Date: Fri 27-Mar-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: SHIRLE

Quick Words:

PalmBeach

Full Text:

Palm Beach International Art & Antiques Fair

w/cuts

By Fran Kramer

Photos By Liz Baker

PALM BEACH, FLA. -- When The New York Times, USA Today, Womens Wear Daily, and

the Financial Times of London write about an antiques show, you know it must

be something special.

The second annual Palm Beach International Art and Antique Fair January 30 to

February 8 was a show of shows, featuring the finest and the most expensive

objets d'art.

More than $50 million dollars was spent on objects from the show, according to

organizers David and Lee Ann Lester (David, a former lawyer, art gallery owner

and now in the exhibition business).

A $4-million dollar Renoir here; a $100,000 Russian Classical table there.

Books, jewelry, paintings and some furniture, brought by 65 dealers from

Europe, the United States, and South America, were offered to a total gate of

more than 31,000 people, an increase of 40 percent from last year's attendance

of 22,000.

In the city of the rich and famous, the red carpets were rolled out up to a

custom-designed tent on Flagler Drive in the heart of an area where a

sophisticated, moneyed group of collectors stay. Although there were smaller

antiques shows in the area, until last year not one was of the scale and

stature of what Lester has in mind.

Next year, more dealers, perhaps up to 75, will participate in a bigger and

more permanent facility, which will have more room for that imperative in Palm

Beach: valet parking. The dealers will be drawn from a waiting list of top

names in the business, according to Lester.

As one local paper said, "The mansion builders have returned," referring to

those who demand creations beyond mere mortals. Their homes are estates of

20,000 to 64,000 square feet; at least 20 in this price range exist around

Palm Beach. Costing from $5 to $20 million each, they need to be filled with

the finest money can buy.

Interior designer Mario Buatta, ex-Winter Antiques Show chairperson, brought

in his talent as co-chairperson of the show, along with actress Dina Merrill.

No one saw Merrill; she had other things to do, but lending her name was

enough. The event opened with a gala to benefit the Norton Museum of Art. The

Palm Beach landmark also enjoyed the increased interest in the fair: some

$99,000 was raised, up from $41,000 the previous year. Another attraction was

a lecture series featuring eight speakers who addressed topics ranging from

diamonds to rare manuscripts.

And the 200-page hardcover show catalogue was like a museum publication,

featuring color pictures of outstanding artifacts with detailed descriptions.

Despite touch-and-go weather, the ten-day event went off without a hitch,

according to the Lesters, who also reported that 80 percent of the dealers

sold at a profit.

"This fair went beyond our most optimistic expectations," said David Lester.

"The majority of dealers made significant profits and have signed on for

1999."

Lester also noted that 50 percent of the sales were made by people who flew to

the fair specifically for the purpose of buying. "It just wasn't the local

residents who purchased," he emphasized. Some of the "locals" who were

spotted, however, were Stephanie Seymour and Peter Brant, David and Julia

Koch, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Mr and Mrs Dixon Boardman, Jan Cowles, Molly

Wilmot, and Mr and Mrs A. Alfred Taubman.

Among the those exhibitors who reported significant sales were Parisian

dealers Phillip Cazeau and Jacques de la Beraudiere, who sold an outstanding

Renoir painting, priced at $4 million, as well as paintings by Pissarro,

Sisley, Miro, and Rouault. A set of nine Sixteenth Century Italian terra-cotta

portrait medallions of Roman emperors was sold by Ariane Dandois, Paris.

London arms-and-armor dealer Peter Finer sold a set of Sixteenth Century Pisan

armor for a man and horse.

Simon Finch sold the full set of first-edition presentation copies of Winnie

the Pooh by A.A. Milne (given to the author's nanny, Olive Rand); Sam Fogg

sold a French Fourteenth Century polychrome wood carving of the Virgin and

Child with St Anne; and New York dealer William Beadleston sold a rare set of

Picasso ceramic plates.

Among this year's noted American dealers were Hirschl and Adler, Artemis Fine

Arts, Florian Papp, and Calderwood Gallery.

Other dealers who reported brisk business were Antique Japanese Screens,

Imperial Oriental Arts, and Imperial Fine Books, all from New York City; the

Richard Green Gallery and Cohen and Cohen, both from London, England; Bernard

Steinitz, Herve Odermatt, and Galerie Segoura, all from Paris, France; and

manuscript dealer Bruce P. Ferrini from Ohio.

Jewelry was a major attraction at the fair. Selling was brisk at the stands of

David Morris, Garrard & Co, and Hancock of London, Fred Leighton of New York

City, and Richters of Palm Beach.

A Russian table brought by dealer Ariane Dandois also sold at the show and was

one of Buatta's choices when asked by a newspaper to select his top ten. The

objects he chose, ranging from a George III silver tray at $600,000 to a

five-inch wooden horse from Japan at $16,000, totalled $5 million themselves!

Can they top this?

Well, Lester thinks so next year, calling the show the dealers' answer to the

auction houses. In the meantime, he'll be out in Beverly Hills for that

International Art and Antiques Fair October 29 to November 3.

Anyone know Robin Leach's phone number?