Architectural Digest: Why Palm Beach is Becoming a New Mecca for Blue-Chip Art
As the resort destination has surged in popularity, its art scene has drawn more notice as well. (There’s the Flagler Museum and the Norton Museum, as well as the Morikami Museum & Japanese Gardens.) These various factors help explain why one day not too long ago, representatives from Sotheby’s, Pace, and Acquavella flew down together to pay a visit to the Royal. “Each contacted me separately,” David says, adding that it was a bit of a “game of telephone.”
Like retail, the art world has been struggling throughout 2020. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t pockets of lucrative success. One example: Sotheby’s and Pace’s Hamptons outposts, which they quickly organized once the mass exodus of their clients to the region became clear. With the Hamptons experiment having gone well, both organizations looked to replicate those ventures in Palm Beach, and specifically at the Royal. While Acquavella hadn’t opened up shop out East, they were all in on a Floridian expansion of their own.
