Overtourism gives us a Biaf

Florence. At five o’clock on a Florentine afternoon, Via del Parione is filled with the smell of grilled steak. Unrestrained tourism now dictates that Florentine steaks are to be eaten at all hours. From Piazza Santa Trinita come cheers directed at a fake Bocelli who, to a backing track blaring from a loudspeaker, sings ‘La donna è mobile’, as well as ‘Funiculì funiculà’. Meanwhile, throngs of elegant connoisseurs are making their way towards the entrance to Palazzo Corsini, where the 34th edition of the International Antiques Biennale, BIAF, is running until 4 October. It is the oldest Italian art fair, featuring around eighty galleries offering the finest ancient and modern art available on the market. While prices may appear prohibitive, they are often rendered more affordable because the majority of the works are subject to export controls and therefore cannot be exported.

The new secretary-general of the BIAF, the antique dealer Bruno Botticelli, notes that there hasn’t been this much attention paid to Italian ancient art for years. “There are the expats, who have moved to Italy for tax reasons. They arrive here, and you recognise them by their distinct sense of style: they’re not the typical wealthy Milanese in a knitted jumper. They wear colour combinations we wouldn’t normally pair, and expensive shoes – perhaps blue woven ones – but they’re passionate about the classics, about masterpieces that have stood the test of time.” It’s hard not to see their point: the feeling is that history is regaining its footing in the contemporary art market. The mere opportunity to visit the venue – the magnificent Baroque palace on the Lungarno commissioned by the Corsini family to mark their rise to prominence (and in 1730, a Corsini, Clement XII, would even become Pope) – is reason enough for a trip to Florence. But it is the array of works on display in the galleries that entices even the most frugal of visitors.

Visitors wander through the halls, gazing upwards at the frescoes, which appear as though dissected by the tracks of the 1980s spotlights, and pause at the windows to admire the twilight over the Arno, whilst rowers pass beneath the buildings. From the Old Masters to the fine craftsmanship of the decorative arts, one regrets not being a billionaire – or at least a millionaire – to take home the green-patinated bronze of a sinuous red guenon by Alfredo Biagini (from Virgilio), as well as Balla’s Autosmorfia, a pastel on cardboard (from Gian Enzo Sperone). Not to mention the portrait on cardboard of Raffaele Viviani, drawn by Lorenzo Viani – the ‘madman of Viareggio’ – the protagonist of Quanto splende questo nero, a novel by Marco Amerighi that has just been published (at Antonacci Lapiccirella). And then there is the Spanish door knocker in the shape of a dog (at Cesati), and the glazed terracotta Bambin Gesù by Andrea della Robbia (at Longari Arte).

However, art historian Leonardo Piccinini draws our attention to the unmissable masterpiece, ‘the most anti-classical work in existence’, which cannot be exported and is therefore almost a bargain, on display at Carlo Orsi’s gallery. ‘It is Bartolomeo Passerotti’s Grotesque Couple in Love, from the second half of the sixteenth century in Bologna. It depicts the theme of love in old age and comes from Federico Zeri’s collection. As a leading expert on Mannerism, Zeri saw in this painting a compendium of all the possible perversions of the sixteenth century. Here, the bizarre, the unusual and the unexpected triumph over the uniformity and predictability of the present.”