"Because we have an antiquities exemption, everything becomes an antique," said a senior administration official who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak for his agency.
"I'm the last of a line, an antique," said Guerrino Sciurpa, 72, in jeans and checked shirt, speaking from a small shed whose shelves were lined with seeds on his property in the village of Sanguineto.
"When I saw a Pottery Barn Queen Anne-style chair, a very simple dining chair with a splat in the back, I realized it could make sense as a compromise between modern and antique," says Barry Cenower, publisher of Acanthus Press.
"When someone buys one of our products, they're getting a bed that looks exactly like an antique," says Jones, who relies on heavy-gauge steel tubing for the structure and aluminum for castings.
"Manly antiques," said Ms. Kelsey, an artist who spent years working as a fashion model.
Display cases at golf clubhouses there are starting to fill with antiques, said Edward Monagle, a golf memorabilia expert at Christie's.
"It's almost like looking for antiques," said Ken Chiang, the fund manager for Merrill Lynch Global SmallCap, a strong performer last quarter.
Christian Deydier, president of the Syndicat National des Antiquaires, which puts on the Biennale, and a dealer in Chinese antiques, said he was introduced to Mr. Chan by François Curiel, the head of Christie's in Asia.
The two men noticed that many Canadian dealers had made it a habit to travel to Philadelphia to buy antiques, said Stephen Shivers IV.
Tony Victoria, the owner of the gallery Chez Soi in Bridgehampton, N.Y., and a second-generation dealer in fine French antiques, said: "That price is a bargain.
"The first thing to go are the European buying trips where we forage for great antiques," said Mr. Despont, who has an office in TriBeCa.
