ARTINFO.com

Font Size Font Increase Font Decrease

Major Sponsor Abandons Salzburg Art Fair [Updated]

Published: February 2, 2009
GENEVA— Last week, ARTINFO broke the story that the Moscow World Fine Art Fair, run by the Geneva-based company Art Culture Studio, would be canceled in 2009.

ARTINFO has just learned that the Geneva-based company Art Culture Studio will also be canceling its sponsorship of the Salzburg Fine Art Fair. The Austrian fair, however, is still scheduled to run August 13–23.

“The financial crisis is affecting many areas, including the art & antiques world and the jewelry industry,” Art Culture Studio wrote in an email newsletter. “High auction results and other events are diminishing rapidly. This tendency may worsen as months go by. Art dealers and jewelers are showing signs of prudence and prefer to give up international exposure during these times of uncertainty. This is also the case for sponsors, which are less and less inclined to communicate via international events. The Moscow and Salzburg World Fine Art Fairs, like all other events of this nature, depend largely on the active support of their sponsors.”

ACS expressed a resistance to having to change the show in any way, writing, “ACS has always opted to present the best quality regarding as much the works exhibited as the presentation of the fair itself, and the organization prefers to cancel rather than sacrifice an inch of what it is most famous for.”

The company also cited consideration for the populations hit by financial hardships. “Art Culture Studio reached its decision wishing to show respect to those severely hit by this crisis,” it wrote. “We believe that under the circumstances which we all know, it would have been unscrupulous to present yet another luxurious and festive event in Russia.”

Update: An earlier version of this article said the Salzburg art fair had canceled. In fact it plans to continue even without Art Culture Studio's sponsorship.

advertisements