''This is going better than I expected,'' said Rumbolo, of New York's Carolina Nitsch gallery. In fact, 75 percent of the galleries in the convention center described themselves as ''extremely likely'' to return next year, if invited.

Landau Fine Art, a Montreal gallery, had sold nine of 11 paintings on display by Austrian artist Christoph Kiefhaber, ranging from $18,000 to $35,000 each. Three out of five of the artist's glass and ceramic sculptures on display, priced in the range of $16,500 to $19,500, were snapped up, too.

The gallery's proprietor, Robert Landau, cautioned against putting too much weight on sales pace because serious buyers may wait weeks or months to purchase art they spot at a show. At the high end, he was offering a surrealistic oil painting, Les grces naturelles by René Magritte, for $11.5 million.

''You can't sell all your masterpieces in one show, nor do you want to,'' Landau said. ``It doesn't mean anything if works don't sell right away.''

Results from inside the Basel showroom were slightly weaker than the total survey tally. More than half of the official Basel galleries saw sales decline, with a quarter describing the drop as more than 30 percent.

Anne Cook, art administrator for Capital One, was perusing the Aqua art fair on Day 3 of a five-day acquisitions hunt for the company's new corporate center in Plano, Texas.

''I'm looking for Texas and Louisiana artists because that is the focus of the collection,'' she said. Cook expects headquarters to cut her budget this year but also thinks her money will go farther. ''You can get good deals on good work,'' she said.

Art dealers saw an upside to the thinned-out crowds for Basel week: more time to talk up serious buyers.

''This year, it is more collectors,'' Parisian art dealer Jean de Lassus said from the Gallerie Lelia Mordoch's spot at Miami Beach's Bridge fair. ``Last year, there were more people from the beach and cruises popping in.''

Miami Herald staff writer Jaweed Kaleem contributed to this report.

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