COURTESY ART DUSSELDORF
Last September, MCH Group—the Swiss fair conglomerate that counts Art Basel among its holdings—announced that it would begin an ambitious series of fair acquisitions by taking a majority stake in India Art Fair, South Asia’s largest contemporary art bazaar. The most recent edition of India Art Fair opened last week to what were reported to be robust sales.
Now, for its second acquisition, MCH Group is looking somewhat closer to home. The conglomerate announced today that it had snapped up 25.1 percent of International GmbH, the fair company that operates Art Düsseldorf.
“MCH Group’s participation in Art Düsseldorf constitutes a further step in the implementation of our strategic initiative for the worldwide expansion of a new portfolio of regional art fairs in important art locations,” Marco Fazzone, MCH Group’s managing director of design and regional art fairs, said in a release. “We are convinced that Art Düsseldorf will be a success. Art Düsseldorf in the Areal Böhler will become the leading regional art fair in Germany, the Benelux region, and the Rhineland—and thus also have an international radiance.”
Such acquisitions, MCH Group has stressed, are in no way related to Art Basel, the conglomerate’s most prominent art fair holding. They will at no point be saddled with the “Art Basel” label, and will operate independently from other fairs in the MCH Group stable. A press release said this most recent acquisition will retain its “autonomous brand.”
And yet, according to Fazzone, Art Düsseldorf will “benefit from the MCH Group’s experience and network, as well as from synergies with the other regional art fairs, which in the near future are going to form a strong global network.”
The next edition of Art Düsseldorf will take place in November 2017.