The Cultura Antique fair held in Basel attracted over 10,000 visitors in November 1999. Specialists in the field of archaeology from France, Britain, Holland, Germany, the U.S and Switzerland were much pleased with their sales of Roman, Greek and Egyptian pieces.
The Royal Athena galleries of New York sold a marble figure of Aphrodite for almost US $ 500,000 while Rupert Wace from London was happy with the sale of 40 pieces, including a Cycladic idol for almost US $ 100,000.
Dealers specialising in old masters however fared badly as visitors.