"... according to figures released by the City of Miami Beach, Basel provides an economic boost of $500 million... with some estimates placing that figure in excess of $1 billion.... draws more private jets than a Super Bowl, and by its second year, the New York Times had dubbed it “the hottest contemporary art fair in America.” Miami Beach mayor Philip Levine is especially effusive about the way Basel has helped to transform his city. “It’s a part of the renaissance of Miami Beach,” he says. “All the offshoots of Basel—the events, the parties, the various cultural contributions that have sprung from it, the galleries that have opened—the whole arts scene has exploded because of Art Basel coming to Miami Beach. I equate it to the turn of the century, when Henry Ford built his first factory. It was like the beginning not just of the Ford automobile but all the companies that supply Fords, and all the ripple effects.” For many of its principal collectors, it even has eclipsed its big sister fair, Art Basel in Switzerland. “At the beginning, it was a junior partner, but now it’s a child that’s surpassed its parents,” says automotive magnate Norman Braman, a collector at Basel Switzerland for more than 20 years. “Think of the fact that in addition to having the success of Art Basel here, [the Miami area has] 26 additional fairs. Art Basel has 220 or 230 galleries [within the Miami Beach Convention Center], but during that week there are over 1,000 galleries in Miami.”"
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