Ali & Hichaam Aboutaam

Each year, Palm Beach hosts a fantastic antiques fair, showing antiques from over 90 dealers.  Called the Palm Beach/America’s Fine Art & Antique Fair, this fair attracts the best antique dealers from around the world to display their possessions.

The 2007 fair, with its new director Dr. Michale Mezzatesta, lasted for 11 days with an invitation-only preview.  The opening night saw such socialites as Melania Trump and Ivana Trump, Princess Michael of Kent, and many others.

Art historian Philip Feyfer from Axel Vervoordt in Belgium said that “We got off to a good start.”  Phoenix Ancient Art displayed a stunning booth of antiques.  Their prized possessions included an Egyptian granite torso of King Nepherities that dates from the 29^th Dynasty (399-393 B.C.) priced at $2 million.

Historically, antiquities have only been a very small part of the art market.  However, they are beginning to attract more attention from collectors and investors.  The black market for antiques has been restricted, causing tighter controls on access to antiques. And this, of course, raises the value of each antique and the interest in this field.

These tighter rules and lower supplies have made people more excited about antiques.  Recently, a bronze head of Ptolemy of Mauretania from around 520 A.D. was sold at Sotheby’s.  Estimated to be worth up to $500,000, it sold for $960,000!

This excitement is certainly good news for antiquities galleries such as Phoenix Ancient Art, owned by Ali Aboutaam and Hicham Aboutaam.  They understand that antiquities don’t grab headlines the way that other art does – but that antiques are a great opportunity and a great investment.

Today, the purchase of antiques has a new face.  As described on CNNMoney.com, antique purchasing has become more mainstream.  This is particularly true in America.  While antiques have always been of interest to the highly wealthy, the antique world in America is finding more regular Americans coming out to auctions.

Last year at Sotheby’s the auction house was packed – and it wasn’t just full of intellectual dealers and wealthy patrons.  There were many others there as well.  The objects that were being auctioned, as well, were treated differently than they have been in the past.  They were spread out throughout the room and were looked at, leaned on and admired.

Ali and Hicham Aboutaam, well-known antique dealers, are excited about these changes.  As Hicham Aboutaam said,  “There are more and more Americans – all sorts of different classes and types of Americans – traveling throughout the world, going to museums, visiting old Europe, bringing these interests home with them, and wanting to learn more. They go see these things and think, ‘Wow, it can be this beautiful?’ It’s grassroots. It’s exciting.”

Ali and Hicham Aboutaam of Phoenix Ancient Art welcome you to the fascinating and exciting world of art objects with a history! The brothers Aboutaam invite you to join them on a journey through the ages, admiring amazingly beautiful artworks, which, in addition to being beautiful in their own right, are also thousands of years old.  Imagine where these objects have traveled, who they have belonged to, how they were admired and enjoyed.

The world of ancient art is not just for elite connoisseurs with degrees in art history, archeology or Egyptology. No! Ali and Hicham Aboutaam have a mission: to make antiquities relevant and reachable to the average person. The Aboutaam brothers want the treasure of our culture, the artifacts of our history, to be enjoyed by all who wish to bask in the beauty and relevance of ancient art.