[1] In its inaugural year, the Basel show attracted more than 16,000 visitors who viewed work presented by 90 galleries from ten countries.

The first curators in charge of this very large section were Simon Lamunière (2000–2011), Gianni Jetzer (2012–2019) followed by Giovanni Carmine (since 2021).

[11] The 2019 show in Miami Beach saw Maurizio Cattelan's exhibition of the infamous Comedian art piece, a banana duct-taped to a wall and sold $120,000.

The fair is originally organized in Basel, Switzerland, and has been extended to Miami Beach (since 2002), Hong Kong (since 2013), and Paris (since 2022).

[21][22] When compared to the Venice Biennale, Art Basel was described by Georgina Adam as "less curatorially ambitious, less sprawling, better focused, easier to navigate".