A former auctioneer, dot-com mogul and TV personality, she is returning to the cutting edge of the antiques business with her own gallery and plans for specialised auctions as well as the new show.
Space for the fair has already been booked at the now-renovated Navy Pier rotunda for May 9-13, 2003.
Hindman has put together an advisory board for the event and will be joined in the venture by Sandra Hindman (no relation) of Les Enluminures – a Chicago-based dealer in medieval and Renaissance period works of art who exhibits at many top European fairs.
Chicago’s other ‘international’ show, the Antiques and Fine Art Fair, is currently under way at the Merchandise Mart and despite the obvious risk of duplication next year, Hindman does not see a conflict: “The more events that go on in Chicago then the better we all are,” she said.
Her May dates should coincide with Art Chicago, the Modern and Contemporary art show at Navy Pier’s Festival Hall. Hindman says she is excited at the prospect of Midwest buyers visiting the city for two major shows side by side.
Shrugging off the recent demise of her on-line valuation service, eppraisals.com, and having just completed 100 days of filming for her
popular HGTV shows at the Auction and The Appraisal Fair, Hindman is now targeting September as a realistic date for the launch of her career as a full-time antiques dealer.
Between 1982 and 1997 Hindman established one of the largest auction houses in the Midwest before selling out to Sotheby’s and is now contemplating a return to auctioneering as well as establishing her own dealership in downtown Chicago.
Chicago show is new Hindman venture
USA: A new prestige antiques fair at Chicago’s Navy Pier next spring is just one of a series of new initiatives from one of the US Antique trade’s most energetic and dynamic figures, Leslie Hindman.
