Highly anticipated and only another few months to go, organiser of the Melbourne Art Fair had just announced that this important and successful biennale down under that attracted over 80 galleries and made a sales of $100 million in 2014 is now cancelled.

Chairperson of the non-profit Melbourne Art Foundation, Anna Pappas, cited that one of the reasons of this unfortunate announcement was due to the withdrawal of some of the high-profile galleries days before payment of the exhibition was due according to The Guardian reports. Pappas further elaborated that the organiser has no interest in becoming an affordable and mediocre art fair.

One of the withdrawn galleries voiced an opinion that the cost commitment was high, yet there were signs of good marketing and professional staff handling the fair. Another gallery had an interview with Art Asia Pacific, citing that the unofficial announcement that Sydney Contemporary run by the Art Fairs Australia (AFA) will be transforming the biannual art fair into an annual event in 2017 had influenced the decision. Adding insult to injury was that AFA had terminated its 20-year term contract with Melbourne Art Fair after 18 months.

万众期待的墨尔本艺术博览会，却在几个月之前宣布取消。主办单位指这项十分重要及成功的双年展，往年吸引80个画廊参加，并曾在2014年达到1亿澳元的营收。

非营利的墨尔本艺术基金会主席安娜·帕帕斯说，博览会取消的原因，是由于一些高知名度的画廊因《卫报》的报道，而在缴付展览费前几天决定退出。而帕帕斯进一步说，主办单位不想举办一场廉价平庸的艺术展，所以决定取消。

其中一个退出的画廊认为，即使有良好的营销和专业工作人员举办这场博览会，但仍嫌成本太昂贵。另一个退出的画廊接受亚太艺术组织采访时说，举办悉尼当代艺术展的澳大利亚艺博会协会 (AFA)，将在2017年把该双年展改成常年展的非正式消息传出后，影响了他们的决定。

雪上加霜的是，AFA在18个月后，终止了它与墨尔本艺博会长达20年的长期合同。