Fairs and Markets

Surrey and Buxton events change hands: A Specialist shows organising firm have expressed confidence in the UK art and antiques trade by moving into the sector for the first time.

USA: New York fair organiser Sandford Smith has cancelled the Decorative Arts Fair planned for January 18-20 as part of New York’s Americana Week.

USA: Show promoter Stella Show Management was still waiting last week to learn whether or not the 69th Regiment Armory would reopen in time for their January Antiques at the Other Armory Show but they were relieved to learn that the Piers are reopening.

DEALERS stalling at Bermondsey Market have voiced further opposition to plans to redevelop the site as part of a £19m urban regeneration project.

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.

Radical changes are planned for next year’s 13th staging of one of the world’s top fairs, the Biennale des Antiquaires at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris.

As fresh, quality private consignments become ever scarcer, the competition for such works must make it difficult for auctioneers nationwide to put sales together. Although Bonhams’ (15/10 buyer’s premium) 400-lot Fine Asian Art sale on November 12 had fewer top quality works to tempt buyers than at Sotheby’s and Christie’s, the modestly estimated and fresh-to-the-market tea dust-glazed moonflask, Qianlong seal mark and period, saw buyers jostling for ownership.

EVERY dealer may dream of being in the spotlight but New York antiquities expert Dr. Jerome Eisenberg would have wished things different from the circumstances that put him there.

Olympia and Earls Court chief executive Andrew Morris has faced some 200 exhibitors, angry at the dismissal of show director Victoria Borwick, to reassure them about the Olympia fairs’ future.

TEFAF, the European Fine Art Foundation, who organise the Maastricht fair, have commissioned a detailed new study on the state of the European art market.

USA: STELLA Management have been forced to cancel New York’s Triple Pier Antiques Show despite moving the venue.

AWAY from New York, the international trade have been preparing to return to serious business in the US at David and Lee Ann Lester’s second annual Texas International Fine Art Fair, running from November 1 to 7.

Sotheby’s (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) move to Olympia was accompanied by a rethink of auction selling categories. Their general ceramic and glass sales have been split into smaller specialised European ceramics, British ceramics and glass auctions each to be held tri-annually at Olympia.

A new design fair made its debut last month in Paris at the Carrousel du Louvre on September 29. Focusing on pieces, from the 1950s to the present SM’ART (le salon du mobilier et de l’objet design) mixed post-war design classics from Italy, France and Scandinavia with works by contemporary designers.

THE long-awaited – and often controversial – scheme to redevelop Bermondsey Square is due to take a major step forward. Architects Arup Associates, who won the competition to design the new-look site, were due to submit their plans to Southwark Council for approval.

FAIRS organisers in New York plan to approach the city authorities with a view to getting events back on track as soon as possible. But they fear that with the continuing problems facing the city, it will be January at the earliest before suitable space can be found to resume anything close to a normal service.

LONDON: Long-established organiser Caroline Penman launches a new summer fair in London next year when The New Chelsea Antiques Show is held at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea.

Staff briefed on avoiding conflicts of interest. Sotheby's have sent out a memo to leading members of the trade involved with fairs at Olympia to explain how they will support exhibitors.

MORE than 20 of New York’s top dealers who had signed up for the cancelled International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show are holding special selling exhibitions in their shops and galleries from October 18 to 23.

DEALER antipathy and logistical problems have forced Anna and Brian Haughton to postpone their New York International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show after all.