This is particularly true of visitors from the United States. Americans book their trip a year ahead, Woodham-Smith said, and come to Treasure House in numbers he still finds startling. This includes private collectors and philanthropists serving on museum acquisition boards — and dealers too.
Rhonda Long-Sharp, the owner of the U.S.-based Long-Sharp Gallery, is a long-term exhibitor at Masterpiece and Treasure House. She values the fair’s very strict vetting procedures. These exist to ensure vendors provide thorough, accurate information on all items for sale. “There aren’t many fairs in the United States that are really, substantially vetted,” she said. As a midlevel gallery owner, she wanted to be associated with that level of connoisseurship, to meet the needs of deeply knowledgeable collectors and impetuous first timers.
Moira Cameron, an abstract painter, is among the artists Long-Sharp is showing this year. A collector herself, Cameron has been a regular attendee at all the London fairs for over a decade. And before her, her late husband David Spiller, a Pop artist, showed at Treasure House. What makes it work, she said over the phone, is the elegant curation and the eclectic mix of antiquities, modern art, contemporary art, furniture and jewelry. It is also smaller and therefore more intimate than Masterpiece and Frieze, which as a relatively emerging artist, she finds helpful. But, she added, “It’s taken a while to bed in.”
According to the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2026, the art market in Britain has reclaimed its position as second-largest globally, behind the United States. But, the report highlights, dealers most commonly cite the impact on demand of political and economic volatility as their biggest operational challenge. As Brown put it, dealers selling at the top end of the art market will always find clients with millions to spare, but those whose wares fetch mere thousands find their customer base thinning out in leaner times.
Proof of this reality is that this year’s edition has shrunk to 60 exhibitors from 75 last year. Woodham-Smith said he remained “absolutely, 100 percent optimistic” about the imperative for the fair to exist. But, he added, “I am nervous about the commercial challenges that are faced. The art world needs this desperately. But can they get what they need?”
