"A horrible surprise," was how Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair director Alison Vaissiere (Fig. 1) described the shock decision by the J.W. Marriott Hotels Group to call a halt to the Grosvenor House Fair after 75 successful years at the prestigious Park Lane venue in London.

This year the fair celebrated its Diamond Jubilee. Visitors and exhibitors at the June event were in party mood, confidently expecting the fair to emerge from the recessionary doldrums and return to prosperity. However, the day after the fair closed, the J.W.Marriott Hotels Group, which owns the Grosvenor House Hotel in whose Great Room the fair is held - announced that the event was no longer sufficiently financially viable.

"None of us had any inkling of their intentions," Ms Vaissiere told Auction Central News. "The fair ended on Wednesday 17th June, and I was told by the hotel's general manager on Thursday the 18th that it was to close for good. Not even the British Antique Dealers' Association (BADA), the co-organisers of the event, were aware that the decision had been taken to call a halt."

LONDON - Among those spotted strolling the stands at the glitzy champagne opening of London's Grosvenor House Art and Antiques Fair this week was Hollywood actor Dustin Hoffman. He seemed to be particularly drawn to the stand of film poster dealers the Reel Poster Gallery, but whether he was in serious buying mood or just taking time out from promoting Last Chance Harvey, his new film with British actress Emma Thompson, was not clear.

Of course, it takes more than a lone star to brighten the dark skies of economic recession, but somehow the charismatic presence of cinema royalty added to the distinctly optimistic buzz at Wednesday's event.

For the rich and famous, the opening of a big international art fair is as much a social occasion as a shopping opportunity. However, like TEFAF in Maastricht, the Grosvenor House Fair has additional cachet in that it offers an opportunity to see a stunning range of museum-quality objects.

Specialist art theft detectives reported this week that a 2-ton Henry Moore bronze Reclining Figure worth £3 million, stolen in December 2005 from the Henry Moore Foundation, was likely melted down at an Essex scrap merchants and the metal sold for a mere £1,500. The theft prompted a tightening of security at the Henry Moore Foundation's 72-acre estate in Hertfordshire where numerous examples of Moore's work remain on open air display.

A few months after the Moore theft a three-figure bronze work entitled The Watchers by Lynn Chadwick, valued at around £600,000, was stolen from the grounds of Roehampton University in south-west London. Such high-profile cases focused attention on the risks of displaying sculpture outdoors, forcing many public and private collectors to review their security arrangements.

Some economists are warning that the global recession could endure until 2011, but listening to the upbeat message from the UK's fine art auctioneers you'd be forgiven for doubting that there was even a recession on, let alone one that might continue for the next two years. Asked how the recession is affecting them, an understandable note of caution creeps into most responses, but it's hard not to conclude from the small straw poll we conducted this week that while business is hardly booming, it's still surprisingly bright.

They say the main entrance door to The Warrington is permanently sealed because long ago a customer insisted on riding his horse into the pub. “The theory is that the two doors on either side of the main entrance were too narrow to ride a horse through,” said Dominic Marriott, general manager of The Warrington.

At that time, the establishment then known as the Warrington Hotel had adjoining stables for its customers’ convenience. Maybe that rider wanted to buy his horse a pint?

This week saw the opening of the annual European Fine Art and Antiques Fair organised by the European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF) in the Dutch town of Maastricht. Every March the most prestigious international art and antique dealers assemble at the Maastricht Exhibition and Conference Centre to display their stock to the world's wealthiest private collectors and leading museum curators.

Many Old Master dealers who show at Maastricht do 60 to 70 percent of their annual business during the two weeks of the fair. This year is likely to be the most important TEFAF fair for many years since it will offer an indication of the extent to which the global recession is affecting the upper echelons of the trade.

Meanwhile, a modestly priced art fair in London this weekend provided convincing evidence that the more affordable levels of the art trade are not just surviving the credit crunch but are actually enjoying improved business in the face of it. The Affordable Art Fair, which takes place twice a year in Battersea Park (in March and October), a stone's throw from the fashionable and monied Chelsea and South Kensington districts, attracts art dealers from around the world, all of them offering art in the price range between £50 to £3000 ($70 to $4225).

A new retrospective report commissioned by the European Fine Art Foundation, which organizes the annual European Fine Art Fair (Fig. 1) held in the Dutch city of Maastricht, concludes that the art market is now truly global with powerful new developing economies firmly established as key players.

The report, Globalisation and the Art Market, Emerging Economies and the Art Trade in 2008, has been published to coincide with the 2009 fair, which is scheduled to take place in the Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre from March 13-22. However, global economic change is now taking place at such an alarming pace that any attempt at forecasting the future of a particular market runs the risk of being out of date by the time it's published.

We will have to wait until the February auctions of contemporary art to gauge the extent to which the recession is taking its toll on what has for the last 10 years been the mainstay of the international art market. Meanwhile, elsewhere one might be forgiven for blaming the credit crunch for one or two significant recent events in the antiques trade. However, not everything is as it seems.

This week it was announced that leading London period furniture dealers Mallett are quitting their Bond Street premises to seek out more appropriate showrooms in Mayfair. Meanwhile, another stalwart English period furniture dealer, Norman Adams Ltd., has announced the imminent closure of its Knightsbridge galleries adjacent to Harrods. The Norman Adams stock will be offered for sale at Sotheby's in April.