The Biennale des Antiquaires is poised for a historic edition this year, with Karl Lagerfeld providing not only scenography but also star power to the prestigious fine art, antiques, and jewelry fair. In short, director Christian Deydier has delivered on his promise to transform an event he had lamented as “dull” in his campaign to reclaim the presidency of the Syndicat National des Antiquaires in 2010.
“Putting Lagerfeld’s name on the Biennale has brought an enormous number of requests for booths and visitor passes,” Deydier told Art+Auction. “Last time, the gallerists were demoralized and didn’t want to invest much. They preferred to do it on the cheap and protect themselves. Now, despite the financial crisis, the attitude is to show some guts, to bring out the best of ourselves.”
From September 14 through 23, the Grand Palais will house 123 exhibitors presenting €50 billion ($61.3 billion) worth of fine antiques, artworks from the Renaissance to the contemporary era, and luxurious jewelry. The number of participants is up from only 86 in 2010, with the reopening of the classic Salon d’Honneur—for the first time since 1937—along with new space under the mezzanine’s balconies giving the fair more room. Although the event remains resolutely French, some 45 exhibitors are first-timers.
All will be set in Lagerfeld’s vision of fin-de-siècle Parisian window-shopping, with large windows reviving the feel of the boutiques inside the long-lost Grand Bazar on the Rue de Rennes and a tribute to the Rue de Rivoli on the mezzanine. At the heart of the Grand Palais, under its Beaux Arts glass nave, a giant hot-air balloon will be re-created from period blueprints, echoing one of the Palais’s very first exhibitions.
“When Karl does something,” says Dominique Lévy, of L&M Arts, “you know that it’s going to be exceptional, so you want to rise to the occasion.” Some dealers are building nods to the fashion legend into their shows. François Léage will anchor his booth with a rare two-tier Louis XVI Martin Carlin table whose upper tabletop holds a drawer that swivels open to reveal a writing case. The form recalls a fan like the one Lagerfeld used to carry. New York’s Marlborough and JGM Galerie, of Paris, are mounting the Biennale’s first solo booths by living artists. At Marlborough, Manolo Valdés, in a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk, created everything from the paintings to the library of carved-wood books.
Gallery president Pierre Levai chose the Spaniard because his “work is very much a commentary on Old Masters, the school of Fontainebleau, and modern artists like Kirchner or Picasso. And Lagerfeld has a certain baroque taste that will fit well with Valdés.” JGM will present Claude Lalanne.
As many as 30 of this year’s participants specialize in modern and contemporary art, more than twice as many as in 2010. Bowing to historicity, Tornabuoni Art, of Paris, will hang masterpieces from each decade of the 20th century, anchored by a 1919 Picasso and a 1984 Basquiat, while Geneva’s Krugier has an outstanding Cézanne canvas, Tasse, verre et fruits, II, 1877. David Ghezelbash, of Paris, presents a bronze statue of Isis/Aphrodite, likely from Alexandria between 100 b.c. and a.d. 100, while Charly Bailly Fine Art, of Geneva, is unveiling a rediscovered Francisco de Zubaran.
But the fair’s bread and butter is antiques, and dealers have been hoarding their best examples since the last edition. After memorably presenting a 19th-century-French-flavored Oval Office in 2010, the Parisian furniture specialist Maison Kraemer this year gives over its entire booth to a museum-caliber show of master cabinetmaker Jean-Henri Riesener, who designed Marie Antoinette’s writing desk. Steinitz is offering an ornate, eight-legged desk, circa 1692–95, by Riesener’s predecessor André-Charles Boulle, made with the inlay for which he is famous. Advancing an argument for the Deco period, Vallois is showcasing 1920s masterpieces in a booth designed by Joseph Graf. François Laffanour’s Galerie Downtown counters with a display of the custom-tailored contents of a Paris apartment furnished by Charlotte Perriand.
Asian art, a genre close to Deydier’s heart, has a handful of notable entries. Paris’s Jacques Barrère will gather important Song Dynasty Buddhist sculptures, among them a trio of 10th-century bodhisattvas from the temples of Shanxi. Deydier himself will show Tang Dynasty earthenware figures.
The fine jewelry section is particularly dynamic with the arrival of Hong Kong’s Wallace Chan, Bulgari, Boucheron, and Chaumet, who join regulars Piaget, Harry Winston, Cartier, Dior, and Van Cleef & Arpels, which is bringing 20 creations inspired by birds of paradise. “Knowing that Karl was involved, all the great jewelers have prepared specific collections,” notes Deydier, with some opting to debut new wares here rather than during Paris Fashion Week. He adds, “We’re expecting an excellent, memorable Biennale.”