The Biennale des Antiquaires, the prestigious jewellery, art and antiques fair held at the Grand Palais in Paris, has had the biggest shake-up in its 54-year history.
The Syndicat National des Antiquaires (SNA, the French association of antiques dealers), which founded the Biennale in 1962, voted last year to switch to an annual slot. “It’s an essential development,” says the SNA president Dominique Chevalier. “This enables us to be on the same level as the London fairs and Tefaf Maastricht.”
Chevalier and the fair’s director general Jean-Daniel Compain have radically reconfigured the Biennale’s exhibitor list for the 28th edition. Among 124 participating galleries, the emphasis will be on pre-20th century art and antiques rather than high-end jewellery, the Biennale’s traditional calling card.
Paris Tableau incorporated Last autumn, the Old Master fair Paris Tableau was folded into the Biennale des Antiquaires. Sixteen dealers from the defunct fair have now graduated to the Grand Palais, including Galerie Canesso, whose owner co-founded Paris Tableau.
“We have decided to take part in the Biennale so that Paris will have a strong fair. The city remains a key centre for the Old Masters market,” says Olimpia Valdivieso, a representative of the gallery, which is showing Hecuba and Priam (around 1630) by Alessandro Varotari (Il Padovanino) and a 1660 still-life by Carlo Manieri.
“There is not an annual fair in Paris dedicated to antiques; the time for it is now,” says the Paris-based dealer Guillaume Léage, who specialises in 17th and 18th-century decorative art and furniture. He says that cutting the jewellery quota (to four, from 15 in 2014) will enhance the Biennale: “This allows more antiques dealers to participate, which will probably attract more impassioned collectors.”
But not everyone agrees. “I believe this will deter a lot of visitors, particularly from the Far East,” says Guy Stair Sainty of London’s Stair Sainty gallery. He is showing four works depicting Salomé from around 1910 by Gustave Moreau’s pupil, Pierre Amédée Marcel-Béronneau.
The fair remains largely French, but newcomers include London-based Tomasso Brothers Fine Art, which is bringing a vivid terracotta relief by Johan Tobias Sergel, A Nymph and a Satyr Crowned by Cupid (around 1770; priced around €175,000). A portrait bust by François Girardon of the ancient Greek physician Modios Asiatikos (around 1709) will also be available for around €1.5m.
• Biennale des Antiquaires, Grand Palais, Paris, 10-18 September