NEW YORK, NY.- New York City is about to welcome a brand new, full-service auction house, as La Belle Epoque Auction Gallery sets to open its doors in January 2022, offering a friendly new auction experience to art and antique lovers, dealers, collectors, first time buyers and consigners.

The new La Belle Epoque Auction Gallery, at their welcoming two-level, 5,000 square foot Meatpacking District/West Village location, will provide a more personal approach to both buying and selling. Boutique New York auction houses who were thriving in the market through the 1980’s and 1990’s seemed to fall by the wayside due to skyrocketing Manhattan rental prices and other issues. While smaller, high-quality auction houses in New York City seem to have all but disappeared in recent years, La Belle Epoque Auction Gallery hopes to fill that void.

Their premiere auction will offer a range of hundreds of items including a Modernist Abstract Painting “Sunset on the Beach” by Byron Browne, (American 1907 – 1961) Oil on Canvas, signed and six (6) Leather and Chrome LC2 Club Chairs by Le Corbusier for Cassina.

Many in the art world already know the La Belle Epoque name from being the New York area’s top vintage poster dealer and gallery, specializing in authentic Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Mid-Century posters from the Belle Epoque era to modern times (1860’s to the 1990’s). All their clients and customers at La Belle Epoque Vintage Posters, which will remain a separate business, have enjoyed working directly with longtime owner/partners Linda Tarasuk and Elie Saporta, developing long-term friendly relationships. Linda and Elie just recently formed La Belle Epoque Auction Gallery, which came as a natural progression from their highly-regarded vintage poster business, flourishing since it opened in the mid-1980’s.




Preparing to launch with their premiere auction, planned for January 22nd, 2022, with online bidding through Live Auctioneers and BidSquare, La Belle Epoque Auction Gallery will provide a comfortable, yet sophisticated, neighborhood atmosphere, where people can browse at the previews, socialize a bit with neighbors and take part in the excitement of live auctions, all while following Covid-19 safety protocols.

“So many of our longtime clients have told us how much they miss going to auctions in person to find treasures and look through the art and antiques, while many new auction goers may also find affordable household furnishings they might not see any place else,” says Elie Saporta. ”Come say hello, we’ll admire some great art and antiques together”….with an emphasis on developing mutual respect and friendships with their clientele. “Here at La Belle Epoque, we love working with the community, while appreciating an international clientele as well”

The new auction gallery will offer an open, warm environment, encouraging people young and old to come back to live in-person auctions, while also providing online bidding and a more personal approach to consigning. Potential consigners and collectors can easily come in to ask questions and get the focused attention one would expect in a “neighborhood” auction house. Linda Tarasuk and Elie Saporta have also teamed up with top NYC appraisers to work with them at the new gallery, featuring art, antiques, furniture, silver, jewelry, clocks, decorative items, Mid-Century Modern and more.

When the pandemic hit New York City and so many people began moving away, Linda and Elie, who always maintained relationships with their regular clientele, began getting dozens of phone calls asking if they would buy many large scale posters from people leaving the city. This went even further when those same people, who knew and trusted Linda and Elie, inquired if they could also buy antique furniture, decorative arts and other collectible items. This all seemed to align at the same time the two partners acquired the large new two-level space in the Meatpacking District/West Village and La Belle Epoque Auction Gallery was born.

Elie Saporta, past chairman of the authentication and vetting committee of the International Vintage Poster Dealers Association, setting the world standards for collecting vintage posters, remembers frequenting friendly, smaller auction houses himself when he first came to the U.S. in the mid 1970’s, settling in the New York City area in 1979. Since the 1980’s, he and his partner Linda became lifelong collectors in many areas.

After having grown up with art collector parents and going to art & antique shows and sales since she was just six years old, Linda Tarasuk, armed with an art degree from New York University, took her early passion for collecting vintage art posters and parlayed that into a thriving business. Over the years, Linda and Elie also developed an expertise in collecting various other types of art, antiques and jewelry, learning more about this business as time went on. The two are now applying the same approach to launching the new auction gallery as when they opened the vintage poster business.