Billionaires flock to the 'gilded age' of art at Basel fair

New York

BILLIONAIRE hedge fund manager Dan Loeb and Lightyear Capital chairman Don Marron are among the collectors who will head to the Swiss city of Basel to check out the world's largest modern and contemporary art fair.

Art Basel opens to invited guests on Wednesday in the quiet Swiss city on the Rhine River. The fair's 46th edition includes 284 galleries from 33 countries showing works by 4,000 artists. Insurer AXA Art estimates there's three billion euros (S$4.5 billion) of art on view, about the same as last year.