CONNOISSEURSHIP AT ITS BEST

AT THE HAUGHTON

INTERNATIONAL FINE ART FAIR

In its 14th year The International Fine Art Fair remains the only high end fair in the world devoted solely to pictures and sculpture. Founded in 1994 by Brian and Anna Haughton, it was born in response to a call from fine art dealers on both sides of the Atlantic to put together a fair that would bring together the best of European and American fine art dealers under one roof in New York.

Many of the world's leading dealers continue to exhibit at the fair, the mix enriched from year to year by newcomers. An increasing number of American dealers, specializing in 19th and 20th century American art, have joined in recent years, reflecting the strength of demand in America for its own art. Market forces also, of course, explain why, although the fair still remains strongly rooted in earlier works of art (right back to Renaissance Old Masters) the 20th century content of the fair is now greater than ever and moves closer to the present day by the year.

More than 600 collectors, connoisseurs and supporters attended The Gala Benefit Preview Evening for the Frick Collection on May 10th which raised $265,000 for the institution.

The 2007 fair featured a typically wide-ranging selection of fine art. Judging by the level of sales to both private and institutional collectors, to existing as well as new buyers, there was plenty to tempt visitors, who were invariably described by exhibitors as "of the highest possible caliber." Many buyers prefer to remain anonymous but there were prominent New York collectors among them, and those visible circulating on the floor at various times included Oprah Winfrey, Steve Martin and directors and curators from museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Cooper-Hewitt, Dallas Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, Pierpont Morgan Library and The J. Paul Getty Museum. In addition, a cocktail reception on the Sunday evening at the fair brought in the American Association of Museum Curators.

High end sales in seven figures were reported in the course of the first weekend and into the last few days in the Impressionist and Modern category, boosted by the presence of buyers in town for the major May auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's. At Richard Green (London) a number of sales included a Pierre Bonnard portrait from about 1922 of the artist's muse and companion Marthe de Meligny, Le Corsage Raye, which sold to a private collector for significant seven-figure sum. Another was a Camille Pissarro gouache on silk, Paysanne rattachant sa marmotte, which went to another buyer for a lower seven figure sum. "We are very pleased" said Jonathan Green, "we had a good fair across the board".

Paris dealers Galerie Cazeau-Beraudiere made a number of sales in the six and seven figure bracket, including a vividly coloured oil of Mademoiselle Bordenave by Kees van Dongen and a Francis Picabia titled Cyclope, from the mid-1920s, which went to a private buyer against an asking price of around $700,000. The Picabia was particularly interesting because, unusually, it was painted in oil and ripolin on paper. Ripolin is like household paint and works very freely as a medium. Picabia, working in the 1920s, was one of the first artists to experiment with it, followed over 30 years later by Picasso.

E. & R. Cyzer (London), who joined the fair for the first time in 2006, enjoyed their "best fair ever anywhere" this year according to a delighted Richard Cyzer. Highlight sales among a superb selection 20th century Modern Masters, included a large Marc Chagall oil in bright blues and greens, titled Scene Biblique and painted in 1970, which sold for around $2.2m to a New York private buyer and Amedeo Modigliani's pen, brush and ink drawing, Cariatide, sold for an undisclosed sum believed to be in excess of $1m.

New to the fair in 2007 was New York dealer in Impressionist and Modern art, Nathan A. Bernstein & Co. A private dealer for over 30 years, he was venturing into the fairs world for the first time with his debut at The International Fine Art Fair. Business started for him at the Preview Opening when he sold a pastel by German Expressionist artist Max Beckmann. This 1930 portrait of Margarethe Wichert, daughter of his best friend Professor Wichert, was on offer at around $2m. This study of a fresh, innocent young girl is in marked contrast with Beckmann's later paintings of ladies of more dubious type.

American dealers in American art at the fair included Babcock Galleries (New York), Thomas Colville (New York and New Haven CT), Linda Hyman Fine Arts (New York), Owen Gallery (New York), Abby Taylor Fine Art (Greenwich CT), Holllis Taggart Galleries (New York) and Tom Veilleux Gallery (Portland ME). With material ranging over 19th century to mid-century modern, they all reported numerous "very good" sales throughout the duration of the fair.