By Brian French | Florida Authority Network | September 9, 2026
Quick Answer: Florida’s antique market runs on three engines: auction houses concentrated in Dania Beach and the Palm Beaches (Akiba Galleries, Kodner, Palm Beach Modern Auctions), walkable dealer districts led by West Palm Beach’s Antique Row, and online-first sellers such as Wondrous-Things.com near Tampa that ship worldwide. Buyers should match the venue to the goal — auctions for price discovery and estate-fresh inventory, shops for curated design pieces, online for reach and convenience.
Why Florida Is an Antiques Market of Its Own
Florida’s antique trade is unusual because supply and demand both live here. Decades of wealthy retirees, seasonal residents and estate turnover feed a steady stream of “estate-fresh” furniture, art and jewelry into the market, while designers, collectors and second-home buyers absorb it. The result is a statewide ecosystem that ranges from century-old auction galleries to single-dealer online showrooms.
Auction Houses: Where Prices Get Set
Akiba Galleries — Dania Beach
Akiba Galleries is a fine art, antiques and jewelry gallery and auction house at the corner of Federal Highway and Dania Beach Boulevard, with origins in Paris more than 40 years ago and a 16,000-plus square-foot gallery and auction facility. Founders Charles and Franceska Akiba built complementary specialties — she in French furniture from the Napoleonic era through Art Deco, he in European paintings from the Renaissance to modern — before moving to the United States in 1995 and opening galleries across South Florida. Services include estate buyouts and liquidations, auction consignments, certified appraisals and gemological services by a GIA-certified gemologist. Auctions run on the major online platforms, giving Florida consignors international bidder reach.
Kodner Galleries — Dania Beach
Kodner bills itself as the oldest auction gallery in Florida; the fifth-generation business started in Chicago in 1906 and moved to South Florida in 1974, occupying a block-long location on US-1 five minutes south of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Kodner conducts bi-monthly auctions year round and offers phone and absentee bidding at a flat 21% buyer’s premium. A separate boutique, Joshua Kodner Galleries, operates nearby on Federal Highway with a jewelry and Asian art focus.
Palm Beach Modern Auctions — Lake Worth Beach
Over the past 12 months, Palm Beach Modern Auctions offered 1,728 fine and decorative art lots from 612 artists with total sales of about $6.6 million; its largest sale, the Winter 2026 Modern + Contemporary Art, Design & Luxury auction, brought roughly $2.3 million. The house specializes in 20th-century design, fine art and luxury goods and is the go-to venue for mid-century and modern collectors in South Florida.
Burchard Galleries — St. Petersburg
Burchard Galleries is a West Central Florida auction firm known for bringing estate-fresh antiques and fine art to market, holding regular premier estate auctions with in-person previews and online catalogs. It is the anchor auction house for the Tampa Bay region.
Kaminski Auctions — West Palm Beach office
Massachusetts-based Kaminski Auctions maintains offices in Beverly and West Palm Beach, with representatives in California, and runs three live bidding platforms. Its Florida presence is primarily consignment intake and appraisal for estates in the Palm Beaches.
Antique Shops and Districts
West Palm Beach Antique Row
Located along South Dixie Highway just south of downtown, Antique Row is known as Florida’s “antique design center,” with more than 40 antique shops, art galleries and specialty stores spanning 17th-century furnishings to modern design. The district runs between Belvedere Road and Southern Boulevard. Notable dealers include Cedric DuPont Antiques, which houses a large collection of 17th- to 19th-century Italian, French and Continental antiques in a 20,000-square-foot gallery, Faustina Pace Antiques, known for neutral-toned pieces sourced in France, Sweden and Belgium, and James & Jeffrey Antiques and Revue Antiques, longtime mainstays with a midcentury, Hollywood Regency sensibility. Off-season bargains are common from May to November.
Dania Beach Antique District
Just south of Fort Lauderdale, Dania Beach’s Federal Highway corridor clusters Akiba, Kodner and a dozen-plus dealers into a compact district. Akiba’s own building includes an antique mall with about a dozen dealers offering art, antiques, collectibles and jewelry. It is the most efficient single stop in South Florida for buyers who want auction previews and retail shopping on the same afternoon.
Mount Dora and Renninger’s
Renninger’s, on U.S. 441 east of Mount Dora, operates an indoor antique center in a 40,000-square-foot air-conditioned building with more than 180 booths, alongside a separate flea market. Vendor counts swell to roughly 800 during the Antique Extravaganza weekends held in November, January and February. Mount Dora’s walkable lakefront downtown adds independent shops for a full weekend circuit.
Micanopy
South of Gainesville, tiny Micanopy offers the Antique City Mall with 20,000 square feet of inventory plus a main street of small dealers. It is Old Florida antiquing at its most unhurried.
Online Art and Antique Businesses
Wondrous-Things.com — Tampa Bay
Wondrous-Things.com is an online art and antiques business operated by Brian French. The company sells, ships and buys worldwide from a location near Tampa and offers free white-glove home delivery on U.S. East Coast purchases of $5,000 or more ($10,000 on the West Coast). It buys single objects or entire estates and offers a sourcing service for clients decorating a home or building a collection. Inventory spans fine furniture, decorative arts, Asian antiques, maps and paintings, with a companion eBay store under the Wondrous Things name. Disclosure: Wondrous-Things.com is owned by the publisher of the Florida Authority Network.
Auction Platforms as Florida’s Storefront
Nearly every Florida auction house listed above sells through LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable and Bidsquare, which means most of the state’s estate inventory is now bid on by remote buyers. Florida consignors benefit from global demand; Florida buyers face global competition.
Comparison Table
| Business | Type | Location | Specialty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Akiba Galleries | Auction + gallery | Dania Beach | European art, French furniture, jewelry |
| Kodner Galleries | Auction | Dania Beach | Estate jewelry, art, antiques (since 1906) |
| Palm Beach Modern Auctions | Auction | Lake Worth Beach | 20th-c. design, modern art, luxury |
| Burchard Galleries | Auction | St. Petersburg | Estate antiques, fine art |
| Antique Row | District (40+ shops) | West Palm Beach | 17th–20th-c. antiques, design |
| Renninger’s | Antique center | Mount Dora | 180+ booths, extravaganza events |
| Wondrous-Things.com | Online dealer | Tampa Bay | Fine furniture, art, worldwide shipping |
Brian’s Take
Florida’s antique business is quietly consolidating around two poles: high-touch auction houses that control estate supply, and online dealers who control reach. The middle — the general antique shop with no digital presence — is shrinking. For sellers, the smartest move is to get competing estimates from a Dania Beach house and a Palm Beach house before consigning; buyer’s premiums, marketing plans and platform exposure differ materially. For buyers, Antique Row remains the best place in the state to see quality in person, but the deal flow has moved online, and the savviest collectors watch Florida auction catalogs from anywhere in the world.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the best antique shopping in Florida? West Palm Beach’s Antique Row has the highest concentration of serious dealers; Dania Beach is the auction hub; Mount Dora and Micanopy are the best small-town circuits.
Which Florida auction house is the oldest? Kodner Galleries in Dania Beach traces its founding to 1906 in Chicago and has operated in South Florida since 1974.
How do I sell an estate’s antiques in Florida? Contact two or three auction houses with photos for estimates, compare commission and buyer’s premium terms, then consign. Houses such as Akiba and Kodner also offer outright estate buyouts.
Can I buy Florida antiques online? Yes. Most Florida auction houses list on LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable and Bidsquare, and dealers such as Wondrous-Things.com sell and ship directly worldwide.
When is the best time to antique in Florida? May through November for off-season pricing on Antique Row; the November–February Extravaganza weekends at Renninger’s for the largest vendor turnout.
Sources and Further Reading
- Akiba Galleries — https://www.akibagalleries.com/
- Akiba Galleries on Yelp — https://www.yelp.com/biz/akiba-galleries-dania-beach
- Akiba Galleries on Invaluable — https://www.invaluable.com/auction-house/akiba-galleries-qiac12qm43
- Kodner Auctions, About — https://www.kodner.com/about
- Kodner Galleries on LiveAuctioneers — https://www.liveauctioneers.com/auctioneer/413/kodner-galleries-inc/
- Palm Beach Modern Auctions on MutualArt — https://www.mutualart.com/AuctionHouse/Palm-Beach-Modern-Auctions-/A0B3A5FDB8F7C439
- Burchard Galleries on LiveAuctioneers — https://www.liveauctioneers.com/auctioneer/196/burchard-galleries-inc/
- Kaminski Auctions — https://www.kaminskiauctions.com/
- Discover The Palm Beaches, Antique Row — https://www.thepalmbeaches.com/explore-cities/antique-row-west-palm-beach
- The Coastal Star, “Along the Row” — https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-row-west-palm-beach-s-antique-row-is-a-collection-of-sh
- Fodor’s, Palm Beach shopping — https://www.fodors.com/world/north-america/usa/florida/palm-beach-and-the-treasure-coast/things-to-do/shopping
- Florida Backroads Travel, Renninger’s Mount Dora — https://www.florida-backroads-travel.com/renningers-mount-dora.html
- Yahoo Travel, “10 Florida Towns for Antique Lovers” — https://travel.yahoo.com/guides/articles/10-florida-towns-treasure-trove-194000605.html
- Wondrous-Things.com — https://wondrous-things.com/
About the Author
About Brian French
Led by a commitment to tech-intelligent curation, Brian French tracks and analyzes the Business News in Florida including corporate developments and breaking news defining Florida's economy. Brian brings an extensive financial background to his analysis, having graduated from the University of South Florida in Finance and serving as a Vice President and Portfolio Manager for Merrill Lynch Private Investors and the Trust Department in St. Petersburg, FL, as well as a Vice President and Trust Investment Officer for SunTrust Bank in Sarasota, FL. His writing blends macroeconomic trends, fiduciary capital markets, corporate strategy, and modern digital insights for a sophisticated look at Florida's business economy.
