LONDON.- LAPADA the Association of Art & Antiques Dealers welcomes the University of Oxford’s award-winning Ashmolean Museum as exclusive Cultural Partner of the LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair 2015, Berkeley Square, London, 22 – 27 September.

The Ashmolean Museum, which is the oldest public museum in Britain, houses the largest collection of drawings by Raphael, the most significant collection of Anglo-Saxon artifacts outside the British Museum and the greatest Chinese collection in the West.

Catherine Whistler, the Museum’s Acting Keeper of Italian and Spanish paintings, drawings and prints; French art before 1800; and textiles, will deliver the LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair’s Headline Lecture on 25th September, offering important curatorial insights into the Ashmolean’s forthcoming exhibition: Drawing in Venice: Titian to Canaletto, which runs from 15th October 2015 until 10th January 2016.

Featuring drawings from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Ashmolean Museum and Oxford’s Christ Church Picture Gallery, Drawing in Venice is a ground-breaking exhibition, based on new research that will highlight the significance of drawing as a concept and as a practice in the artistic life of Venice over three centuries. The exhibition will examine the variety of aims, purposes and techniques in drawing from Bellini, Titian and Tintoretto to Tiepolo and Canaletto.

Mieka Sywak, LAPADA Fair Director, comments, “There is a wonderful synergy between LAPADA members represented at the Fair and the Ashmolean Museum: both are custodians of our shared history, preserving and offering access to significant objects and works of art. I am thrilled to be collaborating with the this fantastic cultural institution for the first time this year.”

Alexander Sturgis, Director of the Ashmolean Museum, comments, “We are delighted to be the LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair’s Cultural Partner for 2015. We hope that visitors to the show will be inspired to come to Oxford and see the Ashmolean’s own incredibly rich and diverse collections of art and archaeology from around the globe. We are also pleased to be able to give visitors an insight into our major autumn show, Drawing in Venice.”

The 2015 edition of the LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair, sponsored by Delancey, has been extended by a day in response to visitor demand following the success of last year’s event which welcomed more than 20,000 collectors and visitors from around the world over the course of five days. The Fair is a must-visit event for sourcing and buying art, antiques, design and decorative arts from over 100 distinguished exhibitors.