Last week they finalised details for their first fair of 2002, The International Asian Art Fair, to be held in March in a purpose-built pavilion in Damrosch Park, adjacent to the Metropolitan Opera House and the New York State Theater in the south-west corner of the Lincoln Center Plaza at 62nd Street.
The New York fairs scene was thrown into disarray after September 11 when the Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue was taken over for civic use. This has long been the favoured venue for Manhattan’s prestige fairs and the Haughtons had to cancel two autumn events. The more important of these, October’s International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show, is by some distance America’s top event and the international trade suffered by its loss.
The Haughtons mooted using the top gallery at Sotheby’s in New York for their international fair but this proved not just logistically difficult but very unpopular with many exhibitors.
Since then they have been searching Manhattan for a suitable venue in a city which is notorious for its lack of space suitable for antiques fairs.
The Haughtons’ Asian fair in their Lincoln Center marquee will be followed by their fine art fair in May with details of subsequent events yet to be announced. Leading dealers in America, the United Kingdom and Europe will be relieved to hear the Haughtons have found a suitable New York venue for their fairs and the announcement should go some way towards stabilising the uneasy antiques scene in the city.
Lincoln Center to be Haughtons’ New York venue
March Asian art fair to be first event: London-based organisers Brian and Anna Haughton have secured a site at the prestigious Lincoln Center on Manhattan’s Upper West Side as the venue for their New York fairs.
