On September 15, when the doors of the Grand Palais open in Paris for the 25th edition of the Biennale des Antiquaires, six prominent New York galleries will be among the eighty-seven international exhibitors offering a wide array of treasures from antiquities to the twentieth century.

First time participants include: Jason Jacques (19th and early 20th European pottery), J J Lally & Co. (antique Chinese works of art), L & M Arts (post-war and contemporary art), and the Marlborough Gallery (post-war and contemporary art). Returning to the fair are: Adam Williams Fine Art Ltd. (15th to mid-19th century European Old Master paintings) and Ariadne Galleries (antiquities).

For his Biennale debut, Jason Jacques will collaborate with the renowned French designer Francois-Joseph Graf to recreate the George Hoentschel stand from the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900. Hoentschel was an architect, interior decorator, art collector, and ceramist whose designs for the 1900 fair were in full-blown Art Nouveau style, which was then at the height of its popularity in France. Highlights on Jacques’ stand include Red Crab, vase, circa 1893, by Pierre-Adrien Dalpayrat and Cosmic Firestorm, vase circa 1895, by Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer for Clement Massier.

James J. Lally, of J J Lally & Co., marks his first time at the Biennale with Arts of Ancient China, the core of which comes from an American private collection of Tang pottery sculpture put together over the last twenty years, with some spectacular large figures of ‘Silk Road’ traders and Chinese courtiers and courtesans.

Also debuting at the Biennale are: L&M Arts exhibiting Two Women (Study for Clamdigger) by Willem de Kooning and Untitled, a painting by Joan Mitchell,; and the Marlborough Gallery, featuring Three Studies of the Human Body, a Francis Bacon triptych, as well Double Hamburger, the monumental canvas by Andy Warhol, and a beautiful wooden bookcase sculpture by Manolo Valdes.

Returning to the Grand Palais are: Adam Williams Fine Art Ltd. offering Portrait of young woman with a black scarf, by Jean-Baptiste Greuze and Still Life with Lobster, Fruit and a Nautilus Shell, by Ottmar Elliger, the Elder; and Ariadne Galleries, presenting a very rare group of beautiful objects from the early, formative years of Christianity, which span the 4th to 6th centuries BC, originating from the Near East and Asia Minor. Of particular note is their recent discovery of a graceful Roman statue of the goddess Venus emerging for her bath, also known as the Crouching Venus, from the Vérité Collection.

Practical Information:
Dates: from 15th until 22nd September 2010
Opening Hours: from 11am to 8pm, late openings until 10pm on the 16th and 21st September.
Opening Night: Tuesday 14th September, from 2 to 11pm
Gala Dinner: Monday 13th September
Address: Grand Palais – Avenue Winston Churchill – 75008 Paris
Organisers: Syndicat National des Antiquaires – Tel: + 33 1 44 51 74 74
Website: www.bdafrance.eu