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MOSCOW WORLD FINE ART FAIR WILL OPEN MAY 28 WITH OVER 80 DEALERS

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Moscow, Russia — Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, Geneva, Switzerland, will be the guests of honor at The Moscow World Fine Art Fair, which begins on May 28 with an opening night gala preview to benefit the Prince Michael of Kent Foundation, a foundation providing grants to Russian charities in a number of fields. The fair will run through June 4 at the Manege.

Princess Michael of Kent was recently appointed president of Partridge Fine Art, the English gallery, which specializes in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century English and Continental furniture, porcelain, works of art, jewelry and paintings. The gallery will make its first appearance at the seven-day Moscow World Fine Art Fair.

More than 80 international dealers — covering a wide range of specialties including furniture and works of art spanning the Sixteenth through Twentieth Centuries, sculpture, Old Master paintings, Impressionist and modern, contemporary, drawings, tapestries and carpets, Asian art ceramics and porcelain, and jewelry — will participate, with several exhibitors returning to the fold. Among them are George DeJonckheere, Berko, Pierre Dumonteil, Aveline, and Elysium, all from Paris, and Moussaieff from London.

This year, a number of new exhibitors will be among the participants including: Gallery Shiraishi, Tokyo, traditional and contemporary Japanese art; Stamegma, Marseilles, French Nineteenth Century antiques; Orel, Paris, Russian contemporary art; Leviev, London, rare and exceptional diamonds; Faerber, Geneva, estate jewelry; Cecile Lemarie, Strasburg, featuring a solo show by the artist Flore Sigrist; and Vanitas, Moscow, specialists in Flemish and Northern School paintings, Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries.

The Moscow World Art Fair will be held at the Manege, which was built in 1817 in honor of the fifth anniversary of the victory of the Russian troops over Napoleon. It was originally built for military purposes. Over time, however, the Manege switched from its military functions to becoming a center for cultural activities and as a concert hall. After the 1917 revolution, the building was used as a government garage and in the 1930s, the space in front of the building became Manege Square.

In 1957, it was reconstructed into a Central Exhibition Hall. At the beginning of the 1990s, the building underwent extensive reconstruction and an underground shopping mall was built and the Manege was used as an exhibition hall for all sectors of art and industry.

The Manege is at Manezhnaya Square. The show is open to the public daily from 2 to 6 pm. For information, ArtCultureStudio, 011 41 22 906 1566 or www.Moscow-faf.com.