RESULTS IN PALM BEACH

Published: February 12, 2009
by Wendy Moonan

You don’t have to be a P. T. Barnum to produce a successful art and antiques show these days, but it helps. Last week David and Lee Ann Lester revived the American International Fine Art Fair in Palm Beach, Fla. Mr. Lester said the fair had a record 24,000 visitors during its run, Feb. 3 to Feb. 8.

Fairgoers pored over paintings, furniture, antiquities, textiles and jewelry from 70 high-end international dealers. The Lesters organized parties each night, including the preview benefiting the Norton Museum of Art; a black-tie dinner for collectors at Mar-a-Lago, the ocean-front mansion built by Marjorie Merriweather Post; and a gala honoring Florida museum directors at the Flagler Museum. They bused in collectors from Naples and Sarasota and offered lectures by art experts and popular decorators like Mario Buatta . A concierge arranged visits to museums and set up golf dates for out-of-towners.

“We’ve done 50 fairs but never had one this successful,” Mr. Lester said. “We took the best of the formula used by Art Basel Miami and Maastricht and enhanced it by adding the social component.”

It seemed to work. Despite low expectations, there were some important sales: Adelson Galleries sold “Winfield’s Porch,” an Andrew Wyeth tempera on board, from 1983, reportedly for more than $5 million. Other noteworthy sales included an Etruscan bronze by Royal-Athena Galleries; a 17th-century Mexican tortoise-shell and mother-of-pearl inlaid chest by Arita Gallery of Buenos Aires; Suzani and ikat textiles by Gallery Afrodit of Ankara, Turkey; and a Tiffany Studios peony lamp from 1900, sold by Macklowe.

Pictures sold better than decorative arts. Hollis Taggart sold two Ellsworth Kelly paintings on paper from 1976; Gallery Thomas of Munich sold a small bronze sculpture by Max Ernst; Jacques Bailly of Paris sold a Jean Dufy painting. M. S. Rau sold a Monet “Pine Trees at Varengeville” (around 1882), reportedly for $1.2 million. Erik Thomsen sold Japanese hanging scrolls and an important 18th-century screen. Dickinson of London sold a Bonnard painting.

The fair didn’t please everyone. “There was not enough furniture and too much contemporary art,” said Lars Bolander, a Palm Beach dealer.