An Antiques Fair in Dubai

Development tends to happen fast in Dubai, and the tiny country is just as rapidly asserting its status as a new destination for art and antiques shopping. Now the British show organizers Brian and Anna Haughton, who stage four shows at the Park Avenue Armory, including the International Asian Art Fair, are staking out their next show in Dubai. Art and Antiques Dubai will be staged at the Madinat Arena of the Madinat Jumeirah complex in February 2008.Dealers are already reacting to the announcement. “It’s not rocket science,” an English furniture dealer, Clinton Howell, said Tuesday from his gallery on East 72nd Street. “Potentially, the market in Dubai is huge.” He said he has already scouted out the Middle Eastern venue. “I met Russians, Australians, and you-name-it there.”“Since we already have clients in Dubai, it’s logical for us to do the Haughton fair,” a French Art Deco dealer, Christopher Knight, who manages Maison Gerard on West 10th Street, said. “In the past two years alone, we’ve racked up strong sales to clients in Kuwait and Dubai, each of whom has multiple homes.”Even dealers in niche categories such as 20th-century Scandinavian design are considering the Haughton show. “We’re definitely exploring signing up. The Haughtons have a terrific vision,” Kim Hostler, whose TriBeCa-based Antik gallery specializes in modern Danish and Swedish design, said. She reported selling high-end Danish furniture to the Manhattan firm Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects for a residential project in Dubai.There’s a building boom in Dubai. The Mall of the Emirates, a 6.5-millionsquare-foot space billed as the world’s first shopping resort, opened last fall. Under construction is the Burj Dubai, more than 110 stories high and reportedly the world’s tallest building. Then there is the Dubai Mall, which promises to be the largest mall in the world, and Falconcity, a development of 3 billion square feet.The Haughtons and their dealers will find some familiar faces in the Madinat Jumeirah as Christie’s has offices in the modern turreted complex. The London auction house Bonhams, which has a New York showroom at Madison Avenue and 57th Street, will also open a Dubai outpost at the Madinat Jumeirah in November.The Haughtons aim to draw dealers for their newest fair from far beyond the traditional locales of New York, Paris, and London. “We’re planning to recruit dealers from the Middle East, North Africa, and India as well,” Ms. Haughton said from her London office. She and her team worked closely with the Dubai government’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, which is promoting the emirate as a cultural destination. She and her staff have traveled there 11 times so far in preparation for the launch of the fair.The Haughton fair will not be the first art fair catering to both Western and Eastern dealers in Dubai, but the company’s reputation will likely sets it apart from other attempts. The Gulf Art Fair opened there in March, organized by an English dealer. The Global Links International Exhibitions and Conferences established the International Art & Antique Expo there in April 2006. “It was poorly managed and I sold nothing,” antiquities dealer Jerome Eisenberg, who commands Royal-Athena Galleries, with outposts in New York and London, said recently. Mr. Howell also participated in that fair and returned home empty-handed.Helen Fioratti, who heads up the Upper East Side gallery L’Antiquaire & the Connoisseur, questioned the idea of establishing a new fair in Dubai. “Some clients there have five different dining rooms, [but] they have a whole different aesthetic,” Ms. Fioratti, who has provided art and antiques to members of the royal family of Kuwait for more than 20 years, said. “For example, they like Orientalist paintings with camels in them, landscapes, and still lifes. But the Muslim religion forbids depictions of humans. That cuts things down a bit.” Even so, wealthy non-Muslim Indians, who favor contemporary art, often travel to Dubai to shop.The climate also poses a problem for antiques dealers. “I think it’s a wild idea to take an antiques fair to Dubai,” Ms. Fioratti said. “The climate ruins 18th-century antiques.” But that won’t keep everyone away. “If there’s anyone who can run a successful fair in Dubai and bring in the right audience, the Haughtons can,” Mr. Howell said. “I might just well do their show.”

An Antiques Fair in Dubai

An Antiques Fair in Dubai

More from the New York Sun

A Muddled ‘Real Ivanov’ Strains for Modern Resonance

Did Eve Arden Live the Life Sylvia Plath Desired?

Washington Slow To Tackle a Brewing Crisis, as America’s Most Powerful Mideast Allies, Turkey and Israel, Lock Horns

Hasan Piker’s Mockery of Charlie Kirk Updates Orwell’s ‘Two Minutes Hate’ for the Podcast Era

WNBA Rejects Draft Bid From Former NBA Players, Calling Intentions a ‘Publicity Stunt’

Roni Ben-Hur’s Stylish Latin Jazz Entente

Finding the Altalena

The Rent Freeze Case Moves to Manhattan

More from the New York Sun

A Muddled ‘Real Ivanov’ Strains for Modern Resonance

Did Eve Arden Live the Life Sylvia Plath Desired?

Washington Slow To Tackle a Brewing Crisis, as America’s Most Powerful Mideast Allies, Turkey and Israel, Lock Horns

Hasan Piker’s Mockery of Charlie Kirk Updates Orwell’s ‘Two Minutes Hate’ for the Podcast Era

WNBA Rejects Draft Bid From Former NBA Players, Calling Intentions a ‘Publicity Stunt’

Roni Ben-Hur’s Stylish Latin Jazz Entente

Finding the Altalena

The Rent Freeze Case Moves to Manhattan