The Fairest Antiques and Fine Art Fairs in 2009

Eighteenth-century, ormolu, Chinoiserie mirror on the wall, which are the fairest 2009 fine and decorative arts fairs of them all?

It was a year when the art markets held firm—despite the global financial roller coaster and talk of gloom, doom and worse, depreciation. Attendance at the world’s greatest antiques and fine art fairs stayed strong, as did sales. And even if records for both didn’t continue to pop like champagne corks, neither were they unheard of.

The year’s last big bubbly (as in celebration, not bubble!) was The International Fine Art & Antique Dealers Show in October in New York, which had record crowds and major sales, such as the 12-foot-by-5-foot “Ricci Map.” Printed on rice paper from six huge wood blocks and designed to be mounted on a folding screen, the masterwork was made in 1602 by Matteo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit priest who was fluent in reading and writing classical Chinese. The map depicts the world with China as its center (prescient, or simply a neo-con’s nightmare?). It is also the first map in Chinese to show the Americas, the first printed map incorporating both eastern and western cartography, and, with a sale price of approximately seven figures, the second most expensive printed map ever sold (a Waldseemüller world map, printed by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in April 1507, the first to name “America” and now in the Library of Congress, has top honors at $1,002,267). Above right are several panels of the map from one of the other six extant examples.

In addition to generally solid sales and crowds in 2009, dealers—and by extension the fairs—saw the buyer’s pendulum swing back in their direction, establishing greater balance with the auction houses, which due to generous guarantees, highly publicized sales and strong results, had been favored for several years. (That said, decorative arts sales results at the auction houses have performed well in the last year, too, most notably the record-shattering Saint Laurent-Bergé sale in the winter, followed by a very successful fall reprise.)

All this good fair news, however, does not mean there was only good news. The Moscow World Fine Art Fair, which debuted in 2004, and The Salzburg World Fine Art Fair, which debuted in 2007, are no more. Even more surprisingly, the Grosvenor House Art & Antiques fair, established in 1934 and with royal patronage, shuttered. Regardless, a multitude of major new fairs and partnerships for 2010 have been announced, and momentum amongst fair organizers, dealers and collectors is positive and increasing.

What were the standouts of 2009?

1. Best Overall Antiques and Fine Art Fair:

The European Fine Art Fair, or TEFAF, held in March in Maastricht, Holland. The fair bills itself as “The World’s Leading Art and Antiques Fair.” It’s no idle boast. The numbers speak for themselves: over 239 dealers exhibited in 2009, showing wares worth collectively over $1 billion and running the full gamut of human civilization; representatives from 180 museums from 29 countries attended; and 130 private jets landed at the nearby Maastricht-Aachen airport. As far as the quality of goods offered, dealers have been known to horde and hide their choicest, rarest pieces, unveiling them at TEFAF.

Need a Rembrandt? A Hals? This is the place to go. Not one to rest on its Renaissance Old Masters laurels, TEFAF constantly innovates, making sure that this grandest of dames stays fresh. Last year, the addition was TEFAF Design, a discrete upstairs section of ten dealers specializing in 20^th-century and contemporary design. This year, it’s TEFAF on Paper, 19 dealers (18 exhibiting at the fair for the first time) specializing in Old Master and modern drawings, limited edition prints, photography, antiquarian books and manuscripts, watercolors and Japanese prints.

2. Best Up and Comer:

The Brussels Antiques & Fine Arts Fair, or BRAFA, held in Brussels in late January. Decoratively, the first decade of the new millennia has  belonged in large part to Belgium, in particular its Design King, Axel Vervoordt, whose influence has been broad and deep. (He is pictured at right in his booth, chatting with Queen Paola, in black.) It’s no surprise, then, that BRAFA (formerly “Foire des Antiquaires de Belgique) has upped its ante, going from what had long been an excellent European fair to an international fair of the first rank. This it has accomplished with typically Belgian virtues: industry and hard work alongside a cultivated aesthetic, sense of humor and humility. The fair’s motto: “One of the most inspiring fairs in the world.” The ten-day fair, consisting of 130 dealers, was opened by Belgium’s Queen Paola and Princess Astrid, and is particularly strong in African art, antiquities and contemporary art. Its exceptional performance early this year helped to quell overall art market anxieties.

3. Most Improved:

The American International Fine Art Fair (AIFAF), held in Palm Beach in early February. Lee Ann and David Lester are the rock stars and dice rollers of the fair world. After successfully launching the AIFAF in 1997 and selling it in 2001 to DMG World Media for $18 million, the duo re-purchased what had become an ailing fair in June 2008. Amazingly, they turned the 2009 fair around in little more than seven months. Many of the departed dealers returned (they numbered 70), with enthusiasm anew (at right is an image of New York-based dealer Carlton Hobbs’s standout stand). Collectors returned as well. This year’s vernissage set a record at 3,400, and with strong sales.

In 2009, the Lesters also resumed control of another Palm Beach-based fair, Artpalmbeach, and entered into a joint venture with Clarion Events to be directors of the Olympia International Art & Antiques Fair, renamed the London International Fine Art Fair at Olympia. Long a staple on collectors’ calendars, Olympia, a huge fair with well over two hundred dealers, has lately languished. Hopefully the Doctors Lester can heal it.

4. Best in the United States:

The International Fine Art & Antique Dealers Show, or simply The International, held mid to late October at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. The last major international fair of the year and the first of the fall, The International hit all the right notes. Sales for and sentiment from for its 65 dealers were strong, making the financial tremors of the previous October seem much further than a year past. A staple of the Manhattan social circuit, the preview party also raised nearly $700,000 for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Just as the Lesters are the fair world’s rock stars, so are Anna and Brian Haughton, The International’s organizers, fair world royalty. The International is the cornerstone of their family of fairs, and was the first U.S. fair to introduce vetting. The U.K.-based couple started in 1982 with The International Ceramics Fair & Seminar in London, and have been venturing further, farther and wider ever since (always with great panache and style). This June, the Haughtons will launch their latest fair, Art Antiques London, in a custom built marquee opposite the Royal Albert Hall, close to the site of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Needless to say, excitement and expectations are high, especially in light of the demise this year of the Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair.