Recap: Expoships Reduces Floating Art Fairs, Faces `Growing Pains', Yazzy's at www.williamverdult.com

This is an undated handout photo, released to the media on Monday, Jan. 7, 2008, of Expoships'' yacht ''''Sea Fair''''. Source: Expoships via Bloomberg News

According to Bloomberg news Expoships LLLP, citing ``growing pains,'' said its Grande Luxe, billed as an ``art fair mega yacht'' and built at a cost of $30 million, will be holding fewer events than expected.

David Lester, managing partner of Bonita Springs, Florida- based Expoships, said it would be taking bookings from art dealers for 10 to 12 two-week segments during the summer and winter months. ``We were a little aggressive to think we could get to a full 44-week operational status right from the start,'' he said.

The company said the yacht's first tour of the U.S. East Coast last year came as some collectors in the biggest auction markets in New York and London lost money on subprime mortgage investments.

Lester said the 228-foot yacht was the fourth largest in the U.S. and built as a floating art fair for 28 dealers by Nichols Brothers of Freeland, Washington, from August 2005 to March 2007. Its $30 million cost did not include a further $3 million for a support boat to accommodate the 48-strong hospitality crew.

In 2001, Lester sold his Palm Beach International Fine Art & Antiques Fair companies to the U.K.-based DMG Media, a subsidiary of the Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) group, for $18 million.

According to Expoships's Web site, Grande Luxe originally had been scheduled to come into service in December 2006, followed by an annual 44-week schedule of invitation-only exhibition openings and art fairs at affluent waterfront venues extending from Bar Harbor, Maine, to St. Petersburg, Florida.

Last year, the yacht completed six weeks of ``SeaFair'' exhibitions.

Miami Dock

Lester said the yacht was currently in dock in Miami, awaiting assessment of rust damage to its external paintwork and other issues. He said he expected the yacht to start circulating again in March or April.

Meanwhile, Expoships Director Nick Kornikoff has left the company. Kornikoff would not discuss the matter when contacted by telephone.

``We're in the process of making adaptations,'' said Lester. ``We're going to open the boat to the general public for certain hours and we're going to concentrate more on 20th century and contemporary art.''

James Mitchell of the London gallery John Mitchell Fine Paintings said: ``We did manage to sell a Willem van de Velde the Younger Old Master seascape for just under $2 million but we didn't sell anything else.''

``Contemporary art is where the money is in America,'' said Mitchell, one of the 28 art and antique dealers who exhibited during Grande Luxe's inaugural four-week voyage that began on Sept. 27, 2007, at Greenwich, Connecticut.

Traditional Model

Lester said the inaugural fair was based on the traditional Palm Beach art and antiques model.

Greenwich is the home of several hedge funds, including ESL Investments Inc. and Tudor Investment Corp. They had assets of $18 billion and $17.7 billion, respectively, and ranked as the 11th and 12th largest funds in the world as of Sept. 28, 2007, according to Bloomberg research.

During last year's tour, the Grande Luxe also moored at Brewer Capri Marina in Port Washington, New York City's Chelsea Piers, and Veterans Memorial Park, Norwalk, Connecticut.

``The ship is beautiful and deserves to succeed, but the first voyage wasn't commercial for us,'' said Lanto Synge, chief executive of London's New Bond Street furniture dealers Mallett & Son (Antiques) Ltd. ``I don't think we'll be doing it again.''

From Nov. 29 to Dec. 9, 2007, Grande Luxe moored at Miami Beach Marina to show a 22-dealer fair of modern and contemporary art, titled ArtMB, timed to overlap with Art Basel Miami Beach (which opened on Dec. 6) and its 26 satellite fairs.

`The Right People'

``This was the most beautiful and unique event I've ever shown at,'' said ArtMB exhibitor Ryan Ross, a Palm Beach dealer. ``The right people were there on the opening night. I will definitely do it again.''

In common with most ArtMB exhibitors, Ross showed a selection of classic, modern and contemporary works. These included an 1899 Claude Monet painting of Charing Cross Bridge, which at the time of writing was on reserve with a client at a price in the region of $3.5 million to $4 million.

``Twentieth-century art and design, and contemporary works by mid-career artists, is the direction we'll be going in,'' said Lester. ``The world's antique fairs are in a state of contraction. Contemporary is where the market is. SeaFair has to go with the flow.''