Courtesy Galleria Massimo De Carlo

Steven Parrino, "Blue Baby Suicide" (1995)

© and courtesy Hauser & Wirth

Hauser & Wirth has already sold two editions of Paul McCarthy's "Mimi" (2006/08) at $450,000 apiece.

Paul McCarthy Edward Ruscha Roy Lichtenstein Ilya Kabakov Georg Baselitz Jenny Holzer Enoc Perez Subodh Gupta

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“Europeans are feeling great,” says Paris/Salzburg dealer and fair veteran Thaddaeus Ropac, “and think everything is cheap over here because of the currency, even if it isn’t a bargain.”

He wasn’t so sure about the mood of the Americans. “It’s too early to understand what’s going on. We used to be able to sell works over here just by sending out e-mails beforehand, because Americans love to make quick decisions. I’m not so sure that’s happening now.”

Ropac sold to European clients two major paintings brought over specially for the fair, including Ilya Kabakov’s figurative abstraction In the Park from 1973 (2003) for $450,000 and Georg Baselitz’s Mantel (Remix) from 2007 for $550,000.

“They’re going back to Europe,” says the dealer.

Editor's note: The original version of this article stated that Hauser & Wirth had sold two of three editions of Paul McCarthy's Mimi. It has been corrected to read that there are six in the edition.