MIAMI BEACH, FL.- The sixth edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, the international art show, closed on Sunday, December 9, 2007. With a record number of 43,000 visitors from every continent plus 1,600 journalists, the show attracted more people than ever. Many thousands of guests were seen at the surrounding cultural exhibitions and events. Celebrated artists and leading art-world personalities participated in the programs of Art Basel Miami Beach. Over 100 museums from the USA, Europe, Latin America, and Asia attended with delegations from their boards of trustees. The 200 galleries from 30 countries exhibited works by over 2,000 artists. The galleries were selected from a record number of over 850 applicants, the highest number since the show was founded in 2001. In initial surveys exhibitors reported satisfaction with sales results and new contacts.

Art Basel Miami Beach proved that the interest in contemporary art is growing worldwide and that the art market remains strong.

Art Basel Miami Beach is an international art show with a program of special exhibitions, performances, panel discussions, visits to private collections, and crossover events featuring film, music, and architecture. The international art show attracted a record number of 43,000 visitors. They were in large part art collectors, artists, curators, critics, dealers, and art aficionados, who flew in from art capitals all over the USA and the rest of the world. International museum and collectors’ groups came from Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Great Britain, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the USA. The delegations included boards of trustees from New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Jewish Museum, and Dia Art Foundation; the MAM in Boston; the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago; the Dallas Museum of Art; the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington; the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art; and many more, including the Mus�e d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, and the Serpentine Gallery, London.

The public’s interest in modern and contemporary art is burgeoning and the art market remains strong. According to surveys by the Show Management, all exhibiting galleries succeeded in finding buyers for works they had on display. The large majority reported good to excellent sales results. Buying was strong in all categories, from pieces by young artists for less than 10,000 USD to museum-quality masterpieces priced in the millions. The art market continues to expand, thanks mainly to the support of a growing number of private collectors. The number of public and private museums in the United States and overseas is also on the rise.

The new �Art Supernova� sector was well received by the public.

Many leading art-world personalities attended or took an active part in the �Art Basel Conversations� and �Art Salon�. Participating artists, architects, critics, curators, filmmakers, and museum directors were pleased to appear before such an interested audience.

Nine art works in public spaces – in the streets, parks, and buildings around Collins Park – infiltrated the city and confronted citizens with surprising forms of artistic expression.

With its 20 gallery exhibitions in converted shipping containers and performances by emerging artists, �Art Positions�, the cultural hub on the beach, was a favorite with visitors. The �Art Video Lounge� featured video pieces by artists who live, or have spent an extended period, in the Pacific Northwest. The program was curated by Michael Darling.

Contemporary music and sound pieces were presented in the open air �Art Sound Lounge� in the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens, in collaboration with David Weinstein.

Axa Art Insurance Company sponsored guided tours by their expert for VIPs, while ArtNexus offered tours by art critics for the general public in English and Spanish.

Art Basel Miami Beach also staged crossover events. In �Art Loves Film�, singer and artist Lou Reed presented the film �Berlin� by Julian Schnabel. �Art Loves Music� featured a free beach concert by the fathers of punk rock, Iggy and the Stooges, and �Art Loves Architecture� presented an evening honoring Herzog & de Meuron Architects, winner of the Pritzker Prize 2001. The talk between architect Jacques Herzog and artist Doug Aitken was moderated by Terry Riley, Director of the Miami Art Museum.

Once again Miami’s leading private collections – among them the Margulies Collection, the Rubell Family Collection, CIFO, the private collection of Ella Cisneros, the de la Cruz Collection, the Mora Collection, the Scholl Collection, the Shack Collection, Dacra/Aqua, and the Robins Collection – opened their homes and warehouses to guests of the international art show. The daily visits to artists’ studios in the Greater Miami area were also very popular with visitors.

The Miami museums organized important exhibitions: Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller at MAM, Jorge Pardo at MOCA, �French Kissin’ in the U.S.A., a group show of emerging artists from France� at The Moore Space, and �Fortunate Objects: Selections from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection� at CIFO. This year also saw the third edition of the Design Miami fair, featuring 26 leading design galleries from around the globe.

Cooperation with the authorities of the City of Miami Beach, the City of Miami, and Miami-Dade County worked well and contributed to making the international art show a cultural event spread throughout the area and involving the local community. The Host Committee of Art Basel Miami Beach, chaired by Norman and Irma Braman, played an active role in ensuring that attendees of the international art show would experience Miami’s legendary hospitality.

�UBS is pleased to be a longstanding partner of Art Basel Miami Beach, which year after year exceeds expectations in representing the very best in the art world�, said Robert Wolf, Chairman and CEO, UBS Americas. �We look forward to being part of this outstanding event again next year.�

Art Basel Miami Beach would like to thank its main sponsor, UBS, and the following partners: Cartier, BMW, Netjets, Morgans Hotel Group, AXA Art, Flagstone, Zumtobel Lighting, Hennessy, Davidoff, Dellis Cay, Ligne Roset, MBA, and W South Beach.

The elaborately designed catalog, which provides an extensive overview of over 1,000 art works on the international art market, was almost sold out during the week. A few hundred copies are still available from D.A.P. in New York (Toll Free: Tel. +1/800 338 2665, Fax +1/212 627 9484) for the USA or from Hatje Cantz Publishers in Germany: Fax +49/711 4405 220 (payment by credit card).

After organizing 20 editions of Art Basel, 14 of them as Director, Samuel Keller has decided to hand over to a new generation of leadership at the end of this year. In January he will move on to direct the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, Switzerland. As of January, the new Artistic Director will be Cay Sophie Rabinowitz, the new Director of Operations and Finance, Annette Sch�nholzer, and the new Director for Strategy and Development, Marc Spiegler. The CVs of the prospective Directors can be found at www.art.ch/go/id/dek/.

The next Art Basel Miami Beach will be held from December 4 through 7, 2008.