UBS, Global Lead Partner of Art Basel, celebrates the show's Miami Beach 2017 edition

On Thursday December 7, UBS will release new findings on the habits of art collectors and their implications in an Investor Watch Pulse Survey

Artwork presentation in the UBS lounge in Miami Beach will showcase UBS Art Collection artist Shahzia Sikander

Miami Beach, 4 December 2017 – UBS, Global Lead Partner of Art Basel, celebrates the opening of Art Basel in Miami Beach 2017 with the release on Thursday, December 7, of a special Investor Watch Pulse Survey, For the Love of Art. The findings will reveal the attitudes and behaviors of affluent and high net worth art collectors. In the UBS VIP lounge for clients and guests, there will be a focused presentation of the work of UBS Art Collection artist Shahzia Sikander.

“Like our clients, UBS wants to be where the art world gathers and we have an extensive history of contributing to a meaningful dialogue about contemporary art. Our long-term partnership with Art Basel, coupled with our renowned art collection, is at the core of our involvement in contemporary art,” explained John Mathews, Group Managing Director, Head of Private Wealth Management and Ultra High Net Worth, UBS Wealth Management Americas. “As the global leader in wealth management, we strive to offer our clients the best advice and solutions. Through our research publications, including the UBS/PwC Billionaire’s Report and our quarterly Investor Watch Report, and as co-publisher of 'The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report' by Dr. Clare McAndrew, we are able to develop and provide intelligence on the art market and collecting to our clients and beyond.”

UBS has had a long-standing relationship with Art Basel, serving as Lead Partner of the original show in Basel, Switzerland since 1994, Miami Beach since its inception in 2002, and Hong Kong since 2014. As Art Basel’s global footprint continues to expand with new initiatives, so does UBS’s support, mirroring the bank’s growth in global markets and its shared belief with Art Basel in creating a global platform for the exchange of ideas that drive the art world forward. UBS also recently announced its role as Global Lead Partner of Art Basel Cities, a new initiative which expands Art Basel's engagement in the art world to working with cities to develop cultural programs that share the city's vitality with global audiences, offering the art world new opportunities to discover and engage with cultural scenes across the world, the first of which – Buenos Aires – was launched this fall.

UBS Investor Watch Pulse Survey – For the Love of Art

In a special Investor Watch Pulse Survey, UBS studied the attitudes and behaviors of fine art collectors, and will release the findings on December 7 to coincide with Art Basel in Miami Beach. The Q417 UBS Investor Watch Report, issued on November 9, looked at broader collecting segments and found that most collectors have spent more than 20 years accumulating their collections, which represent on average 10% of their total wealth. Gold and precious metals (49%), fine art (36%), precious jewelry (26%), stamps (22%), antiques (16%), automobiles (15%) and wine (12%) are the most collected items.

For the Love of Art follows the release of the UBS/PwC Billionaires Report 2017, "New value creators gain momentum." This report outlines that the emergence of great wealth is paying dividends for art collecting – not only in the US but globally and especially in Asia. US collectors continue to lead the list, but Chinese art collectors are increasingly active. The report illustrates a growth in the engagement in art by billionaires, further globalizing art collecting and patronage, with private museums growing in number, especially in Asia, making art more accessible to a broader public.

UBS Art Collection at Art Basel in Miami Beach

This year’s annual presentation in the firm’s VIP lounge will feature the work of Pakistani-American and UBS Art Collection artist Shahzia Sikander. The focus reflects the Collection's mission to engage deeply with represented artists. Sikander's pioneering practice reimagines historical Indian and Persian miniature painting. Experimenting through scale and media, her work often highlights how dislocation of objects, ideas, concepts and forms over time and through history, keep meaning in constant flux. One of the recurring motifs that she has developed is the hair worn by female worshippers of the Hindu deity Krishna, known as Gopi. These Gopi particles morph into different forms such as suns and spheres. In recent years, Sikander has focused on creating mosaics ranging from intimate objects to large scale, site-specific installations. The UBS lounge presentation will include mosaics, digital animations, works on paper, and prints to exemplify the breadth of her oeuvre.

UBS Art Studio at Art Basel in Miami Beach

This year, UBS hosts the UBS Art Studio, a public space on the east side of the Miami Beach Convention Center that will be open to all visitors throughout the duration of the show, through December 10. Guests are invited to relax and enjoy complimentary juices, engage in UBS live social media coverage of the show, read UBS art and business publications and explore UBS’s signature art news app, Planet Art.

Notes to Editors

About UBS Investor Watch
UBS Wealth Management Americas surveys U.S. investors on a quarterly basis to keep a pulse on their needs, goals and concerns. After identifying several emerging trends in the survey data, UBS decided in 2012 to create the UBS Investor Watch to track, analyze and report the sentiment of affluent and high net worth investors. For more information on Investor Watch, visit ubs.com/investorwatch.

The quarterly survey, in its twenty-first edition, polled over 2,000 affluent and high net worth investors and reported the findings in a report called "For love, not money." For this twenty-first edition of UBS Investor Watch, we surveyed 2,475 high net worth investors with at least $1M in investable assets from September 15 – 25, 2017, including 608 with at least $5M. 1,017 survey respondents are collectors. Of those, 363 collect fine art. For more insights, visit ubs.com/investorwatch.

About UBS Investor Watch Pulse
The UBS Investor Watch Pulse Survey is designed as a shorter, "rapid response" reaction to pressing issues of the day. In addition to the December Investor Watch Pulse Report, UBS published, Redefining expectations: Women entrepreneurs are overcoming barriers to succeed (April 2017) and Eagerly awaiting results: Business owners anticipate tax reform (November 2017).

About UBS and Contemporary Art
UBS has a long and substantial record of contemporary art patronage and holds one of the world’s largest and most important corporate art collections. The firm actively enables clients and audiences to participate in the international conversation about art and the global art market through its global lead partnership with Art Basel and the firm’s collaboration with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative. These activities are complemented by partnerships with fine art institutions including the Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland, Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Milan, the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. UBS provides its clients thoughtful insight and guidance on art and collecting through the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, UBS PwC Billionaire’s Report, and the forthcoming Investor Watch pulse survey, For the Love of Art. The UBS Arts Forum convenes and connects exceptional people in the art world, providing thought leadership at the cutting edge of contemporary art. For more information about UBS’s commitment to contemporary art, visit ubs.com/art.

Significance of the UBS Art Collection
UBS has been an active contemporary art collector since the 1960s, a practice driven by the company’s long-held belief that the art of today provides inspiration and challenge while encouraging the innovative thinking that has shaped UBS’s corporate culture over the last half century. Comprised of various individual art collections with unique attributes that have been integrated over time through a series of mergers and acquisitions – notably between Union Bank of Switzerland, Swiss Bank Corporation and PaineWebber Inc. – the UBS Art Collection currently includes more than 30,000 paintings, works on paper, photography, sculpture, video and installations by artists from around the world. The vast majority of these works are displayed in UBS offices globally, serving as an inspiration for employees and a platform for dialogue with clients and the public. UBS takes a dynamic approach to the collection, continuing to grow and evolve its holdings, acquiring works from around the world in accordance with the geographical reach of its business. UBS also actively supports artists and galleries and actively lends works to major art museums and cultural institutions for public exhibitions.

UBS and Contemporary Art - museum shows and events 2018
Artists Talks: Georg Baselitz, Hosted by Fondation Beyeler and UBS in Basel, February 16, 2018.

Georg Baselitz is represented in the UBS Art Collection by 11 works, including a wooden sculpture 'Die Wendin', which will be loaned to the Fondation Beyeler for a major retrospective of the artist's work from January 21st until April 29th, 2018

'But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise': Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa, Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative, Galleria d’Arte Moderna Milano (GAM),
April 11 – June 17, 2018

Ed Ruscha VERY. Works from the UBS Art Collection at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark
May 17 – August 19, 2018
56 important works by Ed Ruscha from the UBS Art Collection will be presented at a dedicated exhibition.

About Art Basel
Founded in 1970 by gallerists from Basel, Art Basel today stages the world's premier art shows for Modern and contemporary art, sited in Basel, Miami Beach and Hong Kong. Defined by its host city and region, each show is unique, which is reflected in its participating galleries, artworks presented, and the content of parallel programming produced in collaboration with local institutions for each edition.

Art Basel’s engagement has expanded beyond art fairs through a number of new initiatives. In 2014, Art Basel launched its Crowdfunding Initiative, in collaboration with Kickstarter. This initiative presents jury-selected art projects to potential benefactors, which include Art Basel’s vibrant audience and the Kickstarter community. The initiative has catalyzed much-needed support for outstanding non-commercial art projects worldwide and so far has helped pledge more than $2 million to creative projects around the world. For Art Basel Cities, launched in 2016, Art Basel is working with selected partner cities to develop vibrant and content-driven programs specific to the individual city. Connecting them to the global art world through Art Basel's expertise and network, Art Basel Cities supports its partners to develop their unique cultural landscape. For further information, please visit artbasel.com.

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Polskin Arts & Communications Counselors