Art Basel Miami Beach postponed for a year

What was to have been Florida’s newest art fair has been rescheduled from 13 to 16 December to 5 to 8 December 2002. The organisers, MCH Swiss Exhibition Ltd, decided six weeks before the event that it would be impossible to stage the inaugural fair this year, because of the increased difficulty in transportation and insurance for works of art travelling by air. This cancellation will cost them $4 million. It is a grave disappointment to the local museums that had planned specific exhibitions to coincide with the fair, the collectors who were going to open their houses and the 150 international galleries that were planning to attend the fair. One dealer is proposing an alternative: a show in Nash Hotel on Collins Avenue in South Beach, using over 45 rooms, on the same dates, and at a “very reasonable price,” according to the organiser, Laurie De Chiara. For more information telephone +1 212 967 6007, or fax +1 212 967 1604, or visit www.dechiaragallery. com.