Olympia Fair

Bigger stands - startling new stock: THE much-discussed new look for this June’s Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fair was unveiled last week. This year’s event will combine a bolder more spacious look with a more relaxed attitude toward datelines.

CLARION Events, the organising arm of Olympia, have appointed Dan Gorton, 34, as fair director for the three annual Fine Art and Antiques Fairs.

The most recent of the three annual Olympia fairs, the Spring Fine Art and Antiques Fair, which runs at the West London exhibition halls from February 26 to March 3, is a mix of traditional and modern very much with the decorator in mind.

LONDON: Three dealers exhibiting at the Spring Fine Art and Antiques Fair at Olympia in West London will hold a concurrent joint exhibition just two minutes’ walk away from the West London exhibition complex, with the object of pulling in the public and any decorators who are in town.

Sotheby’s (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) move to Olympia was accompanied by a rethink of auction selling categories. Their general ceramic and glass sales have been split into smaller specialised European ceramics, British ceramics and glass auctions each to be held tri-annually at Olympia.

Staff briefed on avoiding conflicts of interest. Sotheby's have sent out a memo to leading members of the trade involved with fairs at Olympia to explain how they will support exhibitors.

Victoria Borwick, director of all fine art and antiques fairs at Olympia for the past eleven years, will leave the company after the November Fine Art and Antiques Fair. In a move which stunned the Trade, Mrs Borwick was told last week by Andrew Morris, the chief executive of Earls Court and Olympia, that her role as director of the fairs was redundant.

SOTHEBY’S launch their new saleroom at Olympia in West London on September 18 with the auction of the Ian Grant Collection, removed from 41 Ladbroke Square.

UK: SOTHEBY’S have announced their intention to reorganise their Summers Place, Billingshurst, West Sussex operation to “take advantage of the new Olympia saleroom”. The restructure involves ending all general sales at the end of November and specialising in garden statuary, in which the rooms have established a leading reputation, and modern and vintage sporting guns and rifles.

After 15 years of holding picture sales at Billingshurst, Sotheby’s (20/15/10% buyer’s premium) will, from December this year, be holding all their mid-range art auctions in their new saleroom at Olympia.

UK: Potential clash with summer Olympia - Date changes at two of next year’s Antiques For Everyone fairs have thrown the early summer fairs schedule of a number of dealers into disarray.

UK: THE Antiques Trade Gazette has been given an exclusive preview of Sotheby’s new saleroom at Olympia. With 120 men a day working onsite to meet the September 3 deadline, prior to the first sale on September 18, one can see it is going to be very impressive indeed.

Newlyn makes its mark as fine art sales move from Billingshurst to Olympia UK: SOMETHING of a landmark, this year’s annual Garden Picture sale at Sotheby’s South (15/10 per cent buyer’s premium) held on May 23 was the last fine picture sale to be held at Summers Place before operations move to Olympia in September. The Sussex rooms will continue to hold monthly general picture sales and quarterly print sales.

THIS year’s Summer Fine Art and Antiques Fair opened at Olympia last Thursday with the 400 or so exhibitors in a very subdued mood. However, by the end of the first day much serious business had been achieved.

SOTHEBY’S have announced that they will hold their first sale at their new Olympia salerooms on September 18. The dispersal of the single owner collection will mark the beginning of an annual programme of 80-85 sales aimed largely at the middle market in terms of value.

THE London fairs season gets seriously underway on June 7 with the opening of the The Fine Art and Antiques Fair, which runs at Olympia until June 17.

UK: AN extraordinary breakdown in communication between Earls Court and Olympia, owners of the famous Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fair, and London organiser of one-day fairs Matthew Adams resulted in Adams Antiques Fairs losing an Olympia slot with no written notice or confirmation.

UK: NOTED for its wide variety of stock, there truly is something for everyone at all prices at the Summer Fine Art and Antiques Fair, which will be held at Olympia in West London from June 7 to 17.

UK: Morris sets out his vision for a market. UK: A NO dateline policy for all three Olympia antique fairs is among the plans Andrew Morris, chief executive of Earls Court and Olympia and head of Clarion Events, the halls’ organising arm, has revealed in an exclusive interview with the Antiques Trade Gazette.

CLARION Events, organisers of the Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fairs, assured the Antiques Trade Gazette last week that exhibitors at the June Olympia need not fear that the summer fair would be vastly enlarged in 2002.