Jumbo-Sized Art Ambition

Collectors, museum curators and dealers from all over the world visit the international art market's most important fair in the small Dutch town of Maastricht every year. A significant number are Americans, who spend more money on art than any other nationality, yet curiously the United States has yet to hold an event with similar pulling power. Art Basel Miami Beach attracts an international crowd interested in cutting-edge contemporary art, while glitzy New York fairs pull in wealthy buyers from the north-east, but there is no single dominant event on the art market calendar in the United States. Now, however, an ambitious fair, founded 8 years ago by a US entrepreneur seeks to take advantage of the fact that many of America's wealthiest citizens spend winters in south Florida, has announced that it wants to become the Maastricht of the USA. For the full story - click the title Irish Art