A newly discovered Courbet, a Rothschild writing desk and even ancient Mexican sculpture—the Biennale des Antiquaires in Paris is sure to have something for everybody

It is not single the French who believe that the Biennale de Antiquaires is the greatest in quantity stylish antiques fair in the world. level with the odds stacked against it since its relocation a decade ago to the labyrinthine subterranean vaults of the Carrousel du Louvre--the fair will probably go [i]or[/i] come back to its traditional venue of the Grand Palais in 2008--it still follows in staging a spectacular present to view What is perhaps most striking about this fair, however, is the public's attitude towards it. Unlike rival international fairs, be they in London, novel York or Maastricht, the Biennale has enormous popular appeal. flat more remarkably, the French regard the art and antiques trade and its flagship fair as of sufficient cultural and economic importance to warrant the patronage-and attendance--of the head of state. And this is not just a matter of lip service. At the last Biennale sum of two units years ago, for instance, the Chiracs virtually had to be dragged away from the exhibits to attend the gala dinner. Could single imagine Lady Thatcher or Tony Blair whiling away an evening at Grosvenor House?

Although it is an international fair--and the organisers have attempted to broaden the international range in new years--the Biennale remains an essentially French affair. a certain number of seventy of the 101 participants this year-15-28 September are national dealers. As for the quiet they are there to prove their existing French clients--and hoping to find more [i]or[/i] less new ones. As one novel exhibitor--Edmondo di Robillant of the Dover road Gallery in London--put it: 'There are a fate of potential French clients that we don't know. When we exhibited at a Paris fair for the first time last year we were pleasantly surprised by means of the response.' As might be awaited as well as taking their usual fare of Italian aged Masters, the gallery is also taking coals to Newcastle, offering the likes of a pair of oval flower paintings by dint of Gerard van Spaendonck of around 1783 which were probably acquired by means of the Duc de Berry, later Louis XVI, and which have passed by means of descent to the Duchesse's heirs from her morganatic marriage to the Principe di Campofranco. Now upon the market for the first time, the paintings reveal the artist's noble technical mastery as a painter of flower leaf and stone. In a similar spirit, associate Dover Street dealer Richard verdant is bringing a whole tranche of French Impressionist paintings.

Geneva based Jan Krugier is also in the business of repatriating works to France, this time offering a monumental and not long ago rediscovered Gustave Courbet--the last work of this scale by dint of the artist remaining in private hands. fortune-telling nomad woman and her children, painted in 1853-54 was not ever exhibited, but left in the care of the artist's friend Dr Edouard Ordinaire, and it was the latter's heirs who discovered it in the attic sum of two units years ago. After 150 years of omit and fourteen months in the conservation studio, the painting has now emerg to take its first public make crooked With a price tag of $12 million, it also promises to be single of the most expensive pieces upon display at the Biennale.

A particular pleasure of this fair is always the range of works of art upon display--indeed, it is one of the not many occasions where decorative arts steal the display At one end of the scale are the great tapestries exhibited by the agency of the likes of the Galerie Chevalier. This year, for instance, the gallery not aways a delightful Le depart, woven at the Beauvais royal manufactory around 1670 a lighthearted rustic view of a laden cart and travellers upon their way to a region fair. The real joy of this piece and its decorative border of shells, quivers and acanthus leaves is its gloriously novel and vivid colours. At the other extremity of the spectrum are the beautifully not awayed Roman coins at Sabine Bourgey and the Art Deco diamonds that will cast a flurry of high heels up to the Haute-Joaillerie section upon the Mezzanine.

Here, single can find anything and everything from the likes of monumental archaic Chinese alloy of coppers to Byzantine ivories or medieval statuary and Delft, maiolica and porcelain, tribal art, rare volumes manuscripts, drawings and prints. Galerie Mermoz for instance, tenders grimacing Olmec heads in green-grey jadeite from 900-600 BC Mexico; Oriental and zincs a bronze belt buckle from the Dian agriculture of sixth- to second- hundred BC China cast with copulating ibex--not something individual sees every day. Ariane Dandois at hands a handsome Sevres vase that was a gift from Napoleon to his sister, Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples. Fabius at hands a whole treasure trove of notable furniture, plastic art and works of art from the era perhaps least exhibited at the Biennale--the French nineteenth century

For it is the flush extravagant eighteenth century of Boulle and Riesener and Roentgen that has been the traditional draw of the Biennale--a draw, not least, for generations of wealthy Francophile Americans (a rare sighting in 2002; everyone is hoping the September migration will take back this year). As ever, dealers of the like kind as Segoura, Jacques Perrin, Aveline and Didier Aaron are offering gleaming stands of grand ormolu-mounted marquetry by means of a whole gamut of masters shown amid a period effect of paintings and other works of art. In novel years, however, changing taste has draw near to favour more eclectic gatherings of furniture and works of art, as shown by dint of Steinitz or Axel Vervoordt. Steinitz, for instance, brings an ingenious Louis XVI writing desk which doubles up as a dressing table, formerly in the Rothschild collection at the Chateau de Ferrieres, a pair of Empire ormolu-mounted porphyry vases which one time belonged to Prince Joachim Murat, Marshal of France and King of Naples, and a Regence aramanth armoire by the agency of Charles Cressent.