Every two years, for nine days, the finest Italian antiques dealers move into a Baroque palace on the Arno and open the doors to anyone with a ticket. From September 26 to October 4, 2026, Florence hosts the 34th Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato, known as the BIAF.
Around 80 galleries take part, coming from all over Italy and from London, Paris, Monaco, Geneva, Lugano and Palm Beach. Old Master paintings, gold-ground panels, wooden sculpture, furniture, decorative arts and twentieth-century works fill the frescoed rooms of Palazzo Corsini.
Unlike a museum show, everything on the walls is for sale. And unlike most art fairs, you do not need to be a buyer to walk in: the ticket is worth it for the palace alone. Read the article to the end to plan your visit.
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Tickets for the Florence Antiques Biennale 2026
Below are all the details about the fair and the link to buy tickets directly from the official authorized reseller, which is our partner. If you book through our link we may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Thank you!
| Date | Event | Online Tickets |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday, September 26, 2026 – 10:30 AM | Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato, Palazzo Corsini | Buy Here |
| Sunday, September 27, 2026 – 10:30 AM | Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato, Palazzo Corsini | Buy Here |
| Monday, September 28, 2026 – 10:30 AM | Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato, Palazzo Corsini | Buy Here |
| Tuesday, September 29, 2026 – 10:30 AM | Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato, Palazzo Corsini | Buy Here |
| Wednesday, September 30, 2026 – 10:30 AM | Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato, Palazzo Corsini | Buy Here |
| Thursday, October 1, 2026 – 10:30 AM | Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato, Palazzo Corsini | Buy Here |
| Friday, October 2, 2026 – 10:30 AM | Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato, Palazzo Corsini | Buy Here |
| Saturday, October 3, 2026 – 10:30 AM | Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato, Palazzo Corsini | Buy Here |
| Sunday, October 4, 2026 – 10:30 AM | Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato, Palazzo Corsini | Buy Here |
The fair is open every day from 10:30 AM to 7:30 PM, with the ticket office closing at 7:00 PM. Each ticket is valid for the day you choose, so you can slot the visit into your itinerary wherever it fits best.
At the door, the full ticket costs €25.00. A reduced €10.00 rate applies to residents of the Metropolitan City of Florence and to organised groups of at least 12 people, always with advance booking.
Admission is free for children and teenagers under 15, for visitors with disabilities and their companions, and for Biennale VIP Card holders.
Online, through the official authorized reseller, tickets start at €26.50 plus any booking fees. The difference is the presale cost, and what you get for it is walking in with the ticket on your phone instead of queuing at the box office, which gets busy on the opening day and at weekends.
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What the BIAF Is, and Why Collectors Fly In for It
The idea belongs to Luigi Bellini, an antiques dealer who in 1953 decided that the best of the Italian trade should gather in Florence. His sons Mario and Giuseppe turned it into a proper fair in 1959, at Palazzo Strozzi, together with the newly founded Italian Antique Dealers Association.
It was a hit from the first edition. Police had to manage the crowds, and Italy’s president at the time, Giovanni Gronchi, turned up privately the day before it closed.
Through the 1960s the fair doubled as a society event, drawing Josephine Baker, Greta Garbo, Sofia Loren, John Huston and Silvana Mangano. What mattered more, though, was the shift it produced: the antiquarian stopped being seen as a dealer in old junk and became recognised as a connoisseur.
That reputation rests on the vetting. According to the official presentation of this edition, 63 experts, among them museum directors, curators and conservators, examine every piece before the doors open, checking quality, provenance, condition and authenticity.
The Carabinieri art squad verifies the provenance paperwork, and since 2001 every work arrives with an export certificate issued by the Italian Ministry of Culture. For a foreign buyer, that is the difference between taking a purchase home and leaving it stuck in Italy.
Palazzo Corsini, a Baroque Palace on the Arno
The fair was born at Palazzo Strozzi and stayed there until 1993, with one interlude at Palazzo Giuntini in 1977. After a spell at Palazzo degli Affari in 1995, it has been at Palazzo Corsini, on Lungarno Corsini, since 1997. Half the pleasure of the visit is the building itself.
It started as a casino, a small house surrounded by a garden that ran down to the river. It belonged to the Ardinghelli family, then to the Medici, and in 1649 it was bought by Maria Maddalena Machiavelli, wife of Marquis Filippo Corsini. Building the palace you see today took 50 uninterrupted years.
The result is one of the few late Baroque palaces in a city defined by the Renaissance, with stone statues and antique-style vases silhouetted along the roofline.
The interiors were painted between 1692 and 1700 by Anton Domenico Gabbiani, Alessandro Gherardini and Pier Dandini. The Galleria Aurora, the Salone and the ballroom are exactly where the dealers set up their stands, so you look at the art and the ceilings at the same time.
Highlights of the 34th Edition: a Michelangelo Drawing and the Lorenzo d’Oro Prize
The centrepiece of the 2026 edition sits in the Salone del Trono: a technical drawing by Michelangelo, on loan from Casa Buonarroti.
It is his design for the façade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, commissioned by Pope Leo X, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and never built. That is why the church still stands with a bare stone front today, a few streets from the fair.
The public opening on September 26, 2026 follows the official ceremony at 10:30 AM in the Salone dei Cinquecento of Palazzo Vecchio, where the Lorenzo d’Oro prize is handed to a public figure from cinema, television or culture who has helped spread Italian art around the world. This year’s trophy was commissioned from a Florentine silversmith.
Throughout the nine days, Palazzo Corsini also runs a daily programme of art history talks and book presentations, mostly mid-afternoon, plus the BIAF awards on Wednesday, September 30 at noon and a round table on the future of the antiques trade on Saturday, October 3 at 5:00 PM. All of it is included in your ticket, although the talks are held in Italian.
Opening Hours, Address and What You Cannot Bring In
The BIAF opens daily from 10:30 AM to 7:30 PM, with no lunch break, and the ticket office stops selling at 7:00 PM. There is no closing day: it runs on Monday too, when many Florence museums are shut, which makes September 28 a good slot for the visit.
A few things stay outside. Pets are not allowed, and neither are cameras, umbrellas, or large bags and backpacks. The aisles between the stands are narrow and everything around you is fragile and expensive, so travel light and leave the day pack at the hotel.
The organisers also ask visitors not to bring in artworks, antiques or other objects for appraisal or valuation. If you inherited a painting and want an opinion on it, this is not the place to ask.
The address is Palazzo Corsini, on Lungarno Corsini, Florence, a short walk from Ponte Vecchio along the river. Everything in the historic centre is within walking distance, so there is no transport to plan.
Your BIAF Ticket Cuts the Price of Other Florence Museums
Hold on to your BIAF ticket after you go in. Showing it at the box office of several museums in the city gets you the reduced rate, which adds up in a place where museum prices keep climbing.
The discount applies to Oltre il Rinascimento. Da Dürer a Parmigianino, at Palazzo Medici Riccardi from September 10, 2026 to January 5, 2027, and to Broken. Il potere del frammento, at Palazzo Strozzi from September 25, 2026 to January 24, 2027.
It also covers the Civic Museums of Florence: Palazzo Vecchio, the Santa Maria Novella complex, the Museo Novecento, the Stefano Bardini Museum and the Brancacci Chapel. In other words, one fair ticket can shape a whole week of art in the city.
What Else to Do in Florence While You Are There
Late September and early October are among the best weeks of the year to be in Florence. The August heat is gone, the light is beautiful and, as our guide to October in Florence explains, the crowds thin out without the weather turning.
Uffizi Gallery. About ten minutes on foot from Palazzo Corsini, and the natural companion to a day spent among Old Masters. Book a time slot before you fly.
Palazzo Medici Riccardi. Home to Benozzo Gozzoli’s Chapel of the Magi and, this autumn, to the Dürer to Parmigianino exhibition your BIAF ticket discounts.
The wine windows. Those small hatches cut into palace walls first appeared in the sixteenth century and are back in use. It is the street-level version of the same aristocratic Florence you see inside the fair.
Museo Novecento. If nine days of gold-ground panels leave you wanting something modern, this is where twentieth century Italian art lives, right on Piazza Santa Maria Novella.
Book the big-name tickets in advance. The Accademia and the Uffizi sell out days ahead in high season, and the BIAF week brings extra visitors into the city.
Travelling around Tuscany this autumn? Stay online from the moment you land with a Holafly eSIM and use the promo code TIPS to save on your plan. Full guide here.
The BIAF only comes around every two years, so it is either this trip or 2028. If your dates line up, book the ticket and give Palazzo Corsini a full morning: nobody gets through those rooms in half an hour.
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