Luxury Yacht to Hold Exclusive Jewelry Fair in Downtown Miami

November 27, 2012

While jewelry fairs are held at different venues, it’s important that the atmosphere rendered by the selected location is luxurious, as the environmental setting can indirectly make fair attendees more inclined towards buying things.

That being said, no one understands this concept better than David Lester, a man who’s been in the business of hosting jewelry fairs for decades.

Lester will be directing the International Contemporary Jewelry Fair (ICJF) aboard his $40 million, 228-foot exhibition yacht called SeaFair, as part of Art Basel Miami Beach this December 4 to 9. Arguably the first of its kind within this industry, the event will feature luxurious pieces created by major brands, designers, and artisans from across the globe.

Participating countries include Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Spain, the U.S., and the Philippines. Amongst the impressive lineup of participants for this global event, Autore will be one of the fair’s most distinguished, as this Australian pearl company’s products are worn by numerous Hollywood celebrities, including Uma Thurman, Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson, Halle Berry and Liv Tyler.

David and Lee Ann Lester are no strangers in this industry – over the course of their active engagement in this trade, they managed to successfully host over eighty major international fairs at markets within Hong Kong, Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, Chicago, Long Island, and Florida.

During interviews with reporters, David Lester says that he came up with the idea of creating a floating fair about ten years ago.

“We have been in the fine art fair industry for over 20 years. When we retired and sold our Palm Beach fairs in 2003, we decided a nice retirement would be to sail along the US Eastern seaboard together, visiting friends in these great niche ports like Greenwich, Martha’s Vineyard,” he says.

He then added: “We noticed the cities didn’t have, or didn’t have the capacity for, large convention centers where a fine art fair could be held. We then thought how interesting it would be to have a mobile venue that could serve all these smaller, affluent ports. Thus the idea of SeaFair was born.”

Unfortunately, attending this prestigious event is by invitation only. David explains that his list of invitees is comprised of previous buyers he met during past exhibitions. New potential buyers will be pinpointed through comprehensive research. In total, Lester predicts that the number of attendees should be anywhere from 8,000 to 10,000.