The Déballages Professionnels Marchands (Antique Trade Markets or Antique Fairs), also known as Journées Professionnelles Internationales de l’Antiquité et de la Brocante, are trade events exclusively reserved to professional antique dealers and flea market merchants from all over the world. These antique fairs take place all year long, at various locations around France: Avignon, Le Mans, Lyon, Montpellier, Beziers, Chartres, Lille, Chatou or Le Bourget.

If such events sound at first like a great opportunity to all flea market enthusiasts to bypass antique shops in order to get beautiful merchandises for a song, the reality is different. These unpackings are not accessible to the general public. And in order to enter the premises, one has to show a proof of his status as a professional buyer.

French Antique fairs, like the Déballage Marchand d’Avignon, are a great way to discover the European art market. They offer professional dealers in the antique and vintage business, an opportunity to exchange and share with their peers, to identify trends in the antique market, to acquire exceptional things and to prospect in a unique place where everything is concentrated. And for young antique dealers, French Antique fairs provide a tremendous occasion to discover a great diversity of antique furniture, art objects and old paintings, allowing them to sharpen “their eye” while learning the market prices. After all, the best insurance for an art lover and antique merchants to make the right choices is indeed to be a knowledgeable buyer.

One of the trademarks of Antique Trade Fairs in France is its equal opportunity policy. Before the opening of the fair, all trucks remain closed and not a single merchant can unload his cargo, putting all buyers and sellers on an equal footing. All sellers unpack their items at the same time, offering buyers the opportunity to find exceptional things: antiquities, decorative art objects, antiques, the Avignon Antique Trade Market is a real treasure hunt! The déballage au cul du camion in its most genuine form.

Thanks to the Avignon Antique Fair, professionals have the opportunity to find in a short amount of time, the same equivalent of merchandises which would usually require them several weeks of intense prospection throughout Europe. This is no wonder why thousands of buyers from more than 50 countries around the world regularly flock to the Avignon Antique Fair in order to refill their stocks with a full range of antiques and decorative art produced over the last centuries, from the four corners of the continent.

It is also worth mentioning that many shipping carriers specialized in the transport of antiques and fine art, are present on the premises during all the duration of the fair. Their services range from collecting (and eventually paying in advance) for all your purchases, pack them properly and ship them anywhere in the world, at a competitive price, with all customs formalities included.

All in all, such antique fairs are an absolute must for professional antique buyers all around the world. They are a place where one can find, in one same venue, all kinds of European antiques and fine art at the best market price.