Shortly after the debut of Paris and just before the 20th anniversary of the art fair in Miami Beach, Art Basel loses its head. Marc Spiegler, its long-standing Global Director, has decided to leave the MCH Group and “to tackle the next phase of his career in the art world”, as the Swiss exhibition company announced on Friday. Spiegler is succeeded by Noah Horowitz, who worked for Art Basel from 2015 to 2021 and acted as its director for the Americas. On November 7, 2022, he will take up his new post as CEO of Art Basel.
For Horowitz, it’s a return after a brief stint at the Sotheby’s auction house. He had only been hired there a good year ago as head of the department for working with gallery owners and art dealers. An area that has been expanded in the auctioning business, which is traditionally focused on the secondary market. Horowitz may have gained important insights here. Because the auction houses are poaching more and more in the primary market of the galleries and are thus in direct competition with the art fairs.
Born in 1979, Noah Horowitz is an American like his predecessor Spiegler, who also has a French passport. The former journalist, who studied political science, joined the Art Basel board in 2007 and has been in charge of the fair since 2012, is now succeeded by Horowitz, an art historian with a doctorate who also has many years of fair experience. He managed the Armory Show from 2011 to 2015 and successfully led the traditional New York fair through a severe structural crisis. The title of his doctoral thesis reads like an application for what is probably the most influential job in the international trade fair circuit: “Art of the Deal: Contemporary Art in a Global Financial Market”.
Together with Horowitz, the MCH Group will “consolidate the position of Art Basel as the world’s leading platform for modern and contemporary art and drive forward our innovative initiatives,” said its CEO, Florian Faber. Andrea Zappia, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said he is confident that Horowitz’s “business acumen, digital experience and extensive relationships within the international gallery and collector community will be instrumental in helping Art Basel evolve.” This also includes “the company’s ambitious growth plans” both at home and internationally. This can be understood as a commitment to Basel.
After the glamorous debut of the new Paris par Art Basel fair, which was only founded in January and replaced the French fair Fiac in a coup arranged between Marc Spiegler and the then director of the Grand Palais Chris Dercon, voices were raised as to whether Basel still existed at all needs next to cosmopolitan Paris. The French capital has been on a roll since Brexit and tough economic conditions in London. Some already see Paris as the new art trade center in Europe. Basel, on the other hand, has had difficult years, not only due to the pandemic, but also due to problems at other trade fairs organized there by the MCH Group.
But Marc Spiegler guided Art Basel through these years of canceled or postponed fairs. So it may be the right time for him to stop now. He left Art Basel “at its peak,” says Spiegler. The coming phase of development will require a lot of time and “a number of other skills”. “Having launched new exhibitions in Hong Kong and Paris, hosted 43 fairs and guided Art Basel through a global pandemic, now is the time to pass the baton,” says Spiegler. He was on friendly terms with Horowitz and said he was the “perfect person” to lead this process. Spiegler will remain available to Art Basel in an advisory capacity for the next six months.
