Detail: First held in 1962 in the Grand Palais, the �Biennale des Antiquaires� was created as an event �where elegance, prestige and celebration would await a host of art lovers and collectors�. This year from 11 to 21 September, under the huge glass roof of this legendary heritage site, 95 international galleries will be represented. All the exhibitors are members of France�s Syndicat National des Antiquaires (SNA), whose president Christian Deydier has been working tirelessly for the past two years to ensure that the event will regain its original stature and that �the most beautiful objects in the world� will be on view, including some exceptional Chinese art. Benefits from the gala dinner will go to Fondation H�pitaux de Paris � H�pitaux de France, which is headed by Bernadette Chirac, and integral to the event will be the presence of France�s leading chefs directing the kitchens. In addition to guiding the direction of the fair, Deydier�s plans for his own exhibition reflect his expertise in early Chinese archaeology. He will show a bronze water buffalo with a decoration of spirals and shells, covered with a black and green patina. Its back is pierced to hold a screen or another attachment. The buffalo is of the type produced at Houma in Shaanxi province, the most renowned bronze foundry during the Warring States period, and at one time belonged to the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo. Also of note is a particularly tall and slim sancai-glazed image of a Tang period court lady with a shawl, bodice and long skirt. Most images of this size are representations of officials, warriors or falconers, and women rarely appear. Another example, 63 centimetres in height, is in the Museum of East Asian Art, Berlin. Brussels-based Gisele Croes is participating with a diverse collection representing three millennia of Chinese art. For many years, Cro�s has been fascinated by art from the Tang period and the incredible skills and ingenuity of its metalworkers. She will show her unmatched collection of some fifteen forms with gold and silver inlay. Religious and secular, they tell the complete history of production during the Tang, and depict a wide range of subjects with jewel-like quality, within a very small space. For example, a scene on a 7-centimetre-high cup shows a huntsman aiming a bow and another shooting, surrounded by intricate foliage and birds, creating a great sense of movement. The star piece among her earlier works is a pair of Warring States axle caps of particularly strong sculptural form with a rich decoration of gold, silver, turquoise, glass and carnelian. The pins end in realistic animal heads boldly inlaid with gold and silver and possibly with glass for the eyes; these confront a more abstract human form as if in combat. Other recent acquisitions include an early Han bronze monkey inlaid with silver, which Cro�s plans to display suspended on her stand, while her interest in archaic bronze vessels will be represented by a set of two early Western Zhou you and one zun, all with a remarkable patina of encrusted blue, green and deep orange and an unusual design of taotie and heart-shaped scrolls typical of examples excavated from Hebei. She will also show a Northern Qi to early Sui container moulded in the form of a bearded foreigner holding a fully formed vase. Croes exhibited two similar stoneware forms covered with lush white glaze in New York in March; the present example is in perfect condition, and its date has been confirmed by scientific testing. She is optimistic that the Biennale will be a great success, even in an uncertain financial environment, as the high-calibre collectors who return to the fair each year recognize that �good art never diminishes in value�. One of the pieces to be exhibited by Jacques Barrere is a 12th century Japanese gilded wood statue of Sho Kannon, one of the two attendant bodhisattvas of the Buddha Amida Nyorai. The standing figure is draped in a robe and shawl, carved in a realistic manner with beautiful symmetry characteristic of the style of the period. The bodhisattva�s crown has all but disappeared, except for a fine gold band that is enhanced by the black lacquer of the hair. Jorge Welsh, a specialist in Chinese and Japanese export ware with galleries in Lisbon and London, returns to the fair confident that his collection will appeal to the collectors, curators and decorators from the US and Europe who flock to this event. He will be presenting a pair of Yongzheng soldier vases decorated in the famille-rose palette and a group of 16th century mother-of-pearl artworks from Gujarat.