Art Basel Miami Beach opened to VIPs on Tuesday, drawing in top collectors, artworld bigs, and Leonardo DiCaprio.
The star was spotted taking an interest in some edgy works, including a piece on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and a painting of what looked like a kinky alien lap dance.
DiCaprio was spotted in his signature black hat and mask checking out the fair at the Miami Convention Center for hours with two pals, and being led around by a seeming art advisor.
“You know how some people lower their glasses when they’re inspecting art,” mused a spy. “That’s what happens with Leo’s mask. It kept sliding down when he was looking at the work.”
DiCaprio was at the Rudolphe Jassen booth taking interest in a $35,000 painting by Patrizio di Massimo called “Untitled (Monsters),” featuring what looked like some sort of interspecies threesome.
The saucy painting depicts a man sitting on a chair being mounted by an orange monster while another blue monster stands behind him.
DiCaprio was even seen taking pics of the title card as well as getting a business card from the gallery.
The “Titanic” star — who reportedly already owns art by Egon Schiele, Pablo Picasso, and Takashi Murakami — was also seen staring intently for several minutes at a piece by Grayson Perry called “The American Dream,” which features a giant Mark Zuckerberg face, at the Paragon booth.
The $75,000 blue-and-red etching features the Meta mastermind’s head at the top of a map with faux locations like “the patriarchy,” “fake news” and “gender fluid.”
“He looked really interested in it,” says a spy. “The art advisor was pointing out things on the piece to him.”
Other stars and top collectors at the fair — which is celebrating its 20th year with a record 282 galleries — on Tuesday included Sylvester Stallone, Martha Stewart, James Goldstein, Princess Firyal of Jordan, Laurie Tisch, Beth Rudin DeWoody and former Knicks player Amar’e Stoudemire.
“Art Basel Miami never misses,” Stoudemire, a fair regular who reportedly owns work by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, told us. “I am definitely shopping to see what’s here. I am on the lookout for the next wave… I am always looking to help out the emerging artist get their work out to the public and enhance their visibility.”
Meanwhile, mega Miami collectors Don and Mera Rubell, who show off their collection at their own 100,000-square-foot museum, were spotted being turned away at the UBS lounge.
“The Rubells were polite and introduced themselves and they turned them away,” said a gobsmacked spy. “They won’t let anyone in there.”
Reps for the Rubells did not immediately comment.
They weren’t the only ones having issues. The fair got off to a somewhat bumpy start in the morning when Art Basel’s app went down, and some attendees were unable to access their tickets.
While the tech glitch did hold up some lines, and there was some exaggerated eye-rolling from VIPs unused to waiting, Page Six saw workers checking in attendees to speed up the process.
Over at satellite art fair Untitled, Pharrell Williams was spotted perusing the booths, along with Dia Art Foundation director Jessica Morgan and Metropolitan Museum of Art director Max Hollein.
Over at art fair Scope’s VIP preview, Joe Jonas and wife Sophie Turner were spotted with their daughter. “Joe was pushing the stroller around, and it was very cute,” a spy told Page Six. The pair have two daughters.
The parties also have started. White Cube Gallery hosted a dinner and bash with a performance by “Milkshake” singer Kelis on Monday that brought out guests including Jonas and Eric André.
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