François Laffanour
The gallery shows at many of the pre-eminent art, antiques and design fairs including Design Miami/Basel, PAD Paris and ZONA Maco in Mexico City as well as the Paris Biennale, and has taken part in TEFAF Maastricht since 2005 in the design section. It will also be taking part in the inaugural TEFAF New York Spring in May.
For this year’s Maastricht, Downtown’s stand will focus on the work of Charlotte Perriand with a display of around 60 pieces by the sought-after and influential French Inter-war and Mid-century designer.
These are a mix of selected individual private commissions plus two or three pieces that she designed in 1959 for the Maison Borot in Montmartre.
Laffanour discovered the interior of the Borot house in the French magazine Aujourd’hui, Art et Architecture in the 1970s.
With the co-operation of Borot’s family, 30 years later he acquired the furniture and published Charlotte Perriand, une
maison à Montmartre in 2012.
The gallery says its Maastricht display will recreate “both the atmosphere of the Borot house and the universe of Charlotte Perriand that we find nowadays in contemporary interiors”. The price range will be €10,000-650,000.
Laffanour says the gallery’s clientele are predominantly private, many of them longstanding customers along with some new international collectors. The majority hail from France, Belgium and the US, followed by clients from Asia and Latin America.
He adds: “At Maastricht we sometimes meet new clients but mainly we meet collectors we have known for a long time.”
