Art That Follows the Money
Greenwich, Conn.

STROLLING through the galleries on the SeaFair’s Grand Luxe, a lavish new yacht selling fine art, antiques and jewelry, Deborah and Chuck Royce looked at paintings by Marc Chagall and Fernando Botero and were “seriously distracted,” Ms. Royce said, by a glittery butterfly pin of colored gemstones.

 

On another deck, they asked about the provenance of a Mary Cassatt pastel, considered an oil by John Henry Twachtman and admired two works by Frederick Carl Frieseke.

“These are things we would definitely be delighted to have in our collection,” said Ms. Royce, who lives in Greenwich. “It’s pretty incredible what they have assembled here.”

The Royces were among about 100 people attending a black-tie gala, the yacht’s debut event, on Tuesday at a dock by the Delamar Hotel here, down the hill from the Bruce Museum. Mr. Royce, an investor and trustee and former chairman of the museum, for which the gala was a benefit, said the couple had been skeptical before boarding but were quickly impressed by the quality of the dealers.

“It’s a grand idea,” he said. “This could be a very unique venue.”

Instead of staterooms, the $40 million, 228-foot ship has 28 commercial galleries. Custom built in Freeland, Wash., and Miami, with five decks, it also has two restaurants and three bars, including one serving Champagne and caviar.

After its Greenwich visit ends today, the Grand Luxe will be at the Brewer Capri Marina in Port Washington, N.Y., from Oct. 3 to 7, part of an East Coast tour that also includes South Norwalk, Conn., from Oct. 17 to 21 among its 38 stops from Maine to Florida. It will also be in Manhattan Oct. 9 to 14.

“What we have invented is the mobile luxury shopping venue,” said David Lester, who with his wife, Lee Ann, is the principal of Expoships, of Bonita Springs, Fla., which owns the 2,800-ton yacht.

The Lesters founded the Palm Beach International Fine Art and Antique Fair in 1997 and organized more than 40 international art events before selling that business in 2001. Mr. Lester says he did extensive research to “demographically qualify people” for the ship. He expects up to 1,000 shoppers a day, many of whom were sent invitations; others can register online at expo ships.com. There is no charge to board.

For the Bruce Museum gala on Tuesday, art enthusiasts shelled out $1,000 to $5,000 a person for a five-course dinner of fennel-scented halibut and pecan-crusted rack of lamb, catered by Walter Scheib III, the former White House chef. A cocktail party the following night cost $250 a head.

Even those who visit the ship on their own, without attending a gala, will need deep pockets. At the Jerald Melberg Gallery, for instance, Wolf Kahn pastels start at $5,000 to $6,000, though a Romare Bearden collage costs $180,000 and a 1963 painting by Robert Motherwell is priced at $1.4 million.

Jerald Melberg, owner of the gallery, which is based in Charlotte, N.C., said he thought the yacht would be a sensation.

“The convenience to people is terrific,” he said. “The novelty is phenomenal.”

There is 12,000 square feet of rotating exhibition space on board. Mr. Lester said he was charging dealers $10,000 to $30,000 a week for showrooms ranging from 200 to 600 square feet. William Siegal of William Siegal Galleries of Santa Fe, N.M., which sells pre-Columbian textiles and stone works, said he was paying close to $100,000 for the four-week Greenwich-to-South Norwalk run. “If it is what I think it will be,” he said, “I don’t think it will be an expensive month.”

At each port, the yacht is teaming up with museums and charities, attracting patrons with fund-raising events.
“Wealthy people in the U.S. have more money than time,” Mr. Lester said. “This is designed to make it an interesting, easy experience within 15 minutes of their house.” Because many art collectors have multiple homes and may visit the yacht at different ports, the ship will operate like “a theater with constantly changing productions,” Mr. Lester said. Dealers, chefs and menus will change monthly.

The Bruce Museum was “privileged to be the first venue,” said Peter C. Sutton, the executive director. Besides arranging two fund-raisers, the museum coordinated a new show, “Contemporary and Cutting Edge: Pleasures of Collecting, Part III,” highlighting works drawn from local private collections to open in conjunction with the ship’s arrival.

Greenwich has “the highest concentration of private collectors of any township of 60,000 inhabitants on the planet,” Mr. Sutton said.

Constance Schwartz, director of the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Harbor, N.Y., said the yacht brought a “glamorous” international art scene to her constituency’s back door.

“It is another way of exciting somebody to be involved with art,” said Ms. Schwartz, who hopes to raise $100,000 at a $250-a-head museum gala on board.

For the museum, “this is a nice way of cementing friendships” with galleries that lend art to the museum, Ms. Schwartz said. For collectors, it is a new stop on the art circuit.

Dr. Harvey Manes, an orthopedic surgeon who plans to board the SeaFair ship in Port Washington, has a collection that includes works by Renoir, Matisse, Picasso and Chagall. Though “98 percent” of the wall space in his homes in Old Westbury, N.Y., Westhampton and Manhattan is covered, he said, he was eager to see the artwork on board.

“If I see something that I like and if it is the right price, I may buy it,” Dr. Manes said. “I make room.”

E-mail: lijournal@nytimes.com