From 13 to 21 November this year, enthusiasts from around the world will converge on Madrid for Spain’s largest art and antiques fair, the thirty-third annual Feriarte trade show. During the eight day event upwards of 15,000 antiques, artifacts and carefully selected contemporary art pieces will be on display at the Feria de Madrid, located in the historic Parque del Paraiso.
More than 65 leading international art galleries, antiques dealers and private collectors are set to attend FERIARTE 2010, with their exhibitions being examined and authenticated by a panel of expert art historians and anthropologists in the week leading up to the show. With the exception of the Art Deco and Contemporary Art pieces, all of the wares displayed at FERIARTE will be rare antiques and objets d’art more than 100 years old. In past years, exhibitions have been as diverse as to include antique jewellery, furniture, clocks and timepieces, books, manuscripts and assorted militaria.
The sheer size of the event, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors over eight days, ensures an atmosphere that can be as hectic as it is inspiring. For some more relaxing fieldwork in art and antiquities, exhausted FERIARTE patrons would do well to take a break from Madrid and head to the UNESCO heritage site in Toledo, some seventy-five kilometers to the southwest of the city.
Visitors will find numerous luxury hotels in Toledo and an array of historical and archaeological treasures: the combined product of its metropolitan flair and its culturally and religiously diverse sixteen-hundred year history. A visit to Toledo ought to remind visitors of the historic origins of the artifacts on display at FERIARTE and complete an awe-inspiring visit to the Comunidad de Madrid.