The art historian has returned to Art Basel, the company where he’d worked for six years until 2021. Now he is CEO, overseeing the art fair’s mainstay events in Basel, Hong Kong and Miami, as well as more recent arrival Art Basel Paris+. After turbulent years at parent company MCH, stabilised by the entrance of investor James Murdoch, Horowitz’s task is to further steady the ship, and to provide a bulwark against the buying spree of rivals Frieze. He did that with the Hong Kong event, which bucked political uncertainty with 177 galleries this year (it had 134 in 2022), but exhibitor levels still have not reached their prepandemic numbers. If Art Basel now has to contend with three American fairs under the Frieze umbrella, the French event has been judged a success. MCH might be looking to accelerate its global reach in the future too (though it cancelled Masterpiece in London) and experiment with different formats, with Murdoch recently speaking admiringly of the ‘travelling circus’ business model of Formula 1 racing.