Bloomberg catches a few ArtBasel datapoints worth noting:

• Gagosian sold $45 million of art within the first quarter of an hour, said two dealers with knowledge of the matter, who declined to be named.

• Cattelan’s 2002 sculpture of two New York policemen, “Frank and Jamie,” priced at $3 million, was among sales by Gagosian at the June 14 VIP preview, said dealers. Two examples of this edition of four sold at auction for about $1.6 million in 2010.

• Geneva-based Galerie Krugier & Cie. offered three Picasso oils priced at a total of $52 million. Though at least two smaller Picasso works found buyers for undisclosed prices, the big-ticket oils were still available as the 42nd fair ended.

Big Spenders Lift Contemporary Art Back to Peak at $1.8 Billion Basel Fair (Bloomberg)

The Art Newspaper closes out the ArtBasel Fair with this sales report:

Thaddaeus Ropac: “about 25 sales in total” including Baselitz’s Luise, Lilo, Franz und Johannes, 2010, for €430,000 and Not Vital’s Moon No. 2, 2011, for €260,000.

Cheim & Read: Louise Bourgeois’ Eye, 2001, for just under $2m to a European and two of her fabric pieces for $300,000 and $200,000

Helly Nahmad:Léger oil-painting, La Charmeuse d’Oiseaux, 1942, for $2.8m to a French buyer

Hauser & Wirth: Paul McCarthy’s White Snow Dwarf 7, 2010/2011 series (edition of three), sold for $2.8m each

Yvon Lambert: Five editions of Douglas Gordon video Spiral, 2010, at $75,000 each

Elastic Gallery: Runo Lagomarsino’s Trans Atlantic, 2010-11, a series of sheets of newsprint paper strapped to a sailing boat, to a UK private collector for €40,000.

Harris Lieberman: Alexandre Singh’s The Dialogues of the Objects I-V, an installation.. All three editions were sold for $35,000 each to European and American collectors.

Sales Forecast: Fair (The Art Newspaper)

• Michael Werner Gallery: Enrico David “Study for a Body as a Dog’s Training Camp,” a large sculpture made this year. It is fashioned from black automotive rubber and depicts a man encircled in chains. The buyer was an Italian collector who had seen Mr. David’s show in Venice. The price: around $100,000.
• Gladstone Gallery: Allora & Calzadilla“Lifesaver Manhole” (2011), a sculpture of a bright-orange life preserver from which hangs a black manhole cover [...] sold to an Australian collector on Tuesday for $110,000
• Luhrig Augustine: Glenn Ligon “Masquerade #1,” a 2006 black-and-white canvas with coal dust on its surface, to a British collector for $225,000.

Stars of Venice Shine in Basel (New York Times)

Judd Tully continues to make the rounds in Basel (all copy is Tully’s though often highly redacted:)

• Sadie Coles HQ: Ugo Rondinone‘s huge set of heavy-duty wooden double-doors, “Lax Low Lullaby” (2010), resembling something one might encounter in a castle or medieval prison and complete with elaborate fittings, sold for 280,000 Swiss Francs, which is about $332,000; Urs Fischer, “Pineapple/Melon” (2010) [...] for $600,000
• Xavier Hufkens, four new works in collage and paint on cardboard by Sterling Ruby, bearing titles such as “DS 6,” “DS 7,” and so on, sold at $75,000 each; Thomas Houseago‘s bronze “Yet to Be Titled (Large Head #1)” (2010) to a European collector for $250,000; Hufkins also sold the installation of Jacob Kassay paintings at the “Art Unlimited” [...] to an undisclosed museum.

• Paula Cooper Gallery: Kelley Walker‘s “Black Star Press,” a 104-by-83-inch four-color process silkscreen from 2008, sold to a European collector for $250,000; Rudolf Stingel‘s funkily majestic, 95-by-76-inch “Untitled” abstraction from 2010 to another European for $550,000;  Christian Marclay‘s “White Album (Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do)” (1990) [...] for $20,000. Tauba Auerbach‘s “Untitled (Fold)” (2011) also quickly sold at $40,000 to another European collector.
• Reena Spaulings: Klara Liden green steel mesh garbage can sold for $20,000 to a European collector, the benches sold for €20,000 ($28,300) apiece, and the big ‘painting’ was on reserve to a museum, priced at $55,000.
• Galerie Gisela Capitan:Alina Szapocznikow, a group of ink-on-paper drawings and monotypes from the early ’60′s sold at €12,000 ($17,000) to €15,000 ($21,300) apiece, while a stunning, small-scale polyester resin, gauze, and newspaper sculpture of a reclining woman, “Fiancee Folle Mariee” (1971), sold for €250,000 ($354,000)

Europe’s Economic Woes Are Forgotten Amid Brisk Sales at Art Basel (Artinfo.com)

The Art Newspaper records a few sales from the opening day of ArtBasel:

Richard Feigen: James Rosenquist at (The Holy Roman Empire through Checkpoint Charlie, 1994, $2.75m

Tomio Koyama: Suite Quartet, 2011, by Satoko Nachi $70,000 (2.1/K17)?

303 Gallery:Doug Aitken’s $250,000 wall-piece 1968 (Broken) to a European private collector.

The Art World Flexes Its Muscles (The Art Newspaper)