Parcours des Mondes: The Increasing Presence of Archaeology

Collectors, art lovers, curators and interior designers throng here from all over the world, determined not to miss out at any price on this event dedicated to the arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas, and to archaeology. "It's decidedly the last fair of its kind that still appeals to a very broad clientele," enthuses Philippe Boudin of the Mingei gallery (Paris). Monomania: A Thing of the Past "Many people come for the sheer pleasure of it, knowing that dealers have kept their finest pieces for the event," says Olivier Larroque, who will be unveiling an Osanyin divination doll from Nigeria, of which there are only four or five extant examples. Quality, rarity and discovery are the watchwords for highly specialised selections that have often taken years to assemble. Lucien Viola of the Ibis galley (Marrakesh) longs for a patron to buy his incomplete pink granite sculpture of Nefertiti and give it to the Brussels Royal Museums of Art and History, thus completing the group formed with her husband, Akhenaten. The in-depth work of galleries has resulted in twenty or so remarkable exhibitions, like the ones featuring ethnic groups – Yoruba with Serge Schoffel (Brussels) and Baoule with Lucas Ratton (Paris) –, the art of bamboo basketwork…