Regilding the Gold Coast

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For an interview with David Lester about the future of the Palm Beach Fine Art & Antique Fair, see Meet the New Boss.

Dealers may soon be taking a greater role in the management of the Palm Beach Fine Art & Antique Fair. A group of longtime participants in this annual winter event is exploring the possibility of forming a nonprofit alliance, the International Fine Art Dealers Association, that would partner with the U.K.-based DMG World Media, the fair’s owner and the operator of the Sofa fairs and palmbeach3, among other art-related events. According to several sources close to the proceedings, the dealers association, modeled on the TEFAF organization, would be headed by David Lester, who, with his wife, Lee Ann, founded the Fine Art & Antique fair in 1997. The Lesters sold their company, International Fine Art Expositions, to DMG in 2001 for a reported $18 million. The proposed partnership would give them a key role in once more managing the event they started.

The Palm Beach exhibitors involved in the discussion, who are said to be led by The Palm Beach exhibitors involved in the discussion, who are said to be led by London’s Richard Green, include William Noortman, of Maastricht; Mallett Antiques, Peter Finer, and MacConnal-Mason Gallery, all of London; and Dickinson Roundell and Hollis Taggart galleries, in New York. Some of the dealers contacted for this article are hesitant to confirm the arrangement; but Hollis Taggart tells Art+Auction that Lester’s potential role would be to promote the fair and bring in clientele.

According to Michael Franks, the COO of DMG, both the company and the dealers are moving ahead as though the arrangement were already in place. “ We are in the process of forming a new company, which will be owned in part by DMG World Media and in part by a new association being formed by leading art dealers,” says Franks. “Their executive director is David Lester, and Lester and our lead people will run the show together.” Franks praises Lester as someone who is “incredibly creative, entrepreneurial and has fantastic relationships with many of the dealers.”

The establishment of a cooperative management organization may be a welcome change for many regular fair participants. Although the dealers contacted for this story report solid sales at Palm Beach, some say they have doubted DMG’s ability to address the needs of a specialized art and antiques show and expressed frustration with what they characterize as the event’s inconsistent identity since the media company took over. The fair has changed its name and venue and had several managers, including the former Art Basel head Lorenzo Rudolf, who served for just two years. As a result, says Taggart, it has “suffered.” The dealers feel they can help remedy the damage. “What we are hoping,” explains Hugo Nathan, of Dickinson Roundell, ”is that we’ll have a greater say in everything from marketing and publicity right through to choosing exhibitors and scheduling.”

Franks concedes that the fair has had to “reinvent itself” for each of the past few editions and that dealers have been concerned about marketing and increasing visitor numbers. “When times are good and people are doing well, they come back willingly, and when times aren’t so good, it’s like starting a new fair every year,” he says, adding that the arrangement under discussion is “a winwin for everybody.” Nathan agrees: “There is a sense among existing exhibitors” that this will be the catalyst that “makes this the dominant generalist fair in America.”

Among changes to the fair Lester says he is considering are a showcase section for younger dealers and collectors, shortening the length from two weeks to one and adding more social events.

Meanwhile, he is working to revive SeaFair, the traveling art show on a $40 million luxury yacht to which he and Lee Ann have devoted themselves for the past five years. SeaFair debuted in Greenwich, Connecticut, in October 2007, and appeared two months later during Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB) with 20 international exhibitors. But its post-Miami tour of the Florida coast was canceled, and the boat has been docked for repairs in Jacksonville since late December, leading some to speculate that it is out of commission for good. Lester denies this, claiming that SeaFair will relaunch later this summer on a voyage that will begin in Westport, Connecticut, and include stops in Boston and New York. In January, the vessel will again dock in Miami, where it will be part of Lester’s new extravaganza, Haute Miami, a mix of art and antiques along with luxury goods, including everything from airplanes to jewel-encrusted plumbing fixtures. “We think this is a very sexy approach,” he says.