NEW YORK and LONDON.- Now in its twelfth year, The Haughton International Asian Art Fair, has, since its launch, been widely lauded as the world's leading Asian art fair and the centrepiece of New York's annual Asia Week.

Founded in 1996, the fair has consistently brought together a large group of the world's leading dealers in Near Eastern, Indian, Himalayan, Tibetan, South East Asian and Far Eastern works of art. It attracts institutional and private buyers from the United States, Europe and the Far East, presenting them with the opportunity to view and buy from among the rarest and most important Asian art on the market, from the earliest pieces through to contemporary.

Inevitably, there have been changes to the fair that have come with the seismic shift in the landscape of the Asian Art market and the phenomenal rise of interest in and demand for contemporary works to the very forefront of it. The organisers have addressed these changes with a view to keep the fair moving forward and keep it vibrant. Most recently, a number of familiar faces have moved on - although supporters of the fair for a number of years - some because they are approaching retirement and making changes in their businesses and some for other reasons. These include the increasing scarcity of traditional material, the huge prices (beyond the reach of most western dealers) being paid by enormously wealthy mainland Chinese buyers for Chinese works of art and the complexities now surrounding the whole issue of provenance. This has left space for newcomers to come through, most notably in the contemporary arena. The excitement generated by the contemporary Asian Art explosion has brought many enthusiastic, new young buyers into the market, as was particularly evident at the 2006 Asian Art Fair when contemporary Chinese and Indian art were among the major successes. The 2007 fair builds on that impressive performance, with a noticeable increase in the representation of contemporary material.

The 2006 International Asian Art Fair, introduced the arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas into the complex mix of categories on offer. In 2007 there are once again a select group of dealers specialising in various of these areas. This new material has extended the range of the fair beyond the items traditionally associated with it, while complementing it and illustrating the natural compatibility of many of these art works.

The quality of the material on offer at The International Asian Art Fair is among the finest, its importance underlined by the strict vetting procedures that are a signature of all Haughton fairs. Many events may claim to be vetted but vetting standards at Haughton Fairs are among the highest and we do our outmost to maintain those standards from year to year. The various honorary vetting committees include leading independent specialists and museum curators. They examine each and every item on view for quality and authenticity, whether priced at a few thousand or few million dollars. It is essential that buyers feel confident that everything possible has been done to confirm the validity of their purchases.

In 2007 The International Asian Art Fair around 50 dealers in total. Returnees include: Gregg Baker Asian Art (London); Blitz Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art (Amsterdam); The Chinese Porcelain Co. (New York); Douglas Dawson Gallery (Chicago); Judith Dowling (Boston, MA); Barry Friedman Ltd (New York); Cora Ginsburg LLC (New York); Goedhuis Contemporary (New York & London); Robert Hall (London); Kemin Hu Asian Art (Boston, MA); Ned Jalbert, American Indian Masterworks (Westboro, MA), Katie Jones (London); Kagedo Japanese Art (Seattle, WA); Kang Collection Korean Art (New York); Lesley Kehoe Galleries (Melbourne); Koo New York (New York); S. Marchant & Son (London); Marlborough Gallery Inc. (New York); Joan B. Mirviss Ltd (New York), Mita Arts Gallery (Tokyo) & Mary Deeming (London); Donald Morris Gallery Inc. (New York) & Galérie Jacques Germain (Montreal); Gallery Oi Ling (Hong Kong); Olyvia Oriental (London); Potterton Books (Thirsk, N. Yorks.); Samina Inc. (London); Lea Sneider (New York); Sundaram Tagore Gallery (New York); M. Sutherland Fine Arts Ltd (New York); Tai Gallery/Textile Arts (Santa Fe, NM); Tambaran Gallery (New York); Erik Thomsen Asian Art (New York); Grace Tsumugi Fine Art Ltd (London); Jonathan Tucker - Antonia Tozer Asian Art (London); Uragami Sokyu-Do Co. Ltd (Tokyo); Sandra Whitman (San Francisco, CA); Nancy Wiener Gallery Inc. (New York), Robert Winter Oriental Art (Kyoto); Linda Wrigglesworth Ltd (London); Hiroshi Yanagi Oriental Art (Kyoto).

New exhibitors in 2007: Art Miya/Shinseido Co. Ltd (Tokyo) with contemporary Japanese pottery and paintings; Bodhi Art (New York, also with galleries in India & Singapore) with contemporary Indian paintings; Ghangkhar Ah-ney Asian Art (New York) with Himalayan, Chinese, Indian and Islamic art; Alexander Gorlizki (New York) exhibiting contemporary conceptual art; David M. Lantz (New York) with Asian and ethnographic art; Mika Gallery (New York) & Shouun Oriental Art (Tokyo) with Japanese art, paintings, Buddhist art, ceramics; Phoenix Ancient Art (New York) with Islamic antiquities; Ping Fine Chinese Art & Co. (Taipei) with Chinese Buddhist paintings and sculpture; Marc Richards (Los Angeles, CA) with Ancient Chinese ceramics and contemporary artwork; Zee Stone Gallery (Hong Kong) with contemporary artists from mainland China.

The arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas are represented on the stands of exhibitors such as Douglas Dawson (Chicago), who brings ancient and historic ceramics, megalithic sculpture, bronze and textiles from Indonesia, mainland South East Asia and Japan and archaic material from ancient America. Tambaran Gallery (New York), are also participating, offering Asian, African, Oceanic and American Indian works; Ned Jalbert (Westboro, MA) concentrates on American Indian art and the Donald Morris Gallery (New York & Birmingham, MA), are exhibiting African art with Galérie Jacques Germain (Montreal), whose speciality is classic sub-Saharan African art.

The opening night Benefit Preview provides guests with an exclusive preview of the show and will again benefit Asia Society. Asia Society was founded by John D. Rockefeller 3rd in 1956 as a non-profit educational organisation to foster understanding of Asia and communication between Americans and the peoples of Asia and the Pacific.