The Florence Biennial of Antiques Dealers, 2024 edition

We saw the The Florence Biennial of Antiques Dealers for the first time in 2017. This is the fourth edition that we have comment here, this one having been postponed by a year due to the pandemic.
This latest visit confirms that this fair has undoubtedly become one of the world’s leading events for ancient art, which is of course mainly Italian, although works from other countries can also be seen, as in the case of Maurizio Nobile, who this year exhibited a Saint Jérôme by Claude Vignon.

Attributions are fragile In fact, when we reread our previous reports, we realised that we had reproduced in 2019 a Resurrection of Christ then given to Prospero Cesura proposed by Altomani & Sons. However, this is the painting that has since been returned to Guillaume Bonoyseau by the late Giovanni Sarti, who donated it to the Musée Fabre (see news item of 26/6/23).
Given their quality, many of the works from this biennial are destined for museums, often in Italy, as many of them have been ‘notified’ (i.e. banned from leaving the country). In 2019, we reproduced Bernini’s bust of Urban VIII Barberini, which was the subject of a fundraising appeal by the Galerie Borghèse. We wrote about it, but said nothing about the conclusion of the affair. And with good reason: unless we are mistaken, the sculpture has still not been purchased by the museum, which nevertheless has plenty of time to do so, since it too has been notified.

The 2024 edition does not feature any stand-out works such as this Bernini (although it does include four small gilded bronzes by this artist), but it does include a considerable number of very important objects. Here are just a few of them, without claiming to be exhaustive

1. Bartolomeo Cavarozzi (1587-1625)
The Pain of Aminte, 1613-1614
Oil on canvas - 78 x 102.5 cm
Canesso Gallery
Photo: Galerie Canesso

See the image in its page

We will begin with a gallery that we know well, since it is run by an Italian from Paris, Maurizio Canesso,…