A New Problem for Annual Los Angeles Art Fair : Exhibitions: Parent company of the California firm behind ART / LA91 also owns a firm that has set up arms fairs. Revelation may hurt November event.

Andry Montgomery California Inc., the organizer of Los Angeles’ annual art fair at the Convention Center, didn’t need another problem. The recession had already led many dealers to question participating in ART/LA91, scheduled for Nov. 20-24.

But now a new crisis has emerged: the revelation that Andry Montgomery Ltd., the London-based parent company of the California firm, also owns Overseas Exhibitions Services Ltd., which has organized trade fairs for weapons manufacturers and arms suppliers.

In a more bullish art market, this news would probably not cause dealers to withdraw from the Los Angeles fair, but it could offer those who are worried about the economy a face-saving excuse to pull out this year, some local dealers say.

Andry Montgomery Ltd.’s varied enterprises have never been hidden, nor are they illegal, but the arms involvement was unknown to the art world until earlier this week. Stephen Games, a Green Party activist who is running against incumbent Glenda Jackson for a seat as a member of Parliament, wrote an article in the London Independent newspaper exposing the connection. Games reported that some British art-world figures are calling for a boycott of a London art fair organized by another Andry Montgomery subsidiary.

Los Angeles dealers learned of the arms connection from Games, who telephoned them for their reactions, but most told The Times they had too little information to make a snap judgment. Margo Leavin, among others, said she hoped the company would immediately drop the arms fairs or sever any connection to the firm that organizes them.

A statement to that effect will be forthcoming in the next day or two, according to Brian Angel, director of the Los Angeles fair. While the activities of Overseas Exhibitions Services have been listed in the company’s roster of exhibitions, the arms fairs have been held in Malaysia and he had little prior knowledge of them, Angel said when reached by telephone at his London office.

Andry Montgomery and its subsidiaries organize about 20 trade fairs and act as consultants or agents for an additional 300 annual and biennial exhibitions. These events cover a wide range of fields including the environment, agriculture, education and medical services. Two arms fairs have been held, in 1988 and 1990, and a third is scheduled for next April, he said.

“The art fairs have never, ever been connected in any way with the exhibitions for which Overseas Exhibitions Services has acted as a consultant. . . . Nevertheless, I realize that anything involved with defense is difficult for many people, particularly people in the art world, to reconcile with their outlook. . . . We have decided to break the link (with the arms fairs), even though it is very tenuous,” Angel said.

No one has resigned so far from the London fair, which is held each spring, Angel said. He expressed confidence that Los Angeles dealers will be satisfied with Andry Montgomery’s decision to divorce the art fairs from any connection with arms sales.

Although some critics have characterized the company as “a hard-nosed lot of professional business people who are out to make a profit from arms,” Andry Montgomery is a private family group that has a longstanding interest in the arts, Angel said. A collection of contemporary American and British art, amassed over the last 30 years, will tour Eastern Europe this fall and will be donated to museums there, he said. The company also sponsored a film on Christo’s “Surrounded Islands” project near Florida.

Angel also said that the company is committed to producing art fairs, although they have been unprofitable so far. The London fair has a cumulative deficit of $600,000; the Los Angeles fair is more than $250,000 in the red, he said.