Art Basel is an art fair extraordinaire. How to explain the champagne, the exotic attire, the celebrities, the corporate entertainment and of course the money? A visit to Art Basel is unlike going to a museum or a gallery - and it is not just about the art.
UBS, one of the fair's main sponsors, hosted a lunch which featured a panel discussion where the Financial Times' art correspondent Peter Aspden went some way to explaining the Art Basel experience. "Art is now cool," he explained, having undergone an extraordinary transformation from the somewhat austere and low key art venues of former years, and now "has the coolness that used to be the preserve of other art forms such as the movies or music. There is a sort of tyranny of fashion and coolness."
In talking about people who dominate today's art scene he quoted from Adam Lindemann's Collecting Contemporary Art: "They look good in Prada suits, they are entertaining and international and they can help secure dinners at hot restaurants and private parties. They make sure you are having fun."
Clearly part of the allure for the rich in buying art is that, unlike a Bordeaux or a Ferrari, they are buying something which is often expensive and is at the same time unique.
Of course the price of the art works puts ownership out of the reach of most people, not that the prices were displayed - they rarely are. Nevertheless, none of this deterred the general public who yesterday came in their hundreds to see the art on display. The visual arts, unlike fine wines, don't have to be consumed to be enjoyed.