OPUS – Ancient Arts follows in the tradition of the great fairs dedicated to ancient arts, marking a new highlight in the cultural calendars of dealers, institutions and collectors alike. OPUS – Ancient Arts takes the form of an intimate art fair, featuring a carefully curated selection of galleries showcasing their diverse specialities: Greek and Roman, Egyptian, Near-Eastern, Islamic and Inuit antiquities. 

Exhibitors

Vetting Committee

OPUS – Ancient Arts aims to strengthen trust between dealers, institutions and collectors. First, by limiting participation to galeries of exemplary reputation who demonstrate unswerving dedication to the ethical rules guiding their activities. Second, by establishing an international vetting committee comprising renowned specialists, recognised for both their expertise and their integrity. Third, by maintaining clear and open channels of communication with the relevant authorities. All these elements combined guarantee visitors that the artefacts on display have been subject to the most rigorous appraisal.

Conservateur général honoraire du Patrimoine, Agnès Benoit was responsible for Ancient Iran and Central Asia collections at the Louvre’s Department of Antiquities for almost 30 years. She was also a professor at the École du Louvre, holding the Chair of General Art History in Eastern Antiquity from 1994 to 2015. In this capacity, she wrote a 680-page summary work entitled Art et Archéologie. Les civilisations du Proche Orient ancien, RMN, Paris, first published in 2003, and republished many times since. In 2010, she published a small book in the Solo collection of the Éditions du Louvre, entitled Princesse de Bactriane, which focuses on an exceptional statuette donated by the Louvre’s Friends Society. It is a reference work on this statuary. Today, she devotes her time to the study of collections linked to ancient Iran and the Oxus Civilisation. Her latest book, Art in the first Cities of Iran and Central Asia, published in September 2021 by Yale University Press, is devoted to the masterpieces of the Sarikhani Collection..

Corinne Besson is a former jeweller, holder of a Ph.D. in Art History and Archeology and a former scholar of the Ministry of National Education, Research and Technology. She is the author of a thesis about the manufacturing techniques and typologies of gold jewellery in Roman Gaul, UMR 8167, 2007 (Poitiers and Paris IV-Sorbonne). Associate researcher at the team “Technical-Commercial-Production and Consumption” (TP2C) of the UMR 5140: Archaeology of Mediterranean societies from the University of Lattes-Montpellier/CNRS, expert in antique jewellery from the Mediterranean, she is a member of the Chambre nationale des experts spécialisés en objets d’art et de collections and an expert student of the Chambre nationale des experts spécialisés en œuvres d’art. She is also a member of the vetting committee of the Brussels Ancient Art Fair since 2012.
Laurent Dodier worked passionately as a tribal art dealer from 1981 to 2022. His gallery, located in the Bay of Mont-Saint-Michel, has taken part in numerous international art fairs. Laurent Dodier now devotes his time to his expertise as a member of numerous specialist organisations – CEA, CEDEA, SFEP, SNA…
Christian Loeben is a specialist in Ancient Egypt. Since 2004, he is a curator at Hanover’s August Kestner Museum, head of the Ancient Egypt and Islam collections. He curated more than a dozen exhibitions. In 2012 and 2021, Christian was part of the scientific evaluation committee for the Egyptology departments of the Louvre and the Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig. He is a member of several art fairs’ vetting committees such as BAAF, BRAFA and TEFAF Maastricht.

Olivier Perdu is an egyptologist, working with the chair of Pharaonic Civilization at the Collège de France. He was a teacher at the École du Louvre from 1983 till 2000.

He curated the Crépuscule des pharaons : chefs- d’œuvre des dernières dynasties égyptiennes consacrée à une réhabilitation de la production artistique après le Nouvel Empire exhibition at the Musée Jacquemart-André, in 2012.

Kai Scheuermann is a specialist in engraved gems and has been collecting glyptics from the Classical World for the last 35 years. Some pieces from his collection have been exhibited at the Staatliche Antikensammlung in Munich  in the Exhibitions “Charakterköpfe” 2017 and “Die Etrusker” 2015, as well in the Schnütgen Museum in Cologne in the “Magie Bergkristall” Exhibition 2022. 

A spectacular find was made in 2005 where he rediscovered a highly important Amethyst-Intaglio in the Bust of Charlemagne in the Treasure of  the Cathedral of Aix la Chapelle, reverse mounted, and still in permanent Exhibition there separately.

For many years, Kai Scheuermann was co-owner of the Kölner Münzkabinett in Cologne, an auction house that has partly specialised in precious stones for over 50 years.

In Autumn 2023, Kai joined the team of renowned German auctioneer Christoph Bouillon, a leading specialist in Old Arts as Specialist for Ancient Engravings.

Cyril Thiaudière holds a Ph.D. in Ancient History and Archaeology and is a former scholar of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology (2001, 2002, 2003). He is the author of a thesis about the study of technical and typological gold jewellery from Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt (Poitiers – Limoges 2005), and a former associate researcher at the research group Histara, EA 4115: Art history, archeology and history of representations of Europe, of the École pratique des hautes études, Sorbonne, Paris. Cyril Thiaudière is an expert in antique jewellery from the Mediterranean, a member of the Chambre nationale des experts spécialisés en objets d’art et de collections and an expert student of the Chambre belge des experts en œuvres d’art. He is also a member of the vetting committee of the Brussels Ancient Art Fair since 2012.

Rainer Vollkommer is Director of the Liechtenstein National Museum, President of EEN (European Exhibition Network), and Ph.D., Honorary Professor for Ancient History. Renowned expert in classical Archaeology and Art History. Rainer Vollkommer has lectured at European universities. He has worked at the Archaeological Institute of the University of Leipzig, where he participated in the creation of the Museum of Antiquities. From 2002 to 2011 he was the head of a department of the Saxon State Office for Archaeology and the head of the State Museum of Prehistory in Dresden. In April 2011, he was appointed Director of the Liechtenstein National Museum in Vaduz.

Special Guests

Alongside the participating galleries, OPUS – Ancient Arts is also inviting a number of players in the field of ancient arts to present their work throughout the fair.

The Antinoë bookshop was founded in 1985 by Brigitte Cordelle, a bookseller and former expert in Mediterranean archaeology at the Court of Appeal in Aix-en-Provence.
Specialising in archaeology and the fine arts, Antinoë is one of the last physical archaeology bookshops in France. Located in the heart of Brest, it is also a local bookshop in a particularly rich cultural environment (primary schools, art galleries, antique gallery, Fine Arts museum, castle, Fine Arts school, conservatory, etc.).
The bookshop offers rare and specialised works from prehistory to the Middle Ages, including excavation reports, essays, historical books, epigraphs, ancient texts and more. The Fine Arts section offers books on both Western and non-Western art, as well as essays, exhibition catalogues, monographs and artists’ books. The bookshop, which offers both new and second-hand books, focuses particularly on Egyptology and Assyriology.
 
Librairie Antinoë – 30, rue Émile Zola 29200 Brest, France
 
 

Qualified with a diploma in Conservation-restoration of Heritage obtained in Paris in 2016, Jérôme Bresson very soon devoted himself to the conservation and restoration of antique and archaeological artefacts and founded the Atelier Bresson the same year. With a wealth of experience in prestigious galleries and museum institutions, and always driven by a passion for Classical and Egyptian antiquities, it is with great care and rigour that he provides the ethical treatment necessary to ensure the longevity of the altered works entrusted to him, whether they are in terracotta, marble, stucco, polychrome wood, limestone or even glass… The Atelier Bresson serves a clientele that includes curators, gallery owners, auctioneers, antique dealers, collectors and lovers of antique and archaeological objects.

Atelier Bresson – 3, impasse Duplessis 78000 Versailles, France



Exhibition

Dilettanti & Collectionneurs d'antan

At a time when research into the provenance  of artworks is gaining ever-greater attention,  the “Dilettanti & Collectionneurs d’antan” exhibition reminds us of the key role played by collectors and the importance of art documentation.  At the suggestion of Jean-David Cahn and Antoine Tarantino, each gallery participating in the third edition of OPUS – Ancient Arts has contributed a collector’s piece with its own unique story to tell.

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