inside London’s air-kissing, deal-making grand bazaar

‘Do you really think I’ve actually looked at a single thing?” said one young man as he swept out of the tent on the opening day of Frieze. If you enjoy eavesdropping, Frieze, London’s biggest and highest-rolling art fair, more than delivers.

On the walk from the main Frieze tent to the Frieze Masters pavilion at the north end of Regent’s Park, I scribbled down, “So he’s spending all the family fortune?”, “It’s a present for our neighbour in Miami” and, “Why are all these men so short?” (Spoken by one leggy blonde to another.)

Every London gallery from Hoxton to Mayfair puts on a show and a champagne reception for Frieze Week, but the park remains the hub: a glad-handing, air-kissing, deal-making, international