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If you're buying—or just browsing—and you don't want to go it alone, these guides can give you the inside edge.
Brigitte Vergnolle
Paris Addict 33-6/09-94-09-21; parisaddict@orange.fr
You've got to know more than a thing or two if concierges at luxury hotels across the city rely on you for the best private guides. Such is the case with Vergnolle, who runs Paris Addict, a discreet company discovered only by word of mouth (there's no Web site, marketing, or PR to speak of). Vergnolle and her team of guides, all of whom have degrees in history or art history, can arrange just about anything, from private meetings with art and antiques dealers to a behind-the-scenes tour of Versailles. Always on her radar: the contemporary furniture gallery Catberro Galerie Paris (25 Rue Guénégaud, 33-1/43-25-58-10; catberro.fr).
Maria Cristina Paoluzzi
39-06/8535-8892; mariacristina.paoluzzi@fastwebnet.it
Don't let her Ph.D. in art history throw you. A professor at the University of Chieti, and the go-to guide for visiting dignitaries (the elder George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev among them), Paoluzzi can just as easily guide you through the top contemporary-art galleries and private studios as she can those specializing in antiquities. Her favorite stops: Magazzini d'Arte Moderna, Galleria dell'Oca, and Galleria il Ponte.
Dianne C. Brown
36-209/549-941; dcbrown@starkingnet.hu
An art consultant to the Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace and resident of the city since 1993, Brown knows the artists who give this particularly vibrant scene its unique energy. If you're a fan of modern art, request a visit to the Art Factory, an industrial-style exhibition space for up-and-coming artists, including sculptor Mamikon Yengibarian (whose work is also on view at the Four Seasons) and Márta Kucsora, an abstract painter.
Nicole Fall and Charles Spreckley
Bespoke Tokyo; 81-80/5025-8711; bespoketokyo.jp
Sign on with Fall and Spreckley, and you'll be in the company of two plugged-in locals. The duo will guide you through what they dub the "Tokyo Labyrinth"—nameless streets and hidden stops otherwise impossible to find. Their favorite art experience: 101 Tokyo, a new contemporary-art show taking place in a converted school in Akihabara. You'll get private viewings, along with a personalized "art safari" led by independent Tokyo-based gallery owners.
—Hillary Geronemus
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