New trends in the ancient art market

Opens under the glass roof of the Grand Palais the second edition of FAB, this new show born from the merger of two entities: Fine Arts Paris and La biennale des antiquaires created by André Malraux in 1956. It is today one of the most important international meetings for ancient arts with the presence of a hundred dealers from around ten different nationalities. All forms of art are represented, painting of course, but also furniture, jewelry, sculpture, each time with a very wide range of periods. Antique dealers and galleries present antique works such as Egyptian or Greek statues, as well as 18th century furniture. From Paris, which has always been one of the strongholds of this market, we can see changes in the tastes and trends of buyers, as explained by the Italian gallery owner Maurizio Canesso, who has been based in the capital for thirty years:

“After Brexit, many art galleries have set up in Paris, so the presence of dealers is important and promotion for works of art too. There have been developments in recent years, such as in painting where very particular attention is now given to the image An image that must be strong, impactful, and I think that this is in relation to the evolution of people’s outlook with social networks. People actually look at a lot of images through. their phones and are sensitive to the presence of the figure. This is why the unique figure, Caravaggesque or images from the Renaissance, classic, with a power of the gaze, have a certain success today.

News of the day

• The Cognacq-Jay museum in Paris was the victim of a robbery. Located in a private mansion in the Marais, the museum has been presenting the “Pocket Luxury” exhibition since last March, which shows small precious objects dating from the 18th century. This Wednesday, November 20, in the morning, four men entered the museum grounds, hooded and equipped with axes and baseball bats. They broke several windows in the exhibition and left with five boxes and snuff boxes from gold collections. According to initial estimates, the damage from the theft would amount to 1 million euros.

• The Franco-Moroccan artist Yto Barrada will represent France at the next Venice Biennale. An internationally renowned artist, she has been expressing herself for 25 years through numerous practices: installation, film, photography, sculpture, textiles and even publishing. His projects address the use of botany in urban policies, the international trafficking of dinosaur fossils, colonial anthropology and even cultural policies during the Cold War. She succeeds the artist Julien Creuzet who represented France in 2024 with his operatic exhibition “Attila cataracte”.

• Charlie Hebdo which will commemorate in 2025 the 10th anniversary of the January 7 attack, decided to organize the “#RireDeDieu” competition. The satirical newspaper wants to reaffirm its editorial line by addressing “to those who are tired of living in a society ruled by God and religion, to those who are tired of all the religious leaders who dictate our lives”. Open to all professional press cartoonists, it will be held until December 15 and the best caricatures will then be published in the newspaper.

• French bistros and cafes could be listed as UNESCO intangible heritage. An association of bistro owners has just submitted a file to the Ministry of Culture so that their application can be presented to the international organization. The objective is twofold: to promote social and cultural practices linked to bistros and cafés for tourism, but also to preserve this French institution which is losing momentum: the number of bistros has in fact been divided by 10 since 1945. In 2010 , it is the gourmet meal of the French which had been included on the list of intangible heritage.