Presented the 33rd edition of the Florence Biennale Internazionale dell'Antiquariato

Presented this morning the 33rd edition of the Florence Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato to be held at Palazzo Corsini from Sept. 28 to Oct. 6, 2024, will welcome eighty galleries with fourteen new prestigious international participations. “This edition promises to be one of the best under my stewardship,” declared Fabrizio Moretti Secretary General BIAF. “We have the world’s best dealers coming to exhibit their masterpieces at Palazzo Corsini. As always, the Biennale will become a museum for sale. I thank the committee members, and the secretariat for making this event possible, which remains one of the most important market fairs in the world.”

Galleries with a long tradition, such as Colnaghi, founded in the 18th century, and Agnews, a London-based gallery from 1817, will be present at BIAF. Among the participants will be the Enrico Frascione gallery, whose family has been dealing in antique paintings since the late 1800s and which boasts participation in the Florence Biennale since the first edition in 1959, along with Botticelli Antichità, which opened in 1959, and Bacarelli and Longari. Most of the galleries exhibiting at BIAF have an average of 30 to 50 years of experience to their credit, such as Sarti, Tornabuoni, Lampronti, Piva, Sperone & Westwater and Dickinson. All these galleries, large or small, have helped shape the taste of international collectors and continue to sell masterpieces to the world’s most important museums.

Behind every piece exhibited at BIAF there are often years of study, research, restoration and expertise to offer the market unpublished, rare works in optimal condition, a key criterion especially in the area of antiquities.

Even galleries recently founded or directed by young gallerists maintain these high standards. Among them, Caretto & Occhinegro and Romano Fine Arts return to Florence, while London-based Flavio Gianassi is participating for the first time, exhibiting a careful selection of Italian paintings and sculpture from the 14th to 17th centuries, including a large painted cross by Giovanni da Rimini and three small tondi by Bicci di Lorenzo. Also participating for the first time are the prestigious foreign galleries Llull Pampoulides of London and Rob Smeets of Geneva.

All the works, both ancient and contemporary, will be overseen by the Vetting Committee, composed of 55 experts in the various fields (paintings, sculpture, ceramics, furniture, drawings, silver). This group of scholars will be in charge of vetting every single object before the official opening of the Florence Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato.

A first look at the works that will be offered in the next edition of BIAF confirms, as Fabrizio Moretti, secretary general of the event, says that it will again be the “most important exhibition of Italian art in the world.”

Botticelli Antiquities will present a head of Bishop Andrea de’ Mozzi (ca. 1296-1300), attributed to a collaborator of Arnolfo di Cambio. This fragment of the funeral monument, preserved in the now-destroyed church of San Gregorio della Pace and now part of the Bardini Museum, was part of the Bardini collection for decades. The work depicts a crucial figure in the artistic development of 13th-century Florence. Bishop Andrea de’ Mozzi, in fact, signed the contract with Arnolfo di Cambio for the facade of the Duomo and promoted the construction of Santa Croce and the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova.

Maurizio Canesso, who is celebrating 30 years of activity, is offering the Italian market a Madonna and Child by Bronzino (1525-1526). This panel is an extraordinary testimony to a crucial moment in Bronzino’s career: the influence of Pontormo is still vivid, but the distinctive features of the crystalline and pure painting typical of the painter’s maturity can already be glimpsed.

Prominent among the highlights of Carlo Orsi’s stand is a Madonna and Child with St. Mary Magdalene by Titian Vecellio, dated between 1555 and 1560. This oil on canvas has been recognized as an authentic masterpiece by the Venetian master by distinguished experts, including Federico Zeri. The quality of execution and excellent state of preservation make this work superior even to versions with the same subject preserved in prestigious museums such as the Capodimonte Museum, the Uffizi and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

Altomani & Sons presents a recent discovery: a Portrait of Grand Duchess Vittoria Della Rovere by the Marche artist Camilla Guerrieri (Fossombrone, 1628 - Pesaro, 1690). This masterpiece, preserved in its original frame, celebrates the figure of early female emancipation, combining the portrait of a woman with that of a prominent patron and painter.

Caretto & Occhinegro Gallery will exhibit a rare Night Landscape with Stories of Ceres by Jan Brueghel I, known as Velvet. The artist spent a fundamental period of travel and study in the Peninsula, from Milan to Rome, where his fame made him one of the most celebrated Flemish painters. In the work, the figures are the protagonists of a classical myth centered on Ceres and are by the important painter Frans Francken II, while the landscape is by the hand of Brueghel.

Colnaghi offers a fine Still Life with Flowers in a Glass Vase by Giovanna Garzoni (Ascoli Piceno, 1600 - Rome, 1670), dated circa 1640-1650. This delicate painting on parchment, embellished with traces of black pencil and recently restored, highlights the mastery of Garzoni, considered the greatest Italian miniaturist of the 17th century. Born in the Marche region to a family of Venetian artists, she trained in Venice with Palma il Giovane and later with Tiberio Tinelli, who became her husband.

Orsini Arte e Libri presents a unique work: a pair of miniatures on parchment by Venetian artist Antonio David. The miniatures depict Pope Clement XII (Lorenzo Corsini, 1652-1740) and his nephew Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini (1685-1770), both carved on a large sheet of finely carved parchment.

The Alessandra di Castro Gallery, on the other hand, presents a very rare set of eight gilt bronze candlesticks, polished and matted, created in the early eighteenth century with ingenious design and form. Next to it, a canvas by Volterrano masterfully uses the unfinished technique to evoke the figure of Onphale, mythological heroine who subdued Hercules by enslaving him.

Robilant+Voena presents a majestic painting by Andrea Appiani, Portrait of Achille Fontanelli (1813). This painting is probably the last portrait masterpiece of the artist, who, after suffering a stroke in the same year, could no longer paint. Achille Fontanelli (1775-1838) was an important military commander of Napoleon’s forces in Italy and, in 1802, Napoleon’s assistant field marshal.

The Tettamanti Gallery will present an important work by Eliseo Sala, the Portrait of Rustem Bey (Giovanni Timoteo Calosso, 1854). Known as Rustem Bey during his service to Sultan Mahmud II of the Ottoman Empire, Calosso is also famous for his Mémoires d’un vieux soldat, which are among the most authoritative accounts of the Napoleonic Campaigns in Europe.

Society of Fine Arts will showcase a fascinating portrait of Anna Belimbau, painted by Vittorio Corcos in 1900. This painting depicts the wife of his friend Adolfo Belimbau in a scenic interior of their Florentine home, wrapped in an elegant redingote. Also from 1900, but by the hand of Medardo Rosso, will be the wax and plaster bust Antiochus, exhibited at the Gomiero Gallery.

Antonacci Lapiccirella will bring a rare Divisionist pastel by Umberto Boccioni, Portrait of a Young Man (ca. 1905). This work offers a privileged look at Boccioni’s pre-Futurist period.

Also for the first time at BIAF, Richard Saltoun Gallery will present a booth devoted to three significant Italian women artists: Bice Lazzari (1900-1981), known for her minimalist approach, Franca Maranò (1920-2015), a pioneer of ceramics, and Antonietta Raphaël (1895-1975), a renowned sculptor and painter. These artists played a crucial role in defining postwar Italian art and have recently been featured in important solo exhibitions.

Also announced for the twentieth century are works by Le Corbusier from Tornabuoni Arte, Alberto Savinio from Sperone Westwater with a 1950 Notturno, a 1933 De Chirico from Farsetti entitled Le figlie di Minosse (Ancient Scene in Pink and Blue II).

Then 780 guests will arrive from around the world for the exclusive Gala Dinner, already sold-out, on September 26 at Palazzo Corsini. The event will be curated by Massimo Bottura’s Gucci Osteria. Equally exclusive will be the dinner on Sept. 27, which will be held in the Salone dei Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio for a charity event to benefit the Andrea Bocelli Foundation. This evening will offer participants the chance to attend a performance by Bocelli and participate in a charity auction to support the foundation’s own national and international projects. The 2024 edition of the Florence Biennale Internazionale d’Arte (BIAF) features GUCCI as its main sponsor.

“The 33rd edition of the Florence Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato,” commented Florence Mayor Sara Funaro, “once again offers us the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the beauty and richness of art, thanks to the presence of 80 galleries from all over the world. An appointment that now represents a fundamental reference point for international collecting and an unmissable opportunity for all art lovers to admire rare and precious works up close. Special thanks go to the organizers, participating galleries and all those who help make the Biennale a successful and constantly growing event.”

“This 33rd edition is a testament to the great work done in recent years by Fabrizio Moretti,” added Region of Tuscany President Eugenio Giani, “who today offers Florence, Tuscany and the world an International Antiques Biennial of the highest quality thanks to the presence of antiquarians of a remarkable level and unique and exceptional pieces worthy of being in a museum. We are therefore happy to present such a prestigious event, which with its presence and its works contributes to enriching the city and the region with such an important and authoritative showcase for our art.”

Presented the 33rd edition of the Florence Biennale Internazionale dell'Antiquariato

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