"What do you get in an Italian restaurant in Beirut? Sashimi and a hamburger,” and perhaps some of the best Italian cooking outside Italy. This is how one member of the Arts Faculty at the American University of Beirut described the Beirut Art Fair 2012. In the aftermath of the third edition of Lebanon’s first art fair, Executive spoke to a wide range of participants: gallerists, critics, collectors, first-time buyers, sponsors, artists and the fair’s organizers Laure d’Hauteville and Pascal Odille. Each had something to say about an art fair exhibiting art of wildly varying calibre side by side. Yet for every word of criticism, of both the art itself and the conception of the fair, there has been levelheaded enthusiasm and support for the determination of Laure d’Hauteville and her tiny team — with its tiny budget — to put Beirut on the art world map. The gamble And
