PALM BEACH—The economy is in turmoil, the Dow has slumped below 8,000, and the weather in Palm Beach is the coldest it’s been in 20 years. But despite these tough odds, art fair organizers David and Lee Ann Lester seem to have made a success of the American International Fine Art Fair, the art and antiques fair they founded in 1997, sold to DMG World Media for $18 million in 2001, and recently bought back (and renamed) at the behest of a group of disgruntled dealers who had considered taking over the fair themselves.  

The Lesters’ success this year appears to be the result of aggressive promotion and bolstering of confidence among the fair’s 80-odd participating dealers, some of whom were convinced to return to the fair after dropping out during the DMG years.

The Lesters arranged for a full-color advertising supplement in last Friday’s New York Times, local TV spots, and buses to import collectors from Naples, Florida. They shortened the fair from 11 days to five — it now runs February 4 to 8. They had nightly events — at the swanky Donald Trump-owned Mar-a-Lago Club, the Norton Museum of Art, and the Flagler Museum — and brought in a group from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, including director Malcolm Rogers.  

The organizers also put together what participating exhibitors characterized as a pre-opening pep talk, which managed to galvanize and motivate dealers, instilling an upbeat attitude to counterbalance the doom and gloom brought on by a faltering economy and the specter of Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, who looms large in Palm Beach’s tight-knit community of wealthy collectors.  

The vernissage, a benefit for the Norton Museum, was a smashing success. Between the early guests who shelled out $1,000 per ticket and the later ones who came in for $125, Lester said he brought in 3,400 bodies that night, almost six times the number that attended last year’s opening. On hand were socialites, philanthropists, and businessmen, including Iris and Carl Apfel, Maura Benjamin, and Robert Nederlander.

The following day, when the fair opened to the public, attendance was at 2,000, more than double for the same day last year. “We can’t control sales,” said Lester. “But we are giving [dealers] an audience.” 

Collectors were cautious but active. Lester claimed that a Chinese property developer from Hong Kong, who prefers to go unnamed, flew in on his private jet and hoovered up millions of dollars worth of art at the fair.  

As in previous years, jewelers like London’s Graff were mobbed on opening night. “Diamonds tend to do well even in bad markets,” said François Graff, standing in front of a display case containing “The Flame,” a pear-shaped 100-carat diamond priced at $30 million. 

Flashy as the jewelry is, the real attraction here is art and furniture, all of it carefully vetted. A wide array of objects was on display. Walking from one end of the fair to the other, you could go from a pair of 18th-century Chinese export lacquer cabinets made for Prince de Ligne of Brussels, one of which features, on a discreetly placed fold-out panel, a series of explicit erotic scenes ($1,750,000 for the pair at Carlton Hobbs) to a pair of 19th-century silver his-and-her chastity devices ($22,800 at M.S. Rau Antiques). 

Veteran dealers at this fair have worked hard to develop local clients. At the booth of London-based arms and armor dealer Peter Finer, who has been doing the fair for around 14 years, an Italian rapier from circa 1600 and priced at $90,000 was on reserve to a collector in Palm Beach who owns a matching dagger. “Collectors are taking their time,” said the gallery’s Red Finer, echoing the sentiment of many dealers. 

Still, artworks were selling. Munich’s Galerie Thomas parted with a small bronze Max Ernst sculpture of a surrealist bird-like creature for $40,000. “At Art Basel Miami Beach in December, we saw that already those people who buy in the upper range for investment or reputation are off the market, as are those with small incomes who really have to think about whether or not to buy,” said the gallery's Raimund Thomas. “But the large majority in between — and that’s where most of our clients are — still have interest, they are just more cautious.”