Veteran art-fair impresarios David and Lee Ann Lester kicked off the new decade with a homecoming of sorts this week by launching a new fair at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

The new Miami International Art Fair (MIA), launched under the guises of their company International Fine Art Expositions (IFAE), is getting its start during the same weekend that had long been occupied by Art Miami, which they founded in 1991 but sold eight years later. The new venture presents nearly 80 dealers from the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East, half of the whom will be showing similar wares at IFAE’s Art Palm Beach (formerly Palm Beach3) next weekend.

Many dealers admitted to ARTINFO the Palm Beach was their real destination, but that IFAE offered deals for dual participation that convinced them to add an earlier stop to their South Florida itinerary. That helped inject more design and photography into the mix of modern and contemporary art at MIA, most of it stylistically and economically more accessible than the edgier works seen at Art Basel Miami Beach a month ago.

While there may have been fewer surprises for insiders, the quality of the pieces attracted considerable interest among the reported 3,400 people who attended the preview. Much of the crowd reflected the fair’s focus on Latin American artists — including a spotlight on the “Next Generation” and a concentration of galleries from Argentina — with established collectors joined by newcomers to the art scene.