FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JUNE 30, 2008                

Anna and Brian Haughton’s flagship fair, The International Fine Art & Antique Dealers Show, celebrates its 20^th year in 2008.  Taking place from October 17^th-23^rd, it once again brings together many of the world’s leading art and antique dealers at The Park Avenue Armory on New York’s Upper East Side.  

“The International Show”, one of the most prestigious fairs in the international calendar, has retained its position as a highly important showcase for top dealers from Europe and the United States for the past two decades.  The 2008 edition promises another exceptional line-up of exhibitors. Many are familiar names but, as always, there are a number of new faces.  (Please see below for a list of exhibitors.)

The International Fine Art & Antique Dealers Show will always be remembered as the first art fair in the United States to introduce vetting. Vetting follows a stringent set of guidelines, designed to maintain the highest standards in terms of the quality and authenticity of works of art on display. 

The great value of vetting at art and antiques fairs, whereby all items on sale have been examined by specialist committees for quality and authenticity, lies in the safeguards and reassurance it offers to buyers.  

The vetting committees in operation at The International Fine Art & Antique Dealers Show blend the academic and commercial worlds to offer an impressive level of expertise, with their membership including a distinguished line-up drawn from among museum curators and other renowned specialists. 

In visual terms  “The International” is among the most glamorous of the world’s art fairs, with a fabulous range of works of art for sale, many of them of museum quality.  Works on view include: furniture, paintings, sculpture, textiles, ceramics, glass, clocks, watches, arms and armour, books, jewellery, silver, antiquities and ethnographic art, representing some of the finest examples of their type to be found on the market today.   The rare and beautiful are commonplace. Prices start from as little as a few hundred dollars rising into the millions  - many will remember the Bernardo Bellotto oil sold at the fair more than a decade ago for $14m, at the time the highest price paid for a work of art at an art fair.

The International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show is held with the cooperation of The National Antique & Art Dealers Association of America (NAADAA), a powerhouse trade organization, founded in 1954.

Exhibitors at the 2008 fair:

A La Vieille Russie, Inc. (New York); Agnew’s (London); Apter-Fredericks Ltd (London); H. Blairman & Sons Ltd (London); Blitz Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art (Amsterdam); J.H. Bourdon-Smith Ltd (London); W.M. Brady & Co. (New York); Brame & Lorenceau (Paris); Browse & Darby (London); Ralph M. Chait Galleries, Inc. (New York); Antoine Chenevière Fine Arts (London); The Chinese Porcelain Company (New York); P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. Ltd (London); Cove Landing (New York);  Douglas Dawson Gallery (Chicago); Charles Ede Ltd (London); Peter Finer (London & Warwickshire); Firestone & Parson, Inc. (New York); Foster-Gwin, Inc. (San Francisco, CA); Galerie Boulakia (Paris); Goedhuis Contemporary (New York & London); Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts LLC (New York); Richard Green (London); Hancocks (London); Harris Lindsay (London); Brian Haughton Gallery (London); Henkel & Nichols (Pennington, NJ);  Hirschl & Adler Galleries (New York); Hyde Park Antiques, Ltd (New York); Hyland Granby Antiques (Hyannis Port, MA); Kentshire Galleries (New York); Koopman Rare Art (London); H.M. Luther Inc. (New York); Macconnal-Mason (London); Maison Gerard Ltd (New York); Mallett Inc. (New York & London); Fred Moheban Gallery (New York); Lillian Nassau LLC (New York); Jill Newhouse (New York); Frank Partridge (London);  Pelham (London & Paris); Ronald Phillips Ltd  (London); Phoenix Ancient Art (New York); Potterton Books (Thirsk, N. Yorkshire); Raffety & Walwyn Ltd (London); James Robinson, Inc. (New York); Maroun H. Salloum (Paris); Sampson & Horne (London); S.J. Shrubsole (New York); Somlo Antiques (London); Tambaran Gallery (New York); Axel Vervoordt (‘s-Gravenwezel, Belgium); Wartski (London); David & Constance Yates (New York).

New exhibitors in 2008:

Simon Capstick-Dale (New York) with Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary works of art; E. & R. Cyzer (London) with modern and contemporary masters; Dr Jörn Guenther – Antiquariat (Hamburg, Germany) with manuscripts and rare books; Mary Helen McCoy Fine Antiques (Charleston, SC) with fine and unusual 16^th-19^th century French and Continental furniture and decorative arts; Otto Naumann Ltd (New York) with Old Master paintings; Bernard J. Shapero Rare Books (London).

The Gala Preview Party benefiting The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center takes place on the evening of Thursday October 16^th.  It is a glittering charity occasion patronised by the crème de la crème of New York society.  The Gala consistently raises around $1 million for the Society and is a major source of funding for the volunteer organization, whose mission is to promote the well-being of patients and cancer research.   Around 1200 guests attend this dazzling affair, which inaugurates the social season in New York. 

General fair hours: 11am-7.30pm; daily except Sunday and last day, 11am-6pm.

General admission: $20. Tickets may be purchased at the door.

Brian and Anna Haughton of Haughton International Fairs have been fair organisers since 1982,  when they launched The International Ceramics Fair & Seminar, in London as an international forum for academics and collectors to meet annually, exchange knowledge and buy and sell the finest and rarest pottery, porcelain and glass under the strictest vetting conditions. The International Fine Art & Antique Dealers Show followed in 1989 in New York city, incorporating these same standards. In this way a close relationship between organisers, exhibitors and international museums became an integral part of the Haughtons’ New York fairs as well.  “The International” was followed in New York by The International Fine Art Fair (1994), The International Asian Art Fair  (1996) and The International Art + Design Fair (1999).  In February 2008 the Haughtons’ embarked on their latest venture, Art and Antiques Dubai, taking place at the Madinat Arena, Madinat Jumeirah.

The Haughton Family also organize: The International Asian Art Fair (March), The International Fine Art Fair (May) and The International Art + Design Fair (October) in New York at the Seventh Regiment Armory, and The International Ceramics Fair & Seminar (June) in London .

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