Olympia Fair

For anybody wanting to combine fine art with fine food, the Winter Olympia Fine Art & Antiques Fair are offering a two-course meal and glass of wine at the Leith’s restaurant for £18.75.

THE critically acclaimed Modern British loan exhibition, which has in recent years become the trademark of the Spring Olympia fair in London, has been abandoned and will be replaced by a sleeker, more contemporary show.

RACEHORSE trainers may be used to a photo finish but a battle between two famous breeders went right to the wire on May 17 when Graham Budd (17.5% buyer’s premium) in association with Sotheby’s Olympia offered a selection of chattels from Ascot Racecourse.

CLARION events have appointed Freya Simms as a new director for the Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fairs. She will be groomed to take over from Dan Gorton as the prime organiser and figurehead of the Olympia fairs.

SPRING Olympia, held from March 1 to 6 at the West London exhibition centre, changed its name this year to Fine Art, Design & Antiques and, although around half of the 170 or so exhibitors had traditional antiques, the 20th century design and contemporary look dominated.

PRESENTER and interviewer Jeremy Paxman, pictured right, has agreed to be the patron of this year’s Antiquarian Book Fair, which will be held at Olympia in West London from June 9 to 12.

The number of stands at the Summer Olympia will be almost halved by June 2010 in a bid to make it one of the world’s top art and antiques events.

There is a mistake in the Sotheby's Furniture and Interior Decorator sale advertisement in the 8th January issue of the Antiques Trade Gazette (No. 1671). The sale and view is being held at Olympia and not New Bond Street as stated.

CLARION Events, organisers of the Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fairs, have successfully completed a £45m management buy-out from their parent company, the Earls Court & Olympia Group (EC&O). They emphasise their continued commitment to the antiques fairs.

AS certain as Autumn’s falling leaves, the scam fair guides have come out of the woodwork once more to trap dealers in the run-up to the Winter Olympia fair.

CLARION Events, who run the Summer Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fair, are to cut the number of stands at next year’s staging.

NEWS sometimes takes a little time to filter out but I can confirm that at least three dealers made a profit out of last month’s Fine Art and Antiques Fair at Olympia.

CONSTERNATION among Olympia dealers during the recent summer fair that next year their event would not overlap with Grosvenor House has been ended by the Olympia organisers changing their 2005 dates to June 9 to 19.

FAIR organisers Clarion Events are negotiating a management buyout from Earls Court Olympia, the group just bought by private property fund St James Capital in a £245m takeover.

JUNE in London means the big fairs, an increasing number of dealers’ selling shows and, this year, such trade initiatives as Art Fortnight and London Sculpture Week. It is the month when all eyes are turned on the capital’s art and antiques trade and dealers, collectors and museum curators fly in from all over the world.

The ABA’s annual Antiquarian Book Fair, which this year will be opened by the writer Frederick Forsyth, will run from June 3-6 at Olympia. Illustrated and/or very briefly described here are half a dozen items promised by dealers from Britain and the USA.

AT its seventh staging, the popular Hali fair at Olympia is undergoing some major changes, not the least of which is a name change. The event is now titled The Hali Fair: Carpets, Textiles and Tribal Art. The duration of the fair has been extended from four to 10 days and it will take place in the National Hall Gallery at Olympia from June 3 to 13, at the same time as the summer Fine Art & Antiques Fair. The fairs will be linked allowing easy access between the two.

ON The Wall is the name of a new fair aimed at the contemporary art market which will be launched from September 29 to October 3 at the Grand Hall, Olympia.

THE Earls Court and Olympia exhibition complexes are now under new ownership following a £245m deal which was completed last week.

RENOWNED thriller writer Frederick Forsyth is to be the patron of this year’s Antiquarian Book Fair, which runs at London’s Olympia from June 3 to 6.