Collectibles (& Collectors) With Patina in Palm Beach

PALM BEACH, Fla. - As I sat on a beige couch in the booth at the Palm Beach Art and Antiques Fair belonging to Belgian dealer Axel Vervoordt, a man strode by carrying a furry, white pooch in a giant Louis Vuitton shoulder bag. The dog was utterly content. The mustachioed owner, meanwhile, was on the hunt. His face pulled tight by the hand of a surgeon, his skin dyed the most peculiarly unnatural shade of orange-brown, he looked more manmade than any of the beautiful objects assembled by Mr. Vervoordt.

Such scenes made concentrating on the actual art - or the deal making - difficult during the opening weekend of the Palm Beach fair (which runs another full week, until February 13). Fair organizers spared no cost in their attempt to make "Palm Beach! America's International Fine Art & Antiques Fair" into a visual feast, a celebration of all that is beautiful and extremely expensive. And they have not been shy about proclaiming their mission to make Palm Beach the most important antiques and art fair in America.

Mr. Vervoordt's display of objects, from ancient Roman statuary to 1960s Lucio Fontana minimalist canvases, are a good sample of what is on offer. The 100 or so high-end dealers include Mallet of New York and London, showcasing a 1820 ivory "howdah" (used to ride an elephant); Joakim von Ditmar of Stockholm, who boldly blended 1970s Swedish chandeliers with Old Master paintings; George Subkoff from Westport, Conn., who had a Modigliani painting, Elie Nadelman busts, and European furniture; and Galerie Downtown from Paris, who featured ultrasleek French 1950s furniture, including a 1962 Charlotte Perriand wood and straw sofa priced at $800,000.

Local sellers include Spanierman Gallery, which caused a stir with a large 1889 portrait by William Merritt Chase; Macklowe Gallery, which was busy selling estate jewels and Tiffany lamps; and Adelson Gallery, whose booth is lined with Sargents, Homers, and Chases, all hanging on walls covered in light-blue raw silk.

Mark Murray, one of the younger dealers at the fair, cut right to the chase. "It's an expensive fair," said Mr. Murray. "It was a big gamble, but it's already paid off." The 72nd Street dealer was happy to report he had made a good sale and was hopeful he'd close more.

Dealers said the fair's organizer succeeded in creating an event that captures some of the drama and exclusivity of the top European fairs, such as the Paris Biennale des Antiquaires, held at the Louvre, or Maastricht. The already upscale Palm Beach Convention Center was given a four-star makeover, with dramatic lighting, giant flower arrangements, and thick walled booths that put the flimsy stands at most New York fairs to shame.

"Fairs in America take the supermarket approach," said the vice president of International Fine Art Expositions, Lorenzo Rudolf. "Even if you have great art, the fairs look boring."

And the dealers held up their end of the bargain. Mr. Vervoordt, whose gallery is housed in a castle back in Belgium, flew in fresco painters to coat the walls of his booth. Jeweler Laurence Graff shipped in wood paneling to give his salon the aura of his shop back north on Madison Avenue.

There is no question the fair organizers succeeded in creating an exclusive event. What remains to be seen is whether the fair will attract serious buyers. Some dealers already have begun complaining that the collectors it has attracted lack sophistication: One New York dealer was dismayed that some fairgoers had asked if the Picassos hanging on the walls of the booth were real.

On opening day, the valets at the 2-year-old convention center said they had parked around 750 cars - down from about 1,000 the year earlier. Fair organizers pegged opening-day attendance at around 6,000, saying many visitors took town cars and cabs from hotels, or parked themselves nearby.

It was also hard to tell if the fair, which its organizers would like to convert into an international event, had attracted buyers from outside Florida's Gold Coast. There were plenty of rich-looking Floridians, ladies in leopard-print tops and men in yellow blazers, but there didn't seem to be anywhere near the number of Europeans that December's Art Basel Miami Beach had. (My metric on this is strictly unscientific, but I passed by the outdoor smoking section regularly, and it was fairly empty except for the odd European exhibitor and Mr. Rudolf.)

The fair at least seems to have gotten New York buyers to hop a plane. Peter Kairis, the manager of Graff's New York store, said they were doing great business at the fair, selling bracelets, rings, and earrings - mostly to clients he already knew from the city, people blessed with addresses in both Manhattan and Palm Beach. "This is New York," said Mr. Kairis of all the familiar faces. "You come down, and it's like Madison Avenue."

For International Fine Art Expositions, the British company that bought the fair (and several others) for $19 million in 2001, a lot is riding on this year.The fair began nine years ago as a much smaller, local affair held under a tent. International Fine Art Expositions brought in a new organizational team, moved the fair to the new convention center (built smack-dab in what was once the most crime-ridden part of West Palm Beach), and last year expanded the fair to fit the giant venue.

The fair opened last Friday with a marathon "vernissage," which ran from 2 p.m. until 9 p.m. Skies were overcast and the temperature hovered in the 60s - by Florida standards, arctic. This was bad for vacationers hoping for a beach day, but good for the fair. The other good news was that Palm Beach ladies waiting for a chance to break fur wraps out of storage got a chance to.

One legacy of the fair's origins is the pride of place still allotted to dealers of jewelry, rather than painting or design objects. One of the first booths you see upon entering is that of Graff, who recently hit the news for giving Donald Trump a big discount on his engagement ring. The booth is ringed with windows displaying giant rocks and an off-duty, pistol packing Palm Beach police officer.

Mr. Kairis guided me to a case with a 70-carat, pink, pear shaped diamond, priced at $23 million - probably the most expensive thing at the fair. The second costliest was just across the booth: a 100-carat flawless diamond, named the "Star of America," which is on sale for $22 million.

The art and antiques dealers weren't hurting for attention, though. New York dealers appeared to be turning over quick deals. American paintings dealer Hollis Taggart sold colorful works by Jane Freilicher and Arthur Carles. Chinese contemporary dealer Michael Goedhuis made so many sales on Friday that by Saturday he had changed up some of his walls with new works.

Among those making the rounds were museum curators. The fair invited 44 experts and curators to attend the fair and "vet" the material. They review the objects in their area of expertise, checking for authenticity and quality - essentially, making sure everything is what the dealer says it is. (This is the standard practice at many top fairs.)

The curators also enjoy getting a look at material they might not have otherwise seen. "Often times there are things of exceptional quality, but by minor artists, which nobody would think of in relation to the Getty," said the paintings curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Scott Schaefer. Since the Getty is such a richly endowed institution, dealers mainly offer blockbuster pieces for the museum's consideration.

The director of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh swept in and bought a chest of drawers from dealer Barry Friedman. Titled "You can't lay down your memories," the 1991 piece by the Dutch collective Droog Design is made from vintage drawers in a cherry wood frame.

Mr. Friedman's stand was one of the more modern-looking at the fair. While there was plenty of 18th- and 19th-century French and English furnishings - perfect for Palm Beach palaces - Mr. Friedman brought recent work by avant-garde designers Ron Arad and Marc Newsom, and buyers were ready for it. One chiropractor declared the Arad good for the lumbar.

Saturday morning kicked off with a lecture by New York art dealer Richard Feigen, titled "The Art Market: Boom or Boondoggle?" Mr. Feigen seemed to come down somewhere in the middle. Dressed all in black, he stood at a podium in a meeting room at the Palm Beach Convention Center, facing a roomful of eager, white-haired listeners.

Mr. Feigen ridiculed multi-million dollar price tags for trendy contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons, and reserved his praise for artists long dead. Stick to the Old Masters, he told his audience, promoting the relative affordability of works he considered underappreciated masterpieces. He recommended Italian Renaissance paintings from the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries.

But in truth there weren't very many of those on offer, and while the members of Mr. Feigen's audiences were nodding, I'm not so sure they were buying.