Palm Beach Show brings rare and unique luxury finds to West Palm Beach for 21st year

The Palm Beach Show returns this week for its 21st year, with more exhibitors, more luxury items and a major new sponsor.

As the six-day festival of art, jewelry, antiques and design heads into its 21st year, organizers said that it's a happy coincidence that The Palm Beach Show's leadership team, after two years of negotiating, finalized a deal with LVMH, the luxury French conglomerate, to have its brands Veuve Clicquot and Whispering Angel Wine sponsor this year's event.

More: Fashion and Style: Palm Beach Daily News Fashion Calendar for Feb. 12, 2024

The event "can drink now, and it can only drink the best," said Scott Diament, president and chief executive of the Palm Beach Show Group.

The Palm Beach Show is Feb. 15-20 at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, and this year features more than 130 exhibitors selling rare jewels, sculptures, antiques, fine art and more.

The show begins Thursday with a VIP opening night party from 5 to 10 p.m. The VIP preview begins at 5 with a collectors' preview at 7 p.m. The Palm Beach Show is then open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday to Tuesday. Tickets are $50 to $100 for opening night, or $30 for daily general admission.

The number of exhibitors is back to where the Palm Beach Show stood before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Diament said.

The variety of exhibitors also makes the show stand out among similar events in the U.S. and globally, he said. "Starting in 2001, it was all about variety," he said. "How do you have different items for different people in our community or country or world?"

That variety includes price points, he said.

It also includes items including a 100-carat diamond of the same color, quality and material as one held in the Tower of London and owned by Britain's royal family, Diament said.

"It's a very, very, very special diamond ring," he said, noting that the diamond was recently set into a ring so someone can try it on. "As an object, it's one of the most special objects that exists in the world, and certainly at the show."

There also will be fossils, including some that are dated at millions of years old, Diament said, adding that exhibitors also have rare books, walking sticks from the 1800s and hand-blown glass pieces. Exhibitors this year plan to bring works from artists including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Vincent Van Gogh.

"You come to this show, and it's like, what in luxury are you interested in?" Diament said. "It's here."

The design element of the Palm Beach Show is even more important this year as new housing and office space booms in Palm Beach County, he said.

"It's been an explosion in our area of new housing choices, so design has been a really big talking point for the dealers," he said, adding that his team has looked at ways to incorporate more design in the Palm Beach Show.

With millions of square feet of new office and residential space planned just in downtown West Palm Beach, people will be looking for unique, luxury items to furnish and decorate those spaces, Diament said.

The Palm Beach Show team brought more design to the table with the fair's programming, which begins at noon Friday with a lecture from Sandra Diaz-Velasco on "Designing with Old Masters and Contemporary Art."

The lectures and booth talks continue throughout the event, with presentations from and discussions with notable names including sculptor David Harber, Mahmood Qannati of Qannati Objet d'Art, Heritage Palm Beach co-director and jeweler Katherine Van Dell, and author and designer Linda M. Kozloff-Turner.

Saturday is the annual event's "Day of Design," sponsored by Florida Design magazine and featuring a 1 p.m. panel on "Investing at the Crossroads: Art, Real Estate and Interior Design," with panelists Ruben and Katie Gutierrez of Errez Design, Armina Casa CEO Emre Basman, David and Ivana Shultz of Beachfront Builders and Beachfront Properties, and Deborah Larrison of Bank of America.

As part of the new sponsorship, there will be Veuve Clicquot Champagne Bars and a Whispering Angel Wine Lounge. New drink menus and service include an espresso martini pop-up and frozen rosé cocktails, Diament said.

The new partnerships add to the upscale experience the Palm Beach Show Group has spent the past two decades building, he said.

"The people coming want, overall, a special experience, so when you're walking around and you're seeing all of these incredible items from the last 2,000 years, you want to take a break, and have an espresso martini," Diament said. It's important to offer food and beverages and "have it be of a certain quality and level commensurate with the level of what you're buying at the show," he said.

The entrance installation at this year's fair — an annual showcase that welcomes visitors to the Palm Beach Show — is designed by Callaghan's of Shrewsbury and features life-size and giant bronze sculptures set into natural scenes, complete with live grasses.

Another installation featured at the show is “Funny Birds - Secret Garden," featuring work by Venetian artist Anna Paola Cibin. In the large installation that is reminiscent of a lagoon in Venice, about four dozen colorful, delicate birds made from Murano glass perch in an aviary.

Diament said he's excited to feature Cibin's work at the Palm Beach Show. "She was in the Venice Biennale," he said, referring to the prestigious European art show. "She's really a top, top artist."

Palm Beach’s unique community has made it the perfect place for the Palm Beach Show to thrive through its 21 years, Diament said.

"There's a love, a desire and appreciation for it that allows that number of exhibitors to participate and do well," he said.

Palm Beach exhibitors

These Palm Beach Show exhibitors have locations in Palm Beach County:

• A.B. Levy's, Palm Beach

• Aletto Brothers, Boca Raton

• Art New Line, Palm Beach

• Benchmark of Palm Beach, Palm Beach

• Blue Gallery, Delray Beach

• BOCCARA, West PAlm Beach

• Buffalo Spurs Gallery, Palm Beach

• Charamonde Jewelers, Palm Beach

• Edward and Deborah Pollack, Palm Beach

• European Treasures, Delray Beach

• Fazzino Art by Amazing Animation, West Palm Beach

• Frascione Gallery, Palm Beach

• Gallery Josee Nadeau, Jupiter Island

• Janina Fine Art, Boca Raton

• Mazal Diamonds, Boca Raton

• Palm Beach Art, Antique and Design Showroom, Lake Worth Beach

• Patricia Robalino Designs, Palm Beach

• Premier Rare Coins, West Palm Beach

• Provident Fine Art, Palm Beach

• Provident Jewelry, West Palm Beach

• Sebastian Piazza Sculpture, Boca Raton

• Steidel Gallery, Lake Worth Beach

• The Art Warehouse of Southampton, Boca Raton

• Viggi Inc., Palm Beach

• Whyman Studio Gallery, Lake Worth Beach

• Yvel USA, Palm Beach

If you go

What: The 21st annual Palm Beach Show

Where: Palm Beach County Convention Center, 650 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach

When: 5 to 10 p.m. Feb. 15, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Feb. 16-20

Cost: $50 to $100 for the opening night event; $30 daily for general admission

Information: palmbeachshow.com

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach Show: What to know about the 21st annual event