The New York Art, Antique & Jewelry Show has been evicted from the Park Avenue Armory, Page Six has learned. And it’s just the first such annual arty trade show with millions in merchandise that will be kicked out as the Upper East Side venue further focuses on live performing arts.
Last November at the Art, Antique & Jewelry Show, millions in jewels and art were on display from 80 international exhibitors showcasing more than 30,000 items.
But despite a $320,000 rent for the five-day show, we hear, it’s been told there’s no room at the Armory for future events.
“Their current position is that there’s no space for the event in 2016,” the show’s owner, Palm Beach Show Group CEO Scott Diament, told Page Six.
He added, “What they’re saying is, they want to push all these shows out of the Park Avenue Armory. The goal is only to have performances. It was a major shock to me.”
Other shows that have annually been held at the Armory include the Winter Antiques Show, the New York Antiquarian Book Fair and the International Fine Art & Antiques Show.
But the space’s president, Rebecca Robertson, who led the redevelopment of Lincoln Center, has been remaking the Armory as an arts center. And this year the 1880s venue received a $65 million gift from the Thompson Family Foundation to spur the initiative.
The Art, Antique & Jewelry Show’s drawn guests like Ivana Trump as well as an annual pop-up restaurant by Le Cirque. Diament says the those who frequent his shows and others at the Armory won’t likely go to other available locations like the Javits Convention Center. “Carl Icahn lives around the corner [from the Armory],” says Diament. “It’s easy for him to walk.”
Dealers who exhibit at the show, now without a home, have been writing the Armory to object, including Macklowe Gallery and Rehs Galleries. Diament’s hoping Armory brass will reconsider, but was told there are no alternate available dates for his show, and that his usual November dates are filled instead with rehearsals for a performance. Reps for the Armory didn’t get back to us.