Ah Basel, here we are again, like Swann returning to Odette. Each year the bratwurst are more expensive than the year before but they come so snuggly packed in a Swissly folded napkin. You can’t say no. But one must not gush. This is the first rule. We are here to observe with an air of detachment and weariness. We are not Mme. Verdurin but a perfectly corrupt balance of narrator and Baron Charlus.

Basel is a small town of a mere 165,000 people tucked into the northern corner of Switzerland bordering Germany and France. It is home to the vast mega-pharma Roche (good for post-party pain-killers) and boasts dozens of excellent art institutions, including a clutch of the most influential museums in Europe from the Basel Art Museum to Fondation Beyeler to the Basel Kunsthalle. This is Switzerland, so the place is littered with banks, like Starbucks in Seattle or Chanel in Shanghai. And each year it hosts the single most important art fair; it did not invent it (Cologne did) but it did perfect it. (N.B. it is rather crass to say “f_ _ _”; they do prefer the word “show”.)

Other “shows” may come along from time to time but they never acquire the quasi-pilgrimage cachet of Basel. The NetJets are booked out but so are the youth hostels. Not only are collectors dancing about like kids in the Willy Wonka factory but so are curators, museum directors, writers, academics and artists by the thousands, from the truly talented down to wannabe nude guerrillas.

Was it successful? Of course it was. You can read about the reported sales in a host of articles, and some of them may even be accurate. Of course, no one knows the truth. The only indications are the numbers of exclusive galleries, oodles of collectors and the shifting blue-chip commodities (art, in case you have to ask). Most business is done on the first day. The really serious business often concluded in the opening minutes of the VIP preview.

The success is not random. Everything has been planned and measured to the nth degree—not only which works to show on which day, but everything from the width of the aisles to strategic distance from the VIP lounge entrance (Esther Schipper won this year—and it was one of the best and most photographed booths).

As usual, certain artists were more present than others. Martin Boyce has a major show at Kunstmuseum Basel’s Museum für Gegenwartskunst. So his work was to be seen at numerous booths and also in Art Unlimited, Art Basel’s curated show for large-scale and installation art. David Hammons popped up regularly (e.g. Mnuchin and Salon 94) but most pleasing of all, Haim Steinbach appears to be enjoying a well deserved resurgence. One of the most popular displays was Sarah Sze at Victoria Miro. However, an artist I have long admired and appears to be crossing over into wide international recognition is Alicja Kwade (König Galerie, Kamel Mennour and 303 Gallery).

There was a lot of Zombie Abstraction but it was the pinnacle of this trend, so most was actually good. Was there also flippant, supercilious art? Really, you have to ask? There are quite a few people who like paying lots of money for the superficial. Some don’t care. Some don’t know. As the saying goes, keep your friends close, and your prejudices closer. My favourites included John Armleder at Almine Rech and Heimo Zobernig “Untitled” 2013 (Galerie Micheline Szwajcer).

For Chinese art, galleries and collectors, there were more than ever before. This is an art fair show, so let’s go by galleries. There were the longstanding stalwarts of ShanghART (Lu Lei, Zhang Enli, Ding Yi) and Long March Space (Zhu Yu, Wang Jianwei), and Galerie Urs Meile (Li Gang, Hu Qingyan) and the global-gallery Pace, of course.

Joining ShanghART (Zhang Enli) and Long March Space (Liu Wei) at Art Unlimited was Leo Xu Projects (Liu Chuang). Antenna Space was present for the first time at LISTE (Yu Honglei), the fair for emerging galleries (and part owned by Art Basel). Platform China was a regular at LISTE for some years. This time Platform China made it into Basel proper, presenting in the Statements section Ai Weiwei’s apprentice/acolyte, Zhao Zhao.

Bernier Eliades showed some small paintings by Liang Wei, one of the most underrated artists in China, both video and painting (probably because she is not a show off and a woman—the Chinese art scene is still very macho). New York’s Marlborough showed a flock of Ai Weiwei’s (deep breath) very expensive pots. AYE Gallery (Beijing) had some wonderful recent works by Liu Wei (b.1965, i.e. the older one).

I have long been a fan of Tatiana Trouvé, so it was a delight to see her whimsical installation about exhibitions and absence at Galerie Perrotin. Another favourite booth was Andréhn-Schiptjenko (Stockholm), showing Gunnel Wåhlstrand and José León Cerrillo. This gallery also had one of the best booths at Art Basel Hong Kong this year.

Closing-time bell had rung, the halls almost empty of people. My camera was dying but had just enough juice to take one last photo as I ran out the door and away for another year, to reflect on giants and madeleines.