Palm Beach! International Fine Art and Antiques Fair

WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.

:Palm Beach! America's International Fine Art & Antique Fair settled into its second-year run, February 5-13, at the well-planned Palm Beach County Convention Center with a larger roster of almost 100 exhibitors. The facility has a perfect location near the Norton Museum of Art and the main bridge to Palm Beach island, and was designed with all the amenities necessary for a show at this level, from good parking to lecture rooms.

As for the new, slightly silly event title this year, the powers-that-be at the International Fine Art Expositions division of dmgworldmedia have been tinkering again. The goal is to make the Palm Beach International - which started up in 1997 housed in a tentlike pavilion - into the Maastricht of the Americas. They have also tried various name adjustments to distinguish this fair from their own contemporary event conducted earlier in January, which they currently call palmbeach3 (combining contemporary art, photography and decorative arts).

The interior of the fair is cool, dark, elegant and beautifully constructed. Visually, it achieves the "image of exclusivity, high quality and luxury" that fair director David Setford discussed at the press conference for American and foreign media. Mr Setford pointed out that the show had added more mid-Twentieth Century art and more antique furniture, highlighted distinguished new dealers and called attention to the six "designer vignettes" around the floor, which they hope will encourage professionals to bring clients to the show.

The Palm Beach International has many fine dealers who have stuck with the event as the West Palm Beach city center neighborhood - shops, hotels, performing arts center and convention space - was built up around the fair's prime location on Okeechobee Avenue. Veterans include Steinitz of Paris, London jewelry firm Graff, New York art dealer James Francis Trezza, armor specialist Peter Finer, Belgium's Axel Vervoordt and silver dealer Marks, who commented, "We're one of the originals."

The dealer roster, however, has never completely stabilized, a feat that remains a long-term goal of the management. Valuable exhibitors from the past, such as London's Wartski, last seen in 2003, Priestley & Ferraro with Chinese works of art, Twentieth Century specialist Two Zero C Applied Art and the Silver Fund of New York, have not returned for various reasons. Some, like Wartski and Ossowski, now only exhibit at the Haughton fair in New York. Others, like Historical Design and the Silver Fund, have joined the larger Palm Beach Jewelry and Antique Show. This 2004 newcomer presented by a different organization is conducted on the February Presidents' Day weekend at the same Palm Beach venue. Art and antiques is a competitive business.

The 2005 Palm Beach International was successful in finding excellent new exhibitors to replenish and enlarge the fair. Brothers Neil and Ian Franklin of London brought fine Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Century English silver, including a Paul de Lamerie basket, 1744, with the crest of Wellesley for the Duke of Wellington. Having sold things, Neil Franklin commented on Saturday, "The fair's gone well, actually; that's the general feeling of the dealers staying in the hotel. It's a fabulous-looking fair, it's improved year on year. The caliber of dealer here, at the risk of sounding big-headed, is pretty stunning. The expertise is outstanding from the earliest pieces through the Art Deco period. It takes a long time to fine tune a really good fair. We exhibit at several other fairs - this is definitely on a par with Maastricht and the Armory."

Collectors and the international press gathered in the booth of new exhibitor Jaime Eguiguren of Buenos Aires to view the most impressive early painting in the show, "The Crucifixion with the Virgin, St John and the Magdalen" by Franco de Zurbaran, dated 1655, $3.8 million. Eguiguren, whose inventory ranged from Spanish furniture to a Ptolemaic sarcophagus, said, "I heard about Palm Beach and I was here five years ago. I think it's a wonderful fair. After this, we're going to Maastricht in March."

First-timer Rita Bucheit of Chicago, who did the Winter Antiques Show for many years, brought Empire, Biedermeier, Vienna Secession and Art Deco pieces. A special offering was the original drawing by Koloman Moser (1868-1918) for the 1898 first issue of Ver Sacrum, $75,000. At one end of the booth was a charming Viennese Empire upright piano, circa 1810, $60,000 - still in working condition - and a remarkable Biedermeier globe-shaped worktable, Vienna, circa 1815, $80,000.

Bucheit had sold an impressive extendable Empire dining table, also circa 1810, one of four large tables sold by various exhibitors during the fair. The dealer noted, "I think this show has a lot of potential. I have observed it for many years. The management is good. They do this right."

One topic for dealers, back in the bar at the Marriott, was the effect of the fluctuating exchange rate between the US dollar and the euro and pound sterling. American collectors are feeling the pinch when they see current prices on objects brought across the pond, and it becomes harder for dealers who specialize in European decorative arts to restock their inventories on buying trips abroad.

But English textile dealer Marilyn Garrow admitted she had purchased several pieces from an American collection and was on the lookout for more quality material that might be picked up at a bargain dollar rate: "If I could find something to buy here, it would be brilliant!"

For larger firms, the best idea seems to be keep stock and money on both sides of the Atlantic. London silver dealer Ian Franklin said, "It hasn't really affected us - we keep a US bank account. We buy in America, so a lot of the things have been bought in dollars. It doesn't seem to make any difference to us what the rate is, although, as a business person, I prefer it to be stable."

Stability is much to be desired at all levels of life, and tinkering will undoubtedly continue at the Palm Beach Fair until a very high-end steady state is achieved. The change this year from a more formal evening benefit vernissage to a Friday 2-9 pm invitation-only preview might be altered again next year. Certainly on Saturday's opening day, crowds were strong, and exhibitors who had built up a regular clientele over the years were conducting serious business.