
In this climate, even brand-driven, once-time expos like Frieze Seoul are starting to feel the pressure. In the past two outings, South Korea’s art market has lowered its level of more sustainability, with at least 40 Western galleries choosing this year’s edition this year. But even the most prestigious fairs, including Basel artwork, are now seeing galleries take a step back and reluctant to skip the ever-working basketball set by the increasingly opaque and demanding choice committee.
As Venus’s Adam Lidelman wrote in his farewell to the business article, “They cheered and asked you to step on your hands and knees, wag your tail, beg for forgiveness. An example is: After 25 consecutive releases of the Paris Air Force, the Paris Air Force withdrew from the Basel Expo 2025, not for economic reasons, but for outcry against what they call “cruel and unfair” booths, which undermined their position and long-term investments at the fair.
However, even with rising costs and increasing fatigue, the appetite for art fairs has not completely disappeared. Dealers began maintaining relatively stable average fair numbers in 2023 and began declining in 2024, according to Basel Arts and Artificial Economics. Sales participated in an average of six fairs in 2024, matching their 2019 levels and doubled the fair number of galleries that earned less than $500,000. However, these numbers may not remain stable in 2025 and 2026.
Even with rising costs and increasing financial risks, Art Fairs are currently a key sales and network channel for dealers. According to the Art Basel report, fair-driven sales prevailed in 2024, reaching 31% of dealer total sales, up 2% from 2023, although still shy than the 35% recorded in 2022. It is worth noting that this figure is still below 42% in 2019, when live events still outstripped the gallery’s sales. The rise in 2024 was driven primarily by stronger results at overseas fairs, which accounted for 20% of dealer sales, while local fair sales were stable at 11%.
Nevertheless, as the gap between rising costs and lower returns continues to widen, the structural reset feels less like if and more like how. Alternative formats (more agile, more curated, more included) start to attract people. This is the effort that Art Basel’s upcoming experiment in Katar, although it also requires a lot of resources and risks involved in the gallery. Others are exploring a more radical departure. The recently concluded Zero Art Fair offers exhibitors and buyers a cost-free platform designed to recycle the work to be ambiguous in storage. The upcoming U-Haul Art Fair is more guerrillas, and the fair will coincide with the Armory show in September this year. It will feature 10 stalls housed in rented trucks, an attempt to boldly chop off the overhead while retaining its ambitions. Whether these models mark the future or maintain provocative outliers, they at least ask the right questions.
