home | Local Time: 23rd February, 2012 10:55 AM
MOVERS & SHAKERS
If you want to know what's happening where, this is the place to look.
This Month: the UK and Australian columns are from the current Summer 2011/12 - Issue 43 of Antiques and Collectables for Pleasure & Profit.
The Euro Column
An update of European news from Judith Dunn
La Crise
This comes to you from Nice, on 27 October, a momentous date for the European economy - or so the pundits say. At 4am, the 17 Eurozone members finally thrashed out an agreement to save Greece and avert the threat of implosion. French bank shares promptly shot up by some 14%. The crisis has affected different sectors of the European art and antiques market in different ways. One middle-of-the-road French fairs' organiser, Rochette, had bravely relaunched a monthly trade event at Paris-Le Bourget in 2010. It will run in December 2011 but is suspended thereafter due to plummeting exhibitor numbers. Rochette have a number of successful Paris street markets to fall back on, so can probably afford to ride out the slump.
Plus ça change...
At the top end, as we have been reporting throughout, nothing much has changed. Recent frantic negotiations and stock-market yo-yoing might as well have been on another planet. October's European Auction Week, like September's Asian Art events and the second Marrakesh Art Fair, saw a raft of records pulverised and an awful lot of money changing hands. Individuals and institutions alike are investing in art and antiques as a safe refuge from a volatile financial situation. They can afford to take the long view.
Sales news
So what is selling at the top? In the summer, especially in Germany, it was modern and contemporary art, some very quirky. A Swiss dealer paid €500,000 ($668,000) at Lempertz, Cologne, for Dadaist Kurt Schwitters' 'Dancer'. 'The artist used plaster applied to bones chewed clean by his dog, and it may have been this method - or a tree root - which formed the basis of the 78cm curiosity. More conventionally, Old Masters continued to do very well, in Germany as elsewhere.
In the autumn, in Munich, three fairs ran concurrently and reported excellent results. So did the clutch of auction houses cashing in on the presence of visitors, many of them offering specifically German artefacts. Auctioneers in Italy, Spain, Holland and Belgium also got in on the act. The highest profile sales were in Vienna, where Dorotheum ran a series of sales. It was in the sculpture, glass and porcelain category, on 13 October, that a pair of vases (illustrated) was sold to a German telephone bidder for the sensational sum of €455,800 ($609,000). Produced at the Royal Porcelain Manufactory Berlin (KPM), they were intended as a present from Queen Luise of Prussia to Josephine Bonaparte, wife of Napoleon, then French Consul. Two years later, when the gift finally reached its recipient, Josephine was Empress of France. The exquisite decoration features views of their residence, Château de Malmaison.
Moving and shaking - and funfairs - in France
Auctions also dominate the scene in France. In the wake of shady dealings by porters at the Drouot auction premises in Paris, an eight-man supervisory board has been appointed to a three-year term of office. Headed by Claude Aguttes, a mover-and-shaker with salerooms in Paris and Lyon, it is designed to make the Drouot operation totally 'transparent'. Drouot made headlines in September, with Cornette de Saint Cyr's single-collection sale of fairground art. Amassed over 40 years by François and Fabienne Marchal, the 645 lots included a 5.8m hoopla from 1934, featuring celebrities such as Maurice Chevalier and Charlie Chaplin. Top lot, it doubled mid-estimate at €75,000 ($100,000). 99% of lots sold, netting €3m ($4m) on the hammer. The good news for enthusiasts is that institutions were major buyers, notably François Staub, whose 200 purchases will stock a museum to be opened in Colmar.
New to the internet auction scene is the venerable daily newspaper Le Figaro, in a joint venture with ATG Media. Its website already covered a wide range of cultural events and will now host the catalogues of major French auctioneers: www.lefigaro.fr/encheres. Independently, François Tajan of Artcurial has also gone global via the internet, with a third of successful bidders outside France. Artcurial is the top French house, after Christie's and Sotheby's, but is refusing to follow their example and specialise. M Tajan sees a good service to clients as encompassing all categories of goods. Notable in October was the sale focussing on Art Deco luminary Jean Prouvé and including entire buildings.
Paris again
September saw the ever-successful tribal arts-fest in Paris, le Salon international des arts premiers. A clever idea: there is no venue, you have a map taking you around all the major dealers, plus the visitors - including 15 from Brussels, where the genre took off via BRUNEAF.
In October, the Paris Foire international de l'art contemporain was another resounding success, reinforcing the strength of this sector. In the same month, the Fabius Frères collection notably included some wonderful Barye bronzes, cast in the master's lifetime. The 129-year-old family firm closed after the death in 2006 of François Fabius. Sold by Sotheby's and Piasa, the collection made €9.6m ($12.8m including commission) and set four world records. One was for an 1832 Barye elephant, at €756,750 ($1m).
Cross-Channel cross-over
French movers-and-shakers with a high profile in London are Patrick Perrin and Stéphane Custot. Fifteen years on from their Pavillon des arts et du design Paris, their fifth PAD London saw 60 exhibitors from 11 countries installed in Mayfair's Berkeley Square.
One show with European connections not to miss if you are in London December-February is the National Gallery exhibition, Leonardo, Painter at the Court of Milan. You can't buy here, obviously, but wow, can you admire! Including the recently-attributed Salvator Mundi, just when experts are arguing about the attribution of La Bella Principessa, the show has the 'first truly modern portrait' by Leonardo of Cecilia Gallerani, mistress of his patron, Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan. Alongside are canvases never seen before in London and a wealth of drawings from the Royal Collection.
Look out for...
Brussels Art and Antiques Fine Arts Fair from January 21, ten days of museum quality exhibits in the sumptuous Tour et Taxis venue.
The UK Column
An update of news on the UK scene from Ivor Hughes
'Decorative' back in
During the past five years, organisers and promoters have been keen to crowbar the words retro, vintage and/or fashion into the titles of their events, and if not in the title, then the description. But recently, 'decorative' has been making a strong comeback.
Battersea
The Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair in Battersea Park, on the south bank of the Thames, is the senior dedicated event in the UK calendar. Using that name since its inception in 1986, it now promotes itself additionally as The Decorative Fair - though its position in the market means that most call it Battersea.
Three times a year, 140 exhibitors attract around 10,000 visitors. If you visit the roll call of exhibitors at the autumn event (September) at decorativefair.com you'll see why. The spring event runs from 24 to 29 January, fitting in very tidily with ASF Lincoln (from 30 January) and IACF Newark (from 2 February).
Bath
Bath Decorative & Antiques Fair started in 1990 and is a smaller, more intimate event. Smaller because of the size of the venue, which is a hall next to Bath Sports Centre, and more intimate because of the smaller stand sizes.
Last year, organiser Robin Coleman and PR Gail McLeod extended the fair's geographical base by courting well-known exhibitors from London and beyond - though the core of exhibitors remains drawn from members of WEADA (West of England etc). That had a positive effect; the presence of the London trade increased local interest, and also raised the profile of the event among their London clientèle.
Stand space at BDAF 2012 was in such demand after the closure of the 2011 fair that the event became fully booked within weeks. The stallholders in 2012 will all be aware of the length of the waiting list and will be keen to reserve their slots for 2013 by giving 2012 their very best shot.
Entirely new in 2012
Arthur Swallow Fairs (Lincoln Showground) had been trying for a couple of years to add a decorative/vintage/salvage event to their calendar. They recently announced an entirely new event to be held on 18 and 19 May 2012 in Ripley (near Harrogate, northeast England). After toying with words for a while, it was announced as 'The Home, Restoration and Salvage Show' with 'antiques, architectural salvage and decorative furnishings'.
The label seems to have done the trick. Support was so strong for the new event, though untried and untested, that one similar has been announced for 19 and 20 August in Knutsford (northwest England). Both events are trying to tap into the 'decorative' market, but with new variations at two new venues. Rival organisers will be keeping a close eye on both of them.
The Blanchard Collective
No, it's not the title of the latest Robert Ludlum book or film. It is a good example of a new retail outlet responding to the current demand for all things decorative.
The old Great Western Road - now the A4 - runs 240km west from London to the port of Bristol. The A4/M4 (parallel motorway) corridor has some commerce and light industry, but is overwhelmingly agricultural - and well connected.
In 2008 a new, airy, agricultural building came up for grabs just off the A4 near Marlborough, an ancient market town 160km from London. Its intended use as a workshop for combine harvesters and the like had fallen through. At the time, Blanchard's current owner Margaret Riordan was managing another design-oriented shop nearby. She saw the vacant building as an ideal retail outlet, well located, spacious and rural. Functional and with plenty of natural light, it's out of London, with parking but without the congestion charges and other overheads.
The Blanchard Collective opened in March 2009, at which time it was occupied by 12 dealers/tenants in the 600 metres of floor and gallery space plus exhibits hanging on the walls and dangling from on high. It currently accommodates eighteen dealers and Blanchard has significant presence on the fairs circuit and on the internet. Its dealers exhibit both individually and collectively at fairs such as Bath and Battersea, and, unlike so many of their competitors', the website blanchardcollective.com is updated weekly. Welcome to the 21st century.
Go west, young man, go west!
Taking the A1 north from London, way north, is a path well-trodden by dealers in the know. If you're here in January or March, then think about casting your nets another side. Go west and take in Battersea (if January), Blanchard and then BDAF (if March).