Some people keep a diary. Our members keep a Season — couture in January, Venice in April, Basel in June, the autumn sales in November. We keep it with them: the placement, the vernissage, the room on the night of the sale, the studio that does not receive.
Established
MMXIV
Members
140
By referral · no waiting list
It arrives in twelve instalments, each with its own deadline, and most of them close months before the public hears about them. This is the calendar we keep. Members receive it in December for the year following, marked with what has already been secured on their behalf.
Calendrier 2026Subject to the houses
01
Le placement
Shows, showrooms, re-sees.
A seat is not a ticket. Placement is a relationship with a house's press office, held over years and spent carefully — which show, which row, and whether the showroom appointment that matters more comes after it.
02
Les foires
Venice, Basel, Frieze, TEFAF.
The fair is decided during the two days before it opens. We hold VIP and preview credentials across the majors, walk the floor with you or ahead of you, and get a first look sent through before it is on a wall.
03
Les ventes
Auction representation and advisory.
We read the catalogue with you, form a view on estimate against condition and provenance, and sit the room — or the phone — on your instruction. Discretion here is the whole of the service.
04
Les collections privées
Houses and ateliers, opened.
The collections that never travel and the studios that do not receive. Visits are secured one at a time, by name, and the invitation is rarely repeated — so we make the day around it worth the journey.
05
Les premières
Opera, ballet, theatre.
Premieres sell before they are announced. We hold the houses on subscription-level terms, place you in the right box rather than the best one, and see to what happens after the curtain — which is usually the point.
06
Les commandes
Brokering work that does not exist yet.
Approaching an artist is a matter of timing and of who is asking. We structure the commission — brief, fee, schedule, rights, installation — so the conversation stays about the work.
La Grande Saison began in 2014 as a favour between three people who had spent their working lives inside press offices, auction departments and opera administrations, and who kept being asked the same question by the same sort of person: how do I get in, and can it be done quietly.
The bureau is still small on purpose. Eleven of us, two offices, one calendar. What we have instead of scale is twenty years of standing with the people who decide — a press attaché, a fair director, a specialist, a house manager — and the discipline never to spend that standing carelessly.
We do not publish a client list. We do not take commissions from the houses we place you with, and we will say when something cannot be done, which is more often than the industry admits.
“I had the money to buy the work and no way to be told about it first. That is the whole problem, and nobody sells a solution to it. What I have now is a calendar in December, four calls a year, and a woman in Paris who tells me when something is not worth the journey.”
We publish members’ words without their names. Anonymity is not modesty here — it is the service. Nothing about a member’s year is discussed outside the bureau, including the fact of membership itself.
Membership stops at 140 and is given by referral. Files for the coming year are read from September; a place that opens mid-season is rare and usually spoken for. If your name has been put forward, write to the bureau.
An existing member, or a house, a dealer or a specialist we already work with, puts your name forward.
An hour in Paris or London, or on a call. We ask what your year looks like now and where it falls short.
If we take the file, you receive the Season for the year ahead, marked with what we intend to secure.