Art Basel Offers 20 Percent Reduction on Exhibitor Booth Fees Due to Early Closure of Paris Fair, Tracey Emin’s New Arts and Community Space in Margate Greenlit, and More: Morning Links for November 11, 2026

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Good Morning!

• Art Basel Paris has pledged a 20 percent reduction on the final invoices of all exhibitors who participated in the last edition, which was cut short because of protests.
• Tracey Emin has gotten the green light to turn a dilapidated building thought to have once been an Edwardian bathing house in Margate into an arts and community space.
• The Kennedy family has joined a legal suit to stop the building of President Trump’s massive triumphal arch, arguing it would cast a shadow on the graves of their relatives.

The Headlines

PARIS DISCOUNT. Art Basel Paris has pledged a 20 percent reduction on the final invoices of all exhibitors who participated in the fair’s last edition, which was cut short because of protests, ARTnews has learned. In recognition of the costs incurred from having to close on the fair’s final two days, Saturday, October 24 and Sunday, October 25. “We will exceptionally be extending a 20 percent reduction on booth fees to all galleries,” Art Basel chief executive Noah Horowitz told ARTnews in an exclusive interview. Tickets purchased for that weekend have already been refunded. Smaller and emerging dealers have been hit hardest by the loss of crucial business for which they spent months preparing and investing, and galleries have been eagerly awaiting news of compensation. Some have put pressure on the art fair. The French galleries association Comité Professionnel des Galeries d’Art addressed a strongly worded letter to Art Basel Paris director Karim Crippa on October 28 demanding financial redress, but also complaining they had been treated with “contempt,” or “disregard,” (the original French term used was “mépris”) because they were not consulted prior to the decision to shut for the fair’s final weekend. Protests were planned for that Saturday, but not for the next day. “This is a highly dynamic situation we were responding to,” Horowitz explained in the fair’s defense. He also acknowledged where there is room for improvement. “We had many conversations with many galleries during the fair and certainly in the weeks following, and I think we learned a lot of lessons coming through this. And as all businesses do, we’ll continue to improve our processes and make adjustments for the future.”

MEET YA AT MARGATE. Artist Tracey Emin has gotten the green light to turn a dilapidated building and former Edwardian bathing house on the seafront in Margate into an arts and community space, with a sauna, shower facilities, and restaurant, reports Kent Online. “The proposal will ensure a vacant building of some historic merit is brought back into use, and the proposed external changes are considered to result in the creation of a high-quality building that is an asset to the surrounding area,” wrote a local planning officer in their approval of the scheme. Emin, who was born in Croydon and grew up in Margate, a seaside town located on the north coast of Kent, southeast England, left London about a decade ago to settle there, and has been boosting the local arts scene, notably by founding and 2023-opening of TKE Studios, which offers affordable studios, exhibition spaces and a residency program.

The Digest

The Kennedy family has joined a legal suit to stop the building of President Trump’s massive triumphal arch, arguing it would cast a shadow on the graves of their relatives and obstruct the sightline from President John F. Kennedy’s gravesite. [The New York Times]

UAE collector Elie Khouri is building a newly renovated and redesigned space for his eponymous art foundation in Dubai’s coastal district of Jumeirah 1, with planned public exhibitions and educational programs due to open in 2028. [The Art Newspaper]

A senator in Peru has requested the removal of giant erotic sculptures, known as huacos eróticos, from a public park near the northern city of Trujillo, which are replicas of pre-Incan Moche ceramics and were initially installed to promote tourism. [The Art Newspaper]

Who can resist an exhibition co-curated by a K-pop superstar, “RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me”? Over 66,000 people have bought tickets since last month’s opening, as advance sales run six times higher than for any previous San Francisco Museum of Modern Art exhibition. [ARTnews]

The Liverpool Biennial has announced its theme—The Age of Magical Thinking—and artists for the edition scheduled for 5 June to 19 September, curated by Aimee Harrison and Lucía Sanromán. [ArtReview]

The Kicker

FOREVER PHOTO. “I think photography will never die. It’s like painting,” German photographer Thomas Ruff told the Financial Times. He was speaking ahead of a solo exhibition of his photographs at Paris Photo, the international fair opening to the public November 12-15 at the Grand Palais. This edition celebrates the 200th anniversary of photography and looks closely at how the medium has evolved over the centuries. Ruff’s major presentation on a large wall at the fair entrance is a highlight, produced by five galleries (David Zwirner, Konrad Fischer, Mai 36, Lia Rumma, Sprüth Magers). Speaking about how his practice took a key turn around the late 1980s, Ruff remembers: “I said to myself, ‘If I insist on authorship [of the photograph], I cannot make this work. And if I give it up, I can.’ And so I decided in this case I have to give up authorship to create the work.” From there grew his celebrated “Sterne (Stars)” series from 1989 to 1992, which he made by enlarging negatives depicting outer space, photographed by the European Southern Observatory.