A star-studded opening of Art Basel Miami Beach on Wednesday saw a flurry of sales, yet the world's most deep-pocketed buyers were somewhat cautious. The sweet spot for fast sales came in below $500,000 while marquee works by the likes of Andy Warhol and Francis Bason, priced upwards of $15 million, remained booth-bound.

This edition of the largest contemporary art fair in the U.S. sharply juxtaposed high-level consumerism and the political/social activism of some artists, notes artnet. Case in point: Anish Kapoor's floor sculpture Like an Ear (2014) from London's Lisson Gallery, is made of pink stone quarried from Afghanistan's worn-torn and poor northern region.

Bloomberg reports that the night hosted actor Sylvester Stallone in an "acquiring mood", hedge fund managers Kenneth Griffin and James Chanos, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez and directors of the world's top museums, among the VIPs.

Helmed now by the former Armory Show director Noah Horowitz, the beachy Art Basel has some 267 international galleries filling the Miami Beach Convention Center. Through Dec. 6, artworks valued at $3 billion are offered for sale, according to insurer and fair sponsor Axa Art. Read more about opening night sales here.

Miami Herald reports, "This year’s show confirms that painting, pronounced dead time and again, is indeed alive and thriving." Both historic and contemporary abstract and figurative works, many by female artists, took center stage in many booths. Of note, Mary Boone Gallery showed five women artists, including Barbara Kruger, whose new work “Water Oil Land Air,” showing a giant faucet, spouts the question “Who Owns What?”