BASEL.- In its 11th edition, Design Miami/ Basel closed on Sunday, June 19 with record sales and attendance, particularly of collectors and museum curators. Design Miami/ Basel exhibitors showcased their strongest and most diverse booths to date, highlighting depth of knowledge and years of experience in their specific areas of expertise and showcasing the diversity of collectible design.

Design Miami/ Basel attracts thousands of visitors annually and this year experienced a growth of 30% in VIP attendance on Preview Day from last year with a total attendance of 28,700 over the week. Notable guests at this year's fair included Tracy Amon, Abigail Asher, Lord Norman Foster, Keanu Reeves, Adrian Brody, Princess Eugenie of York, Dustin Yellin, Ambassador Paul and Trudy Cejas, Catherine Dunne, Tracy Emin, Archduchess Francesca Von Hapsburg, Goga Ashkenazi, Kweku Mandela, Ndaba Mandela, Asaf Gottesman, Noam Gottesman, Jaimie Frankfurt, Stellar Holm, Christian Larsen, Dominique Levy, Alberto Mugrabi, Jose and Mary Mugrabi, Cathy and Paolo Vedovi, Catherine Lagrange, Luis Laplace, Jo and Marie Donnely, Simon and Dr. Michaela de Pury, Peter Brant, Lisa Schiff, Becca Cason Thrash, John Thrash, Alice and Tom Tisch, Gordon Veneklasen and Sheila Wagstaff.

Lee Mindel of Shelton, Mindel & Associates commented the following on Design Miami/ Basel 2016, "It was an extraordinary experience. Not only was the Basel venue spacious, beautifully designed and carefully curated - it also felt optimistic in a time of political upheaval and social change. This year’s event will be remembered as a game changer as it was about celebrating the past, working in the present and looking towards the future. For example, at Galerie Jacques Lacoste we were able to experience a space designed by Diego Giacometti, it wasn’t an object but a space in a library that he created. Carpenters Workshop Gallery exhibited many current artists and imaginative uses of new materials including resins and curved lighting strips. At Dansk Møbelkunst, a relatively unknown modernist architect, the late Palle Suensen, demonstrated the unique relationship between the Danish cabinet maker and the architect with his slatted wood bench; his brand of organic modernism was found in a pair of sconces whose perimeter baffle resembled the petals of a flower."

"It was a year of looking and learning that touched us all, a year not to be forgotten."

Gallery Highlights
Each year, the best in contemporary and historical design come together at the fair; the 2016 edition of Design Miami/ Basel included 46 of the world's leading authorities in collectible design, who enjoyed robust sales and an opportunity to connect with a particularly international array of collectors, curators, critics and influencers. Design Miami/ Basel Executive Director, Rodman Primack, stated: "We have been especially pleased this year with the diversity and high quality of collectible design work exhibited at Design Miami/ Basel. The fair has always been a destination for private collectors, museum curators, and aficionados of design and architecture but this year’s selection was considered by many to be of an even higher quality than previous years."

"The presence of a number of top design collecting institution curators on the show floor throughout the week has certainly underscored the sense that Design Miami/ Basel is a place to encounter the most important work in the market, a number of notable works make this clear." --- Galerie Jacques Lacoste/ Diego Giacometti, Chambre a Livres

Marc Barbezat, famed publisher of existentialists like Jean Genet, commissioned Diego Giacometti in the late 1960s to create this extraordinary bookcase for his home. Giacometti holds a particularly strong place in the market and this piece captures all the hallmarks of his work, its rarity and provenance unparalleled. ---LAFFANOUR - Galerie Downtown/ Jean Royère, Ours Polaire

This year's sales highlights include a wide variety of works ranging in value from USD $1,000 to over USD $2 million:

• Caroline Van Hoek: Sold works by Gijs Bakker, Giampaolo Babetto, Hermien Cassiers, Daniel Kruger, Nadia Morgenthaler and Lavinia Rossetti

• Galerie VIVID: Sold five works by Ettore Sottsass

• Cristina Grajales Gallery: Sold several works to new collectors from Poland, China and Italy

• Gallery Japonesque: Sold the Zazen Stone Tea House, Meditative Alcove by Masatoshi Izumi & Koichi Hara from the Design at Large program

• Galerie Jacques Lacoste: Sold the Diego Giacometti, Chambre a Livres.

• Elisabetta Cipriani: Sold Ai Weiwei's Rebar in Gold.

• R & Company: Sold a Joaquim Tenreiro table.

• Galerie Philippe Gravier: Sold Kengo Kuma's Owan from the Design at Large program and Claude Parent’s Les Îlots from the Gallery Program.