If Instagram is any judge, the VIP preview day of Frieze Los Angeles, no matter its success, was overshadowed by the fawning attention thrown upon one man:

Brad Pitt.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt5yzaLFwSo/

Usually frenzied by the demands of business on art-fair preview days, looking to close sales and make connections with the promise of future remuneration, art insiders seem to have melted at the sight of an actual celebrity, and were seemingly unable to keep themselves from gushing at the prospect of taking their very own selfies with the one, the only, Brad Pitt.

Of course, some dealers tried to channel their unabashed excitement by—as calmly as is humanly possible—explaining the importance of their wares…

… while others kept their distance, snapping photos from afar, afraid, no doubt, of the actor’s inexorable charm…

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But inevitably, the desire to take selfies with the man seems to have overcome all commercial and self-protective impulses. Like a disease, his unrelenting appeal spread from dealers to advisors and writers to collectors, leaving, it seems, no one immune.

In fact, there are so many photos of the actor that by the end of his day, he seems to have withered from exhaustion, spent by the demand to take selfie after selfie with his adoring, rabid fans.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt4K8ZLnQao/

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No other celebrity in attendance, it seems—not Leonardo DiCaprio, nor Sylvester Stallone; not Amber Heard, not Jodie Foster, not James Corden—could compete with Pitt’s gravitational pull, nor with his absolute willingness to pose. 

And no one else, we are confident to predict, will ever inspire, in the short order of a VIP fair preview in Los Angeles, his own meme.

Ladies and gentleman, we rest our case.