Louis de Bayser, president of the organising committee, outlined the plans at a press conference staged immediately before the private view on November 12.
Next year’s fair will be staged in November in a marquee in the courtyard of the Dôme des Invalides, a space that can accommodate up to 70 exhibitors instead of the current 46.
This will allow the fair to open up to new specialist categories such as furniture and decorative arts alongside the painting and sculpture that are the current mainstays of the event. The expansion will be achieved through the investment and support of the art magazine Connaissance des Arts, which is a subsidiary of Groupe Les Echoes-Le Parisien and LVMH.
Negotiations
Negotiations are currently underway for the acquisition of an interest in the group that organises both Fine Arts Paris and the Salon du Dessin fairs, whereby Connaissance des Arts will become a shareholder alongside the eight founding partners. These eight dealers, Hervé Aaron, Jean François Baroni, Louis de Bayser, Bertrand Gautier, Chantal Kiener, François Lorenceau, Gabriel Terrades and Sylvie Tocci-Prouté, will retain control of the organisation and gallery selection committees for both fairs.
Expanding on the plans, de Bayser said that the aim was for Fine Arts Paris to become “a shop window for dealers” but he stressed that it would continue its philosophy of incorporating both major international dealers and other distinctive specialists all with the highest standards of exhibit. “The most important thing is the quality,” he added.
Meanwhile, the 2019 edition opened on November 12 with a packed private view at which a number of exhibitors saw multiple sales.
These included sculpture specialists Trebosc + Van Lelyveld who sold seven works and the Galerie Mendes whose sales included the star exhibit on its stand - an Edouard Vuillard oil painting.
Among several opening night sales at Galerie Talabardon & Gautier was a large oil on canvas of an auction by Henri Michel-Lévy and L’Amour moqueur, a terracotta and plaster sculpture by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux measuring 2ft 7in x 8.5in x 13.75in (78 x 21.5 x 35.5 cm), signed and dated 1873 in the plaster.
Galerie de Bayser sold seven works on opening night to a mix of private collectors and foreign dealers.
