Masterpiece slowly breaks the mould
Reaching new audiences remains a priority for the high-end London
By Gareth Harris. Web only
Published online: 02 July 2012
When Masterpiece launched in 2010, following the sudden
demise of the old-fashioned Grosvenor House fair, its organisers aimed to
establish a new type of fair by bringing together art, antiques and antiquities
with other sectors of the luxury market. Now in its third edition (28 June-4
July), co-founder Harry Apter of the London-based dealer Apter-Fredericks is
just as evangelical about redefining the traditional art fair concept. “You
have to try and reach new audiences,” he says. “The antiques fair format is
tired.” The jury is still out, however, on whether Masterpiece is finding its
niche in the crowded international fair landscape.
The organisers of Masterpiece hope to draw in potential
collectors by creating an all-round de luxe experience, comprising classic
cars, boats, wines, a plush restaurant run by Le Caprice and a trove of
high-end art and antiques. The timing of the fair, held during the Wimbledon
tennis championships and framed by the post-war and contemporary auctions just
before and Old Master sales after, is fundamental in enticing “cultural
tourists” in the capital, and to an extent established collectors, to the
purpose-built pavilion at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. On Friday afternoon (29
June), the plan seemed to be working; the fair was full of affluent thirty- and
fortysomethings keen to part with their cash.
“There are definitely people here with plenty of money,”
said Clovis Whitfield of the London-based gallery Whitfield Fine Art. The
gallery, a first-time participant, hopes that in these straitened economic
times, a moneyed individual or organisation will dig deep for its £60m
authenticated Caravaggio made around 1600 for Cardinal Benedetto Giustiniani;
at the time of writing, the painting had not sold (the fair is still ongoing).
A lithograph of Edvard Munch’s The Scream, 1895, available with Kaare Berntsen
of Oslo
For now, core European connoisseurs still seem to be making
their way to Masterpiece. But the question of whether the fair is an heir
apparent to Tefaf Maastricht, the grand-dame of fairs which celebrated its
silver jubilee in March, was a point of debate on the floor, especially as the
heavyweight London old master dealers Johnny Van Haeften and Richard Green are
notable absentees among the 154 exhibitors; Chinese antiques dealers are also
under represented on the floor.
No comments:
Post a Comment