THIS WEEK'S HOT TOPIC
Fire up the Christmas music: Miami Art Week, the American art world’s busiest—and buzziest—period of the calendar year, is over.
Highlights included celebrity sightings (Karlie Kloss, Shay Mitchell, and partners A$AP Rocky and Rihanna were among those in town), a performance by Diana Ross, and Lévy Gorvy Dayan’s $18 million sale of a famed 1977 Muhammad Ali portrait by Andy Warhol.
But no event, person, or piece of art had more people talking than Beeple’s Regular Animals (2025) in the new Zero 10 digital art section of Art Basel Miami Beach. The artist, whose real name is Mike Winkelmann, erected a pen full of uncanny animatronic creatures, each topped with the lifelike head of a giant of tech—Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg—or art—Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Beeple himself.
Priced at $100k a pop (edition of 2), Beeple’s robots all sold out during the show’s preview, and because he didn’t work with a gallery, the proceeds went straight to his pocket. Jack Butcher, another standout Zero 10 artist, also adopted this strategy—though for him, the move was as much conceptual as it was practical.
Butcher’s contribution comprised several self-serve checkout counters on which fairgoers could buy his work—effectively just a receipt—for any amount. (For those not at the fair, his work was also available for purchase online with Ethereum.) Meanwhile, a countdown clock above the installation showed, in real time, how much money the artist needed to offset the $74k he paid to participate in the fair. Not only did Butcher end up in the black at the end of the week, he netted over $114k.
Could this model of artists exhibiting independently become more popular in the future, and if so, would it disintermediate galleries entirely?
3…THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT FINE ART STORAGE
1
As your collection grows (and the wall space in your home does not), storing artworks becomes essential. Most people think of artworks as inanimate objects, but in reality, these materials are sensitive and reactive. The tension of a canvas changes with climate; wooden sculptures expand in warm, humid weather; photographs and works on paper are prone to fading and discoloration if they are not displayed under UV-filtering plastic or glass. Whether your pieces are at home, in an office, or somewhere in between, make sure the climate around them is consistent. And when there’s no room left to hang your new acquisitions, it may be time to look into a fine art storage (FAS) facility.
2
If you live in a metropolitan area, there’s a good chance fine art storage exists within a reasonable distance from your home. When renting space, consider what kind of storage your collection actually needs. If you only have a few pieces that aren’t essential to your collection’s presentation, a standard storage unit may be sufficient. Before renting, check the basics: Is the facility climate-controlled? Is there on-site security? Does it have solid reviews? As your collection grows, you may eventually want to transition to a dedicated fine art storage facility. Just keep in mind that most require at least 24 hours’ notice to “pull” an artwork, and many charge a fee to do so on top of your monthly or annual rate.
3
Many fine art storage companies now operate as “all-in-one” art service providers. These exist on the higher end. They store and ship works nationally and internationally, and some offer packing, crating, and installation solutions. If you consistently use one company for shipping and storage, they may even extend discounted rates. What matters most is matching the service to the kind of collector you are. If you frequently rotate your collection or ship works between locations, a white-glove company might make sense. If you’re more focused on safeguarding long-term or generational assets, a unit in a Delaware freeport could be a better fit. Before committing to any storage setup, take a close look at your needs and how you live with your collection.
A NUMBER TO KNOW
13.9% to 18.7%
The percentage of annual revenue that US museums should be spending on marketing, according to a new study from Remuseum, a consortium dedicated to helping American art institutions drive decision-making with data. In comparison, the report finds that most museums in the country typically only earmark between 3% and 7% of their budgets for this purpose.
Underneath Remuseum’s recommendation lies a major philosophical and operational disagreement over how art institutions should relate to the public. On one side is the traditional view that museums’ core missions—mainly, exhibiting art and organizing public programs—are “sufficient to generate appreciation and might even be diminished by treating them like common products or services,” the report’s authors write. In this context, marketing is almost a dirty word.
On the other side is the view that spending real money on marketing—including paid advertising, social media content, and public relations strategies—has become an absolute necessity in the 21st century. After all, even the greatest museums on earth are now competing for attention with quite literally everything else flooding into our smartphones every second.
This debate has been raging in one form or another for years. With attendance at more than half of US institutions still lagging in comparison to pre-Covid levels, per the American Alliance of Museums, there has never been a higher-stakes moment for institutional leaders to decide which side of the line they’re on.
—Tim Schneider / The Gray Market
ASK: ACCESS SOPHISTICATED KNOWLEDGE
This segment of ASK was taped live in Miami at Untitled Art.
Colm from Brooklyn (aka KidSuper) ASKed: Everyone in my world talks about gatekeepers. In fashion and music, there are gatekeepers. But it’s funny how real they are in the art world. It's like there's one person who can change how people view you overnight. Do you think that's changing?
Josh Baer for NoReserve: Because one person makes the art, then another person sells it, and another person buys it, you can become a superstar through one channel. If you only sold three t-shirts or had only three music downloads, that's not a win. In music, the distribution system blew up. Justin Bieber started on YouTube as an unknown, then became world famous. He controls his destiny; he didn't have to go through 20 years of A&R. In that world, it's great. Why isn’t that the case in our world? I think it’s because we don't really want it to change. The people in power want to maintain their power.
At the same time, the most talked-about, interesting piece of the week is by Beeple. The art world has embraced him. The big players believe in him. The gatekeepers believe in him. They buy it. And yet, he still has this incredible appeal to the whole world. So it is possible for us to have both.
Have your own question for the NoReserve team? Reply to this email or reach out to us on Instagram, @no.reserve. Readers whose submissions we choose get a special prize—six free months of The Baer Faxt.
2 MINUTES WITH…
Marguerite Hoffman is one of Dallas’ foremost collectors and patrons, having built a formidable collection of postwar and contemporary art both with her late husband, Robert Hoffman, and since his passing. As patrons, the Hoffman’s are one of Dallas’ three collecting powerhouses (along with Howard & Cindy Rachofsky and Deedie Rose) that have pledged a combined 900 artworks to the Dallas Museum of Art. Here, Marguerite takes us inside “B1 & B2”, the nicknames for the museum-quality homes of the collection to share how the collection has taken shape. To view the full extended interview, head ➡️ here.
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