Masterpiece Fills New Show

According to the Antiques Trade Gazette, Masterpiece, one of the main shows that will be replacing the Grosvenor Antique and Art Fair has announced they have completed filling the show. They promoters now have the minimum of 85 dealers needed, and expectations are for close to 100 dealers displaying for the June show. The larger show is expected to be a success, as Grosvenor was limited to about half the number of dealers and the costs to hold and promote continued to escalate.

After several show cancellations in NY, it is good to see London being successful, I will be interested to seeing the dealer lists, and if it has gravitated to an art show, or remains both antiques and fine art.

The Antiques Trade Gazette reports

THE organisers of London's new luxury fair Masterpiece are closing their books this week for the 2010 launch, satisfied with having reached their target of around 100 exhibitors.

As ATG went to press, 85 top international dealers had signed up for the fair, which will be held in a purpose-built pavilion at the site of the former Chelsea Barracks, SW1 from June 24 to 29 with a preview on June 23.

However, with contracts coming in by the day, the organisers say they are certain to hit 100 by their deadline on March 31.

Masterpiece conclude their recruitment of exhibitors less than two months after announcing they had planning permission to go ahead on the Chelsea site. Firm bookings immediately flooded in from some of the trade’s biggest names, confirming that the top end had been waiting for the verdict on planning before firmly committing themselves to any of the June fairs.

Billed as “the best of the best”, Masterpiece was conceived as a fair combining art and antiques with luxury goods. However, for this first airing the exhibitors list is totally dominated by art and antiques dealers, with the expectancy that some wine dealers will join by March 31. A spokesman says this is hardly surprising since three of the five founders are long-established London antique dealers.

As we went to press, the latest recruits to Masterpiece are Galleria Gracis of Milan, who deal in English antiques, and from London, picture dealers Osborne Samuels and silver specialists Koopman Rare Art.

To indicate the scale of the new project, some 4200 sq m of stand space has been sold, two-and-a-half times the size of Grosvenor House.