MCh

But earlier this year, MCH Group, the owner of Masterpiece as well as Art Basel, said that it was canceling this year’s edition.

“Escalating costs and a decline in the number of international exhibitors mean that the event is not commercially viable this year,” the MCH statement read.

But guided by James Murdoch, whose Lupa Systems venture capital firm has been the “anchor” investor in the organizer’s Swiss parent company, MCH, since 2020, and the fairs’ new chief executive, Noah Horowitz, Art Basel is quietly tweaking its business model.

In East Asia, a prime growth region for the international art market, MCH has recently made measured investments in boutique events, such as the S.E.A.

Industry observers viewed these moves as MCH’s hedging against trading conditions deteriorating in Hong Kong, where so many of the West’s leading auction houses and galleries have established branches, and where Art Basel runs a fair.