John Singer Sargent Nicolas Lancret Doyle Dazzles Strings Attached Venice: Dark Waters Christie's Breaks Records at American Art Sale Slim Pickings Art Fair Spiffs Up Design, Pulls In Collectors

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Big Night
PALM BEACH, Fla., Feb. 8, 2006Art fair openings are generally glitzy affairsbut Palm Beach! really ups the ante.

On hand for the vernissage were, among many others, collectors Bill Koch, Audrey Gruss, Sydelle Meyer, Tom Quick and Lord and Lady Rothermere, of the British newspaper dynasty. There were also high-profile designers, such as Juan Montoya, Susan Zises Green and Betty Sherril.

Among the biggest draws on opening night was a gargantuan diamond called the "Star of America," at the booth of London and New York jeweler Graff. At 100.57 carats, it is, according to Graff, "the largest, flawless, octagonal-cut diamond in the world." Well, this is Palm Beach, and not surprisingly the booth was packed all night with serious clients, and those who had merely come to gawk.

Breaking Out of the "Dungeon"
The design of this year's fair won big points with dealers. Last year was what many euphemistically referred to as "high concept"black walls, black floors and little gravel gutters running along the aisles. It was, said one dealer with understatement, "very dark." Another dealer commented that one of last year's problems was older patrons tripping on the gravel in their walkers.

This year was lighter and brighter and cheerierwhite walls, blue carpet. No gravel. And four meeting places filled with greenery, the work of local designer Mario Nievera.

"Last year was like a dungeon!" said Johnny Messum of Buckinghamshire, U.K. gallery Messums Fine Art. He was thrilled on opening night, as he had already sold two pieces, one of them a late-19th-century portrait by Dudley Hardy for $17,500, and the other a 1903 still life of flowers by Arthur Chaplin for $70,000.

For the most part the booths looked spectacularand it's no surprise, given that dealers had a full eight days to set them up. This year the fair has attracted some new dealers, notably New Yorks Salander-O'Reilly and Jack Kilgore.

Masterpieces GaloreFor Big Bucks
The presence of an ATM machine just outside the entrance to the fair seems a bit quaint, considering the hefty price tags on the objects inside.

Consider the striking, $1.7 million painted study by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer at Colnaghi-Bernheimer. Formerly in the collection of one of Queen Victoria's granddaughters, it is a study for a larger composition. Landseer himself engraved it "my horse," stressing his personal connection with the picture. In that same booth is a painting of a minuet dance by Nicolas Lancret, one that Colnaghi's Rachel Kaminsky calls "the best example by him I've seen on the market in a long time." Its price: $1.65 million.

Robert Noortman brought a Renoir nude for $3.3 million; a Monet landscape for $2.6 million; a small picture by Matisse for $1.6 million; a still life of flowers by Fantin Latour for $1.8 million, and an unusual work in gouache and tempera on silk of a crowd of figures by Pissarro, for $2.7 million.

Adelson Galleries brought a painting by John Singer Sargent, Bedouin Encampment (1906), priced at $6.5 million. And Dickinson of London has an exquisite Hans Memling portrait, the only known portrait left in private hands, fresh from its loan to the Frick Collection's stunning Memling show, and carrying a price tag of $2.7 million.

By the end of the fair's first day, there had already been some notable sales, such as a large 1929 painting by Francis Picabia at Paris's Galerie Cazeau-Beraudiere for around $2 million. First-time exhibitor Historical Portraits of London sold a portrait of Miss Caroline Hopwood by George Henry Harlow for $50,000, and a portrait of the three-year-old John Tufton by Sir Joshua Reynolds was on reserve for $1.8 million.

Talking Antiquities
New York-based Phoenix Ancient Art is doing the fair for the first time. While Hisham Aboutam says Florida clients only make up about 10 percent of the gallery's base, he is giving the fair a shot. He admits he was advised to bring more decorative ancient art that would appeal to the Palm Beach crowd. As for highlights of his booth, he points to a Roman marble revolving panel with a young satyr and Silenus, circa 1st-2nd century A.D., priced at $400,000. Aboutam calls it "the finest example in the world." He also displayed a small, Hellenistic bronze statuette of a goddess, dating to the 1st century A.D. He gave the latter's price as "more than $500,000" and said that two museums had already expressed strong interest.