The VIP opening of the 23rd annual Art Basel in Miami Beach on Dec. 3, 2025.
Carl Juste
cjuste@miamiherald.com
Miami Beach in early December is synonymous with Art Basel.
But the long-term future of the world-renowned art fair in Miami Beach is not yet secured. Art Basel is seeking significant cost reductions as it negotiates with the city for a deal beyond 2026, according to records obtained by the Miami Herald.
Art Basel is currently slated to pay the city almost $1 million in rent, also known as a license fee, for exclusive use of the Convention Center later this year. The fair’s rent has climbed by almost a quarter-million dollars over the past five years under an agreement with the city that imposed increases at the rate of inflation.
Now, as part of negotiations that could see Art Basel commit to Miami Beach for another five to 10 years, the fair is looking for a reset.
Email correspondence obtained by the Herald through a public records request shows that city officials proposed a new base rent of $500,000 late last year and more recently offered $400,000.
The city is also offering to cover $300,000 for police and fire services related to the fair, costs that Art Basel has covered in the past.
But Miami Beach officials are asking Art Basel to contribute $100,000 toward the city’s transportation costs, including the free water taxi and trolley services it offers. Art Basel has not yet agreed to do so, according to the emails.
Art Basel wants a five-year deal that would begin in 2026. The city wants a 10-year commitment.
A chart prepared by city officials based on rent starting at $450,000 indicates that Art Basel would save about $9 million over the life of a 10-year deal when compared with the current payment structure.
Any agreement with Art Basel would require approval by the Miami Beach City Commission.
In a June 30 email, Maureen Bruckmayr, an Art Basel executive, told city officials she hoped to bring a proposed deal to the City Commission for a vote on July 22. That didn’t happen.
Still, both sides struck an optimistic tone this week in statements to the Herald.
“For more than two decades, Art Basel Miami Beach has developed in close partnership with the City of Miami Beach,” an Art Basel spokesperson said. “Art Basel is firmly committed to the fair’s long-term future in the city and is engaged in constructive discussions regarding an agreement beyond 2026.”
Miami Beach City Manager Eric Carpenter said in a statement: “We remain optimistic with our negotiations as they have been constructive and cordial. We look forward to continuing our long‑standing relationship with Art Basel for many years to come.”
People attend a VIP opening at Art Basel Miami Beach on Dec. 3, 2025. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com Basel requests tied to other Art Week events
The email records show that Art Basel is also seeking more control over the future of Miami Art Week throughout Miami Beach, an apparent response to the explosion of art events across Miami-Dade County during that period.
The fair is asking for a right of first refusal to take over the sites of the Untitled and Scope art fairs on Ocean Drive if they ever vacate. Art Basel also wants the city to create an expanded zone of exclusivity to “help ensure that no new competing art events are introduced in the City of Miami Beach moving forward.”
In addition, the records indicate that Art Basel is requesting a $150,000 payment as part of a separate agreement between the city and the owner of the Untitled fair. Details of the arrangement are unclear, but the City Commission directed the city administration earlier this year to negotiate a new five-year license agreement with Untitled.
A representative for Untitled told the Herald that the proposal “has not been presented to us.”
History of the deal
The current deal between Art Basel and Miami Beach dates back to 2017, when a new agreement was signed covering the years through 2023.
After the show was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic, Miami Beach agreed to reduce Art Basel’s rent in 2021 from the $765,000 the city was set to collect in 2020 to just $100,000.
As part of that arrangement, the deal between the city and Art Basel was extended through 2026. It provided that the fair’s rent would increase each year by the greater of 2% or the rate of inflation, and gave Art Basel the right of first refusal to use the Convention Center in 2027 and 2028 under those same financial terms.
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Art Basel came to Miami Beach in 2002 as the first offshoot of its original event in Basel, Switzerland. It is the world’s largest art fair franchise, with additional fairs in Paris, Hong Kong and, as of this year, Qatar.
In response to the Herald’s inquiry about negotiations, the Art Basel spokesperson noted that the Miami Beach fair welcomed approximately 80,000 visitors last year and highlighted that the event generated an estimated $570 million in economic impact across Miami-Dade County.
Art Basel’s parent company is MCH Group, a publicly traded Swiss marketing firm. In 2020, Lupa Systems, an investment firm founded by James Murdoch — the son of billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch — acquired a large stake in the business. Lupa Systems now owns about 42% of its shares.
Miami Herald
Aaron Leibowitz covers the city of Miami Beach for the Miami Herald. He was part of a team recognized as a 2026 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Local Reporting for coverage of Brightline’s safety record. He also contributed to the Herald’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Surfside condo collapse in 2021. He is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School’s Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism.