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20.05.12

BRIGHT SUN, NO APPARENT STRIKES, and last week’s surprising announcement in the World Wealth Report that France is the European country with the most millionaires per square meter: All of this boosted enthusiasm for the opening of the thirty-eighth Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain (FIAC) in Paris. On Tuesday evening, the day before the fair’s official opening, some collectors and their consultants—many of whom described being discouraged by the prior week’s “lukewarm” Frieze Art Fair—began to snatch up any work measuring more than three meters and costing more than 100,000 euros. From rulers of Qatar to representatives of Moët Hennessy–Louis Vuitton, there was not the slightest suggestion of crisis: Collectors were looking for the biggest and most expensive pieces they could find. After all, their famous architects are being recruited to build monumental museums that have to be filled with works suited to those high-ceiling cornice moldings! FIAC, which took place under the enormous glass-roofed vaults of the Grand Palais, was the perfect shopping mall for that clientele.

Source: Artforum