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Greenwich Time

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Paintings and antiques show makes yacht its home

Sep 25, 2007
 

By Michael Dinan
Staff Writer

Published September 25 2007

Though he’s worked all over the world, Picadilly art dealer Peter Mitchell said lovers of paintings and antiques will flock to Greenwich Harbor like never before for a first-of-its-kind show that opens tomorrow.

“You can’t afford, in Greenwich, to go to Matilda’s cocktail party and say you haven’t been on the yacht,” Mitchell said with a smile. Behind him hung a Dutch still-life from the 1620s that’s expected to fetch nearly $1 million during a five-day, floating art and antiques emporium.

 

The brainchild of a Florida couple that founded the Palm Beach International Fine Art & Antiques Show a decade ago, the show will be set aboard the 228-foot SeaFair Grand Luxe yacht, docked through Sunday at the Delamar Greenwich Harbor Hotel.

More than 40 dealers from as far away as Munich and Paris yesterday afternoon were transporting art, antiques and fine jewelry ranging from $500 to $10 million per piece from a bustling waterfront to the massive yacht. David Lester, a veteran show organizer who with his wife Lee Ann Lester launched a new company to organize the show, said he wanted to give dealers and appreciators an exciting new place to view, sell and purchase fine works.

“If we were imagining the perfect setting to launch this project, Greenwich really is the perfect setting,” David Lester said.

The ship’s crew, bar staff, caterers and dealers were hard at work yesterday, scuttling through the $30 million ship’s 28 ample exhibit booths, hanging paintings and tapestries, placing first-edition books and Chinese porcelain on shelves and carefully rolling in antique and Art Deco furniture.

The Grand Luxe is the first of five boats that SeaFair ships has planned. It’s accompanied by a smaller boat with a 60-person crew. The boat is expected to visit 36 affluent eastern U.S. communities each year, and charity events and fundraisers are planned for nearly every port the vessel enters.

Two benefits are scheduled for the Bruce Museum’s education programs. One event is a black-tie dinner aboard the boat tonight with tickets starting at $1,000 that’s expected to draw 110 guests. Another is a cocktail reception tomorrow night with tickets starting at $250 that’s expected to draw 500.

Lee Ann Lester said the charity events are designed to support the arts in each community the show visits.

The current tour is scheduled to make three stops after Greenwich –Êin Port Washington, N.Y., New York City and then finally in Norwalk’s Veterans Memorial Park next month. Jim Hill, an owner of the Manhattan-based, family-run Berry-Hill galleries, said the show’s mobility was part of what attracted him to the show.

“We’re going to be going to several different venues, which is attractive,” Hill said, standing beside a Jackson Pollock painting, “Man Bull, Bird,” from about 1938-1941, that’s valued at $4 million. “It’s just a very unique concept, and we’ve been friends with David Lester for many years and always considered him an extraordinary entrepreneur.”

Alexander Acevedo, owner of Manhattan’s Alexander Gallery, a specialist in 18th and 19th century historical paintings, said he’s shown as far away as Hong Kong, but never in a setting like the Grand Luxe.

Visitors who want to board must apply to become a member of the SeaFair Society at www.expoships.com. There’s no cost to join, though reservations are required.
 
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