ABSOLUMENT FAB

France’s premier fair for fine art and antiques returns for its third edition inside its new home in the Grand Palais.

- STEPHEN SHORT

From an ancient Egyptian burial mask formerly in the collection of Gabrielle Chanel to furniture that once graced the salons of Versailles, Fine Arts La Biennale (FAB Paris) is back this month (22 to 27 November) with a stunning selection of works charting millennia of human endeavour and creativity. And, best of all—call it third time lucky—it returns under the glass dome of the newly restored Grand Palais, now the fair’s permanent venue. Transforming the historic space into a fabulous ephemeral museum, the show will encompass no fewer than 15 disciplines in the fields of fine art, furniture, antiquities, and jewellery. And for those who like their art in the old-school variety, there’s Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Albert Dürer, Auguste Rodin, Renoir, and Pablo Picasso.

FAB Paris (formerly known as Fine Arts Paris & La Biennale) was created in February 2022, in a move to combine the synergies, expertise, and global reputation of two highly regarded French art fairs: La Biennale des Antiquaires and Fine Arts Paris. Ultimately, the aim of FAB, President Louis de Bayser tells us, “is to try to show very different aspects of the art market. And we’re trying as many surprises as possible. People come in and we want the visitors or the collectors to be surprised by some stands, to be surprised by some objects, to see new things, different things than in other fairs.”

In other words, FAB is a very different art animal from this month’s Art Basel Paris. “We don’t want to have a fair with 250 exhibitors. It’s not the aim,” De Bayser says. “The aim is to stay focused with maybe no more than 120 or 130 exhibitors, but always keeping in mind that we have to be strict on the quality, because it’s through that prism that people then judge the fair and return. I think when it’s too big, it’s tiring.”