Location
Basel, Switzerland
When
Annual — June
THE EVENT
Art Basel in Switzerland is the original and, by many measures, the most important art fair in the world — a gathering in the Swiss city of Basel that has defined the global art market for more than fifty years. The galleries here are the most important in the world. The collectors are the most serious. The conversations are the most consequential.
WHY WE ARE HERE
Basel Switzerland is where the long relationships are made. The client who buys at Basel has been collecting for decades. They know every gallery director by name. They have opinions about framing, about lighting, about the difference between a good reproduction and a great original. They will bring the same knowledge to a garment. AETHEL is ready for that conversation.
A RECORD — THE FOUNDER
"He stayed for four days. He ate at the same restaurant every evening — a small place near the Münster, the kind of place that has been there for a hundred years and will be there for a hundred more. On the third evening, a man he had met at the fair sat down at the adjacent table. They talked for three hours. About art, about craft, about what it meant to make something that would outlast you. The man asked what he did. He said: 'I help people own things that are worth owning.' The man said: 'I've been looking for someone like you.'"
The founder's identity is known only to the Founding 12. What follows is the record of what was said before it was done.