At Frieze London, Huge Crowds Mask an Uncertain Art Market Outlook

An hour and a half into the VIP opening of Frieze London, collector Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo sinks into a couch in the Deutsche Bank lounge. “I’ve visited the fair since its first year” in the early 2000s, says Rebaudengo, who has a collection of more than 1,500 pieces of contemporary art and an art foundation based in Turin. “I have never seen as many people as this year. It’s really unbelievable.”

At least anecdotally (Frieze won’t release visitor numbers until the fair has closed), the opening-day attendance was unprecedented. Never, in recent memory at any art fair in any country, were the first VIP day’s crowds so large. Aisles and booths of the fair, held in a tent in Regent’s Park through Oct. 16, are filled with an uncomfortably packed crowd of well-dressed art collectors.