OPUS – Ancient Arts follows in the tradition of the great fairs dedicated to ancient arts, marking a new highlight in the cultural calendars of dealers, institutions and collectors alike. OPUS – Ancient Arts takes the form of an intimate art fair, featuring a carefully curated selection of galleries showcasing their diverse specialities: Greek and Roman, Egyptian, Near-Eastern, Islamic and Pre-Columbian antiquities.
2022 Exhibitors
Vetting Committee
OPUS – Ancient Arts aims to strengthen trust between dealers, institutions and collectors. First, by limiting participation to galeries of exemplary reputation who demonstrate unswerving dedication to the ethical rules guiding their activities. Second, by establishing an international vetting committee comprising renowned specialists, recognised for both their expertise and their integrity. Third, by maintaining clear and open channels of communication with the relevant authorities. All these elements combined guarantee visitors that the artefacts on display have been subject to the most rigorous appraisal.
Corinne Besson is a former jeweller, holder of a Ph.D. in Art History and Archeology and a former scholar of the Ministry of National Education, Research and Technology. She is the author of a thesis about the manufacturing techniques and typologies of gold jewellery in Roman Gaul, UMR 8167, 2007 (Poitiers and Paris IV-Sorbonne). Associate researcher at the team “Technical-Commercial-Production and Consumption” (TP2C) of the UMR 5140: Archaeology of Mediterranean societies from the University of Lattes-Montpellier/CNRS, expert in antique jewellery from the Mediterranean, she is a member of the Chambre nationale des experts spécialisés en objets d’art et de collections and an expert student of the Chambre nationale des experts spécialisés en œuvres d’art. She is also a member of the vetting committee of the Brussels Ancient Art Fair since 2012.
Corinne Besson is a former jeweller, holder of a Ph.D. in Art History and Archeology and a former scholar of the Ministry of National Education, Research and Technology. She is the author of a thesis about the manufacturing techniques and typologies of gold jewellery in Roman Gaul, UMR 8167, 2007 (Poitiers and Paris IV-Sorbonne). Associate researcher at the team “Technical-Commercial-Production and Consumption” (TP2C) of the UMR 5140: Archaeology of Mediterranean societies from the University of Lattes-Montpellier/CNRS, expert in antique jewellery from the Mediterranean, she is a member of the Chambre nationale des experts spécialisés en objets d’art et de collections and an expert student of the Chambre nationale des experts spécialisés en œuvres d’art. She is also a member of the vetting committee of the Brussels Ancient Art Fair since 2012.
A Pre-Columbian art lover, Quentin started working in 2008 alongside his father, Jacques Blazy, as an international expert forauction houses such as Binoche and Giquello inParis.
He also advises private collectors and contributed to the organisation of numerous exhibitions such as The Fifth Sun at the President Jacques Chirac Museum in Sarran in 2012.
Daniel Lebeurrier is an art dealer and an expert specialised in Archaeology (Greece and Rome, Egypt, Near and Middle- East), member of the Chambre nationale des experts spécialisés en objets d’art et de collection and an expert in Mediterranean Basin Archaeology to the Court of Appeal of Paris.
Christian Loeben is a specialist in Ancient Egypt. Since 2004, he is a curator at Hanover’s August Kestner Museum, head of the Ancient Egypt and Islam collections. He curated more than a dozen exhibitions. In 2012 and 2021, Christian was part of the scientific evaluation committee for the Egyptology departments of the Louvre and the Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig. He is a member of several art fairs’ vetting committees such as BAAF, BRAFA and TEFAF Maastricht.
Olivier Perdu is an egyptologist, working with the chair of Pharaonic Civilization at the Collège de France. He was a teacher at the École du Louvre from 1983 till 2000.
He curated the Crépuscule des pharaons : chefs- d’œuvre des dernières dynasties égyptiennes consacrée à une réhabilitation de la production artistique après le Nouvel Empire exhibition at the Musée Jacquemart-André, in 2012.
Cyril Thiaudière holds a Ph.D. in Ancient History and Archaeology and is a former scholar of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology (2001, 2002, 2003). He is the author of a thesis about the study of technical and typological gold jewellery from Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt (Poitiers – Limoges 2005), and a former associate researcher at the research group Histara, EA 4115: Art history, archeology and history of representations of Europe, of the École pratique des hautes études, Sorbonne, Paris. Cyril Thiaudière is an expert in antique jewellery from the Mediterranean, a member of the Chambre nationale des experts spécialisés en objets d’art et de collections and an expert student of the Chambre belge des experts en œuvres d’art. He is also a member of the vetting committee of the Brussels Ancient Art Fair since 2012.
André Wiese is a specialist in Ancient Egypt, an international expert since 1986 and a curator at the Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig since 1997. André created the collection of the Egyptian department and is now head of the permanent collection and the temporary exhibitions. In 2004, he curated the Toutankhamon – L’Or de l’au- delà exhibition, in cooperation with the Supreme Council of Egyptian Antiquities.
