American International Fine Art Fair: It's 'getting great again'

By JAN SJOSTROM

Daily News Arts Editor

"Better than I expected."

That's the phrase dealers used again and again when asked about their sales at the American International Fine Art Fair. The six-day fair wrapped up Feb. 8 at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach.

"By and large, I did not hear much grumbling," Palm Beach photography dealer Holden Luntz said. "Given what people could expect in a fiscally challenged world, I think they were pretty well satisfied with the fair and the progress of sales."

Organizers David and Lee Ann Lester reported a record-breaking opening night attendance of 3,400 and a total attendance of 24,000.

"We had a difficult economy exacerbated by the Madoff situation," David Lester said. "The question was, what if we held a fair and nobody came? That did not happen at all."

There was no sign of the dealer rebellion that spurred dmg world media to hand off the money-losing fair last summer to the Lesters, who founded the event 14 years ago and sold it to dmg in 2001.

The Lesters set out to reinvent the fair as a cross between the socially lively Art Basel Miami Beach and the dealer-run TEFAF Maastricht fair in The Netherlands.

They started by forming a 31-member dealer committee, who committed to the event for three years. The dealers advised the organizers on everything from exhibitor selection to menu choices.

The 70 dealers the fair fielded was 20 fewer than last year, but that was because lesser exhibitors were not accepted, Lester said. Several prominent galleries that had dropped out of the fair during dmg's tenure returned.

Other changes included upgrading the look of promotional materials, adding nightly social events, bringing back the Norton Museum as the opening-night beneficiary, more targeted marketing and renaming the fair to distinguish it from a midmarket rival.

Reuniting with the Norton, which hadn't participated in the opening night for four years, was "critically important," Lester said. The organizers picked up the tab for about 200 of the museum's top supporters to be among those admitted to the first hour of the fair.

"We were very happy," Norton director Christina Orr-Cahall said. "It was a tasteful and entertaining event."

Most attendees canvassed for their opinions of the fair responded with temperate praise.

"I think there's a good deal of muted enthusiasm," said David Ober, chairman of Sotheby's Southeast.

"It was the best fair in the country a few years ago, and it's getting great again," Palm Beach decorator Ann Downey said.

Palm Beach collector Gilbert Maurer said he found "a few good things" while browsing for paintings, but none priced attractively enough to buy. Sales varied from dealer to dealer. Adelson Galleries was reported to have sold an Andrew Wyeth painting for more than $5 million.

Bill Rau, of M.S. Rau Antiques in New Orleans, said he'd sold a Monet landscape for seven figures and several other things for six figures.

"I couldn't be more pleased," he said. "There were many times when we were too busy."

But even dealers whose sales were disappointing praised the Lesters' efforts. Antiques dealer Alan Rubin, of the London and Paris-based Pelham Galleries, reported that his sales were "not brilliant," although he got some good leads for major sales from the fair.

"I thought it was the best organized and promoted fair I've seen in America by far," he said. "It's vastly improved over when I was here last in 2001."

Lester said the fair wouldn't have gone nearly as well without the dealers' cooperation.

"The dealers made this fair," he said. "For the first time, there was no us and them. Everyone pulled in the same direction, and it worked."

Already the number of dealers signing up for next year's fair is "high, very high," he said.