Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Why the Grosvenor House Fair Failed

July 28, 2009 by Marion Maneker

Anthony Thorncroft gives the history and politics behind the fall of the Grosvenor House antiques fair in the Financial Times:

Although sudden, the decision was not entirely unexpected. For some years now the fair has been living on its reputation. It prospered greatly when wealthy Anglophile Americans paid an annual visit to London to refurnish their mansions with Georgian furniture and Old Master paintings. Now such enthusiasts are thin on the ground, and London has ceded its position as the undisputed centre of the art trade to New York. Many of the major dealers in brown furniture, such as Jeremy Hotspur and Norman Adams, who had been the bedrock of the fair, retired. Such leading Old Master dealers as Johnny van Haeften and Colnaghi decided that they could do better business by concentrating on gallery events in July, when their key clients were in London for the major picture auctions at Sotheby’s and Christie’s. Other dealers pulled out because the cost of taking part, which could approach £70,000 for a large stand, was proving too risky an investment.

The cramped space of the fair inhibited its renewal: there was no spare capacity to absorb leading overseas dealers or imaginative new dealers who might liven up what had become a predictable display. The fair did its best, throwing away date lines and welcoming in 20th-century art and, by the end, dealers in wine and photographs. But a fair that had started in 1934 to help the antiques trade survive one great recession fell victim to another global economic downturn.

Masterpieces Seek Good Home (Financial Times)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Duped Art Dealer Buys Fake as SouvenirDuped Art Dealer Buys Fake as Souvenir
  • Christie's Day Sale–$43.8mChristie's Day Sale–$43.8m
  • Sotheby’s Sets New $37.7m Record for Chinese Ceramic BowlSotheby’s Sets New $37.7m Record for Chinese Ceramic Bowl
  • Mark Moore Gallery @ PulseMark Moore Gallery @ Pulse
  • Phillips de Pury London Cont = £5.7mPhillips de Pury London Cont = £5.7m
  • ArtBasel Sales, Pt. 3ArtBasel Sales, Pt. 3

Filed Under: Art Fairs

About Marion Maneker

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • A Season of Improvisation: Fall 2020 New York Modern and Contemporary Art Auction Analysis
  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Login
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • Aboudia, Zemba Luzamba, Dickens Otieno Anchor Contemporary African Art Sale at Artcurial in Marrakesh
  • Re-discovered John Constable Painting at Sotheby's in December
  • David Hockney's $20m Pacific Coast Highway & Santa Monica
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor