FLORENCE, Italy—The Mostra Mercato Internazionale dell’Antiquariato (a.k.a. the Florence Biennale) is primarily an Italian affair. Held in Florence in the late baroque Palazzo Corsini, it is the longest-running and most prestigious antiques fair in Italy and primarily a showplace for Italian old master paintings and furnishings. Crowds of beautifully dressed Italians thronged to the palace for the opening on September 28, and exhibitors, too, were overwhelmingly Italian; of the 96 galleries who participated this year, 80 are based in Italy.

Several years ago, the organizers of the fair realized that the way forward was to simplify the procedure by which export licenses were granted. Now, before the fair opens dealers can apply for export licenses. They can also apply during the fair and decisions will be made the same day. This cuts down on red tape and attracts more foreign buyers.  

Still, the stars of the show were Italian, as usual, and mostly paintings and sculpture, with furniture seeming less spectacular than in previous years and silver sparse. One of the highlights of the fair was a pair of 14th century gold-ground paintings of The Annunciation by Spinello Aretino that was priced at €1,250,000 ($1,700,000). The pair, says gallery owner Bob Haboldt, is part of a polyptych; the central panel, known as the “Bute Madonna” is in a museum in Mexico City, and two side wings are in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Parma. The pair of panels, which fetched £431,200 ($882,000) at auction at Bonhams London in July 2005, had not sold by the end of the first weekend, but Haboldt said that there had been much serious interest. Also attracting considerable attention was a Bernini sculpture of the Crucifixion offered by Piacenti Art Gallery of Florence at an asking price of €2.8 million.

The fair was also a place to revisit old friends. A group of historic plaster casts that was deaccessioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2006, was being offered by Trinity Fine Art, Ltd., of London. A large relief from a 5th century B.C. original in Persepolis was priced at $6,000.

Among the works that were sold on opening weekend were a painting of St. John the Evangelist by 17th-century Florentine artist Cesare Dandini at the booth of London-based dealer Jean-Luc Baroni and a bronze sculpture of the Crucifixion by Florentine artist Antonio Susini (1572–1624) at Gallery Massimo Vezzosi. Ciaiti-Salamon of Milan sold a large Bosch-like painting by 17th-century Venetian artist Joseph Heintz il Giovane entitled L’Alchimista on the opening day of the fair. (None of these dealers were willing to reveal the prices paid for the works.)

Of note at this year’s fair was the increased presence of modern and contemporary art. Every fair seems to be turning to modern and contemporary art lately, and Florence was no exception. This year there were two galleries showing newer works exclusively. One was Cladia Gian Ferrare Arte Contemporanea of Milan; the other was Sperone Westwater of New York. Asked why he had decided to do the fair, co-owner Gian Enzo Sperone said that he doesn’t like the idea of separating modern art from antiques, something the Florence fair doesn’t try to do. (“The model fair,” he says, is Maastricht, which includes all areas of art and antiques.) Sperone Westwater’s booth contained two large works (one from the series The Conversion of Saint Paul Malfi) by Julian Schnabel that Sperone says were each priced at $450,000, a considerable increase over their 1995 asking price of $300,000 (when they did not sell), at the artist’s insistence. “Schnabel is doing well now because of his movies,” says Sperone, “but his paintings haven’t been selling.”

Dealers were very pleased with the turnout of “the right people,” and many said that this year’s fair, which concluded October 7, was the best yet. The top Italian collectors showed, as did some museum curators. In addition to the Italians, German collectors and a few Americans rounded out the crowd.