Alice Baber, The Light of the River, 1979, presented by Berry Campbell at Art Basel Hong Kong 2026.
Collectors are turning to 20th-century trophy lots as part of a ‘structural rebalancing’ of the trade
The New York-based gallery Berry Campbell, a new exhibitor at Art Basel this year with a booth devoted to women of Abstract Expressionism, works almost entirely with estates with a focus on overlooked Postwar American painters. Cofounded by Christine Berry and Martha Campbell in 2013, the gallery’s presentation at the fair includes works by Lynne Drexler, Alice Baber, and Elaine de Kooning, among others, priced from USD 340,000 to USD 975,000.
Despite the overall flat market over the past couple of years, Berry Campbell’s sales have improved year-on-year, Campbell says: ‘Because these women artists were not collected back in the day, you’re getting A-plus works directly from the estates, with pristine provenances, by artists already in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Whitney.’
The gallery has also developed a growing Asian client base since exhibiting at Art Basel in Hong Kong, with Drexler and Baber especially popular. ‘We’re meeting clients that are 30-35 years old,’ Berry says. ‘They like that there’s history behind the artwork, that there is value, and that they can see these markets rise.’
Berry Campbell invests heavily in scholarship, and its young Asian collectors in particular pore over provenance and research. This chimes with a rising awareness of due diligence when purchasing art, says James Ratcliffe, the general counsel and director of recoveries at the Art Loss Register, which checks all works exhibited at Art Basel against its database of stolen art. ‘Most collectors still buy based on their desire to own a specific work, but we see more of an effort to back that desire up with due diligence, alongside growing awareness of the potential for provenance to actively increase values,’ Ratcliffe says, adding that collectors are also increasingly aware that museums now expect very high provenance standards for gifted works.
–Anna Brady, Art Basel
June 9, 2026
