London's summer art calendar defies the gloom with fresh energy

A capital recalibrated

A heatwave has settled over London just as the city's June art season reaches its peak. Treasure House Fair, Studiolo and Classic Art London have opened their doors against a backdrop of blockbuster auctions — yet the mood is more nuanced than triumphant. A decade on from the Brexit referendum, London's summer offering has contracted considerably. Fewer fairs populate the calendar, and the auction results of recent years have been underwhelming. But 2026 has injected genuine electricity into the market.

Sotheby's will offer the Lewis collection — assembled by the British billionaire Joe Lewis and his daughter Vivienne — on the evening of 24 June, carrying an estimate of £150m to £200m, making it the most valuable single-owner collection ever to go under the hammer in the UK. Among the highlights is Modigliani's Nu assis au collier (1917), valued in excess of £45m. Meanwhile, Christie's has assembled 106 contemporary works from the holdings of Anita and Poju Zabludowicz, featuring pieces by Rose Wylie, Damien Hirst and Philip Guston. The group will be dispersed through a live sale on 25 June and an online auction running until 30 June, with a combined estimate above £15m.

Treasure House finds its footing

After MCH Group — the Swiss parent company of Art Basel — cancelled Masterpiece London in 2023, two of the fair's original co-founders resolved to fill the void. Antiques dealer Thomas Woodham Smith and Harry Van der Hoorn, owner of the stand builder Stabilo, relaunched a more compact event at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. Now in its fourth edition, Treasure House Fair runs from 24 to 30 June.

The layout has been rotated 90 degrees, Woodham Smith explains, to accommodate future expansion. This year's edition features 60 exhibitors, down from 72 in 2025. "It's going to look absolutely fantastic, but we have to acknowledge that it's a difficult economic time for the trade across the board," he says. Rising material costs have not translated into higher fees, yet a third of last year's exhibitors have not returned — 32 in total — while 20 newcomers have joined.

The churn reflects more than financial pressure. Woodham Smith detects a generational shift within the antiques trade: established dealers from the Masterpiece and Grosvenor House era are retiring or scaling back, while a younger cohort steps forward. He points to Rose Uniacke, the Pimlico Road interior designer and antiques dealer who mixes 20th-century pieces with older finds, as a formative influence. Among those following her lead are first-time exhibitor Ed Foster of Foster and Gane and Joe Chaffer of Vagabond Antiques, who also showed last year.

"The Bond Street and St James's dealers who dominated the trade are now being succeeded by a new wave," Woodham Smith observes, "who merge periods but have a very clear line of taste, dealing at the top end. I think that's the next big thing."

Foster, who worked alongside Uniacke before establishing his own business with his mother Val a decade ago, notes that his clientele has shifted increasingly towards private collectors. His stand presents a characteristically eclectic range: a 16th-century Renaissance Limoges enamel portrait by Leonard Limosin (£48,000) sits alongside a 1950s limestone bas-relief wall panel by Sylva Bernt (£120,000).

Jenna Burlingham Gallery, based in Hampshire and a regular at The Decorative Fair in Battersea, is among the newcomers. This marks the gallery's first summer fair since it was founded 16 years ago. The exhibition focuses on Modern British works by Ivon Hitchens, Sandra Blow, Patrick Heron and Ben Nicholson. "We always enjoy exhibiting alongside a range of disciplines — antiques, design, jewellery, rugs," Burlingham says. "Treasure House offers this diversity."

Classic Art London expands its reach

Running concurrently from 22 June to 3 July, Classic Art London enters its second edition. The gallery trail was launched last year by Pippa Roberts and Silke Lohmann, both formerly responsible for press and marketing at London Art Week, which was cancelled in 2024. This year 16 participants across Mayfair, St James's and Cecil Court specialise in works ranging from the Modern period through to Old Masters, with a pronounced emphasis on the latter.

The talks programme has doubled in scope from 20 to 30 events, the majority free of charge. Following the success of last year's Turner at 250 lecture, Christopher Baker returns to moderate a discussion on Constable at 250 (25 June) alongside specialists Annie Lyles, Susan Owens and Emma Roodhouse.

Roberts reports that most dealers have enjoyed a strong start to the year, with interest from both international and UK collectors. "Many US institutions and collectors have RSVPed and are actively participating," she says. "It's not all doom and gloom in London, nor in the pre-contemporary art market."

Notable exhibitions include Ben Elwes Fine Art's One People, Two Shores: Anglo-American Art in the Age of Revolution (22 June – 11 September), timed to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Alexander Clayton-Payne will unveil five previously unknown drawings by Constable dating from around 1806 to 1815. Karen Taylor Fine Art presents an extensive survey of works on paper by British women artists from 1780 to 1920. "I am determined to increase the visibility of the numerous women artists whose work has been lost from view," Taylor says.

Studiolo takes root at Westminster Abbey

Having debuted at Spencer House in 2025, Studiolo — the one-afternoon, one-evening selling event — relocates this year to the College Garden and Cloisters at Westminster Abbey on 26 June. Founded by Sebastien Paraskevas and Alesa Boyle and directed by Amelia Tomlinson, formerly of London Art Week, the event is presented in collaboration with the interior and architectural design studio Ben Pentreath.

Five galleries return from last year; nine are new. Exhibitors include the antiquities specialist Madeleine Perridge, arms and armour dealer Peter Finer, Daniel Crouch Rare Books and Old Master dealer Johnny van Haeften. The increased space allows galleries to show more than two objects, with outdoor sculpture installed in College Garden.

Stuart Lochhead, the London-based sculpture specialist, presents a tripartite exhibition centred on a rediscovered panel of The Presentation in the Temple (circa 1510) by the Brussels painter Valentin van Orley, priced at approximately £1.5m. It is accompanied by two Flemish sculptures: a bronze of Saint Francis (circa 1480) attributed to Renier van Thienen and a limestone Deacon Saint (circa 1410–1430) from the workshop of Claus de Werve.

Tomlinson describes Studiolo as "a competitively priced alternative to the traditional fair model" with a transparent pricing structure. The third edition will take place this autumn at a new location, with 2027 already in the planning stages.

A season of cautious optimism

What emerges from this constellation of events is a portrait of a market in transition. The headline auction figures are formidable, yet the fair landscape tells a more complex story — one of generational change, rising costs and a capital adapting to its post-Brexit reality. The energy is homegrown, the ambitions measured, and the sense of reinvention palpable.