When it opened in late 2022, the Botanic, housed inside a former medieval monastery, brought a new kind of luxury to Antwerp—and a deep sense of place, thanks to its centuries-old wood beams, chapel frescoes, and museum-quality artwork curated by expert Joost Declercq. Now it’s at the top of everyone’s list—whether for a martini at Henry’s Bar or the electromagnetic frequency treatment at its holistic spa. Filled with greenery to reflect its setting inside the city’s Botanical Gardens, the hotel gives off garden party vibes—complete with the people-watching. The spa suite comes with its own jacuzzi and sauna, while the Antwerp Suite is decked out with works by local artists, but make sure you leave your room to try the three Michelin-starred restaurants onsite. And don’t skip the buffet breakfast—it might well be Belgium’s best, with most ingredients sourced from within five miles.

Botanic Sanctuary is a 13th century medieval monastery turned luxury hotel.

Hugo Thomassen/Botanic Sanctuary

The Japanese design principle of wabi-sabi is the inspiration behind the design at Botanic Sanctuary.

Hugo Thomassen/Botanic Sanctuary

Hotel Flora

Spending the night at Hotel Flora feels like a secret. Buzz the green door on Korte Nieuwstraat, and you’ll be led down a landscaped path to a 15th-century merchant’s mansion, converted into a boutique hotel with bold, maximalist decor by Belgian designer Gert Voorjans. In a nod to the port city’s gem trade, the seven rooms are named for precious gemstones. Can’t choose? Bring your friends along and book the entire place.

Guesthouse Galalith

Jewelry designer Pascale Masselis has opened a guest house with two apartments above her beautiful boutique. Available for short-term stays (a two-night minimum), the one-bedroom apartments have fully equipped kitchens and tasteful decor, such as artwork by contemporary visual artist Julien Delagrange.

Hotel August

A former Augustinian convent sets the stage for the first hotel project by acclaimed local architect Vincent Van Duysen. Sister property to the stylish Hotel Julien, this serene 44-room enclave offers a wellness space with an outdoor swimming pond and a restaurant overseen by chef Nick Bril of The Jane fame.

Where to eat and drink

PrivéPrivée

To add to the breadth of his culinary empire (Le Pristine, Blueness), celebrity chef Sergio Herman is making headlines for his new culinary concept. A champion of the Zeeland terroir, Herman cooks for just 20 diners at a time in a private, art-filled kitchen at PrivéPrivée.

A standout dish at Hertog Jan is potato foam with coffee, vanilla, and shaved mimolette cheese.

Pieter D’Hoop/Hertog Jan/Botanic Sanctuary

Chef Gert De Mangeleer and sommelier Joachim Boudens of Hertog Jan

Tim Tronckoe/Hertog Jan/Botanic Sanctuary

Cobra

Antwerp’s creatives congregate at Cobra, a hot spot since it opened last summer—and not just because of its fashion cred (it was launched by Esfan Eghtessadi, co-founder of Essential Antwerp). The restaurant turns out stellar cocktails and crowd-pleasing nibbles that are meant to be shared (croquetas, vitello tonnato, Irish Mor oyster with champagne granitas). Plus, there’s a terrific terrace for people-watching.

Hertog Jan

Fans of Chef Gert De Mangeleer and sommelier Joachim Boudens were relieved when this Bruges institution, closed in 2018 after 13 years, was resurrected inside the Botanic Sanctuary Hotel with its own greenhouse and vegetable garden. Still on the menu? The all-time classic potato foam with coffee, vanilla and shaved mimolette cheese. New stand-outs include the toro no toro, in which locally caught kingfish is enhanced with Flemish Holstein beef to imitate the fat of tuna belly and topped with Royal Belgian Caviar.

The Hague: Europe’s largest art fair closed its doors on Friday with organisers saying that sales, including a rare Van Gogh and works by Picasso and Kees van Dongen, fetched “record prices”.

Although a total figure of sale for some of the world’s most sought-after artworks could not be given, organisers of The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) said that sales ran up to “tens-of-millions of euros”.

“It’s impossible to tally the total sales as many are not made public,” TEFAF organiser Noepy Testa said.

“But we have had record sales, running into tens-of-millions of euros,” she told AFP.

Top ticket items for sale this year included a rare early Van Gogh, painted when the artist was living in southern Netherlands around 1884, and a multi-million-euro work by abstract art pioneer Wassily Kandinsky.

The US-based gallery selling the Van Gogh, titled “Tete de paysanne a la coiffe blanche” confirmed a buyer, with Dutch media saying the asking price of €4.5m ($4.9m) was reached.

Kandinsky’s 1910 “Murnau mit Kirche II” was put up for sale by art dealer Robert Landau, who bought the work last year for $45m at auction at Sotheby’s.

It was not known whether a new buyer had been found, but Landau at the fair told AFP that the painting was recently valued at “€100m”.

Other big ticket names also fetched top prices.

A work on paper by Pablo Picasso called “Femme au tablier” sold for almost two million euros, while a painting by Dutch-French artist Kees van Dongen titled “Femme au Chapeau” sold for a “seven-figure sum to a private European collector”.

But it was not just paintings fetching top prices.

A 17th-century Safavid mirror was sold to the Aga Khan Foundation in Toronto for around 200,000 euros, organisers said.

A Delftware porcelain work previously owned by British fashion photographer Cecil Beaton fetched around €300,000.

Over the eight-day fair, close to 50,000 visitors flocked to view artwork presented by 270 exhibitors from 22 countries, the organisers said. — AFP

“It’s impossible to tally the total sales as many are not made public,” TEFAF organiser Noepy Testa said.

“But we have had record sales, running into tens-of-millions of euros,” she told AFP.

Top ticket items for sale this year included a rare early Van Gogh, painted when the artist was living in southern Netherlands around 1884, and a multi-million-euro work by abstract art pioneer Wassily Kandinsky.

The US-based gallery selling the Van Gogh, titled “Tete de paysanne a la coiffe blanche” confirmed a buyer, with Dutch media saying the asking price of 4.5 million euros ($4.9 million) was reached.

Kandinsky’s 1910 “Murnau mit Kirche II” was put up for sale by art dealer Robert Landau, who bought the work last year for $45 million at auction at Sotheby’s.

It was not known whether a new buyer had been found, but Landau at the fair told AFP that the painting was recently valued at “100 million euros”.

Other big ticket names also fetched top prices.

A work on paper by Pablo Picasso called “Femme au tablier” sold for almost two million euros, while a painting by Dutch-French artist Kees van Dongen titled “Femme au Chapeau” sold for a “seven-figure sum to a private European collector”.

But it was not just paintings fetching top prices.

A 17th-century Safavid mirror was sold to the Aga Khan Foundation in Toronto for around 200,000 euros, organisers said.

A Delftware porcelain work previously owned by British fashion photographer Cecil Beaton fetched around 300,000 euros.

Over the eight-day fair, close to 50,000 visitors flocked to view artwork presented by 270 exhibitors from 22 countries, the organisers said.

jhe/bc

T
he European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) in Maastricht is the zenith of art fairs in quality, prestige, and cachet. Starting on March 7 and continuing this week, 270 high-end dealers gathered to offer their best to a crowd — TEFAF estimates that about 55,000 will attend — of serious, rich collectors, museum curators and directors, the art-curious, and at least one on-his-toes, eyes-peeled, beagle-nosed art critic. It’s a connoisseur’s fair but one where billions of dollars in art are ripe for the pickings.

I’ll write today about what I like the most about TEFAF’s art. The fair’s calling card is the fresh-to-the-market, leg-tingling, newly discovered, best-of-its-kind treasure. Often — but not always – these treasures are small enough to have been tucked away for centuries, though Titian’s Submersion of Pharaoh’s Army in the Red Sea, from 1514–16, is close to eight feet wide and four feet tall. Offered by David Tunick, this monumental woodcut of a cataclysmic scene does come in twelve sheets, so, while humongous, it’s actually compact if not assembled.

Titian (c. 1488–1576), who transcends time and words, isn’t known for prints. Submersion of the Pharaoh’s Army, done when he was in his mid 20s, might very well be a “quit while you’re ahead” moment. Topping it took 450 years, Cecil B. DeMille, Vista Vision, and splicing footage of the Red Sea with upside-down footage of water pouring from tanks. Titian did some splicing, too, since no wood block, sheet of paper, or printing press was that big. He had to conceive the totality on twelve blocks and, harder still, align paper, press, ink tone, and blocks. Eight of the twelve impressions are in museums.

Submersion of the Pharaoh’s Army resonated in Venice. Its swamps, estuaries, wicked tides, shoals, and hundreds of islands gobbled enemy after enemy. Today, Hamas and Hezbollah could use a good submersion, and I don’t mean on the big screen, and I don’t mean with upside-down tanks in a Paramount backlot.

William Ivins, the Met’s first curator of prints, once owned it. It stayed in his family until Tunick sold it in the 1980s. Now, it’s with Tunick again. In business since the late 1960s, Tunick himself has the master’s touch, with lots of repeat buyers and sellers. He’s probably wanting well over a million dollars.

There’s big, and then there’s tucked-under-the-pillow small. Galerie Chenel is offering a cameo, from the Julio-Claudian period (27 b.c. to a.d. 68), that depicts Agrippa Postumus. At 1.4 by 1.2 inches, it gives a dash of luxe, a sprinkle of yore, and a pinch of portent. Postumus was the son of Marcus Agrippa and Julia the Elder, the only child of the Emperor Augustus.

Some thought Postumus reckless, all thought him tough, and, though called depraved, he never had a specific scandal pinned on him. He might have been murdered on orders of the Empress Livia, who wanted her son, Tiberius, to succeed Augustus as emperor. Postumus died around the time Augustus did. Augustus, both calculating and squirrelly, might have planned to bounce Tiberius as his successor in favor of Postumus, by blood his nearest heir.

How do we know it’s Postumus? His cheekbones are high, and his chin is weak. He’s got a bruiser’s thick neck and big ears. His hair, each lock exactingly carved, is parted, pincer-like. The cameo dates to around a.d. 40, when the Augustan line faces were set to define specific personalities. Our cameo has the Postumus look. Sardonyx is a rare white-and-brown stone. Carvers meticulously manipulated its layers of color to create an image that’s iconic and lively. Here, the artist reserved the whitest parts of the stone for his complexion and his toga, with brown layers used for depth and volume.

The cameo first appears in records of the collection of the Earl of Bessborough in 1761 and, a few years later, among the ancient cameos belonging to the Duke of Marlborough. Sometime in the late 18th century, it was mounted in gold and semiprecious stones. The Seventh Duke of Marlborough, Winston Churchill’s grandfather, sold it along with most of his cameo collection in 1875 to pay the bills. The thing then bounced from collection to collection until the 1960s, when it landed in Switzerland, bought by an Italian named Sangiorgi.

This is what we want to see in Maastricht. The cameo hasn’t been on the market in 60 years. It’s exquisite, illustrious, and rare in subject, material, execution, and provenance. It tells of the perils of fame and fortune, nowadays one of my favorite topics. I’m told it’s “over a million dollars.” I saw lots of people at the fair with the means, style, and discernment to want to give Postumus the lovin’ he deserves.

When in art is a resemblance guaranteed? TEFAF offers lots of portraits, but I found two, both from the 19th century, one a sculpture, one a painting, both challenging photography’s claim that it is closest to truth. Photography was a new medium that, by the 1840s, both democratized portraiture and claimed the mantle of factual, unvarnished realism. At Dickinson’s booth, I saw Henri-Guillaume Schlesinger’s Ressemblance garantie, from 1853. The grinning, winning young man poking his head through the painted canvas wins over his day’s photography for warmth and charm.

Neither photography nor painting is reality. They’re representations by an artist with a quiverful of tricks depending on his take on his subject and, for portraiture, the connivance of his subject. Schlesinger was German, trained in Vienna, and worked in Paris. He sold Ressemblance garantie to the French dealer Goupil, who sent it to America. Dickinson is a London dealer. We don’t know where the portrait has been for the last 175 years. The sitter, who might have been an artist, looks like a Mark Twain character. He’s that fresh. It’s for sale for €120,000 ($131,000).

Prosper d’Épinay (1836–1914), who worked in London and Paris, specialized in polychrome sculpture. His painted terra-cotta sculpture of Françoise de la Rochefoucauld is an imaginary portrait of a French aristocrat from whom d’Épinay descended. She died in 1580. With pouty lips, eyes looking sideways, raised eyebrows, a lovely pink face, and a rich purple hat and turquoise coat, she looks eerily alive. Stuart Lochhead Sculpture, a London dealer, sold it to a Dutch collector for €120,000 ($131,000).

A bit bigger at 14.75 inches is Bowman Sculpture’s The Thinker, by Auguste Rodin (1840–1917). Yes, the image is universal, and so rampant, like Rodin’s The Kiss, that it’s high art, folk art, and kitsch all at once. Still, Rodin is the father of modern sculpture and our Michelangelo in depth and craftsmanship. Bowman’s Thinker is one of six known bronze casts made by Alexis Rudier’s foundry between 1903 and 1914 under Rodin’s supervision and specifically for the collector’s market.

The Thinker started as The Poet in The Gates of Hell, Rodin’s never-finished opus depicting aspects of Dante’s Inferno. Conceived in the early 1880s, The Poet has a place of pride among 180 figures and was meant by Rodin to evoke the unique power of the poet to conceive and to articulate the sins of humanity, among them the perils of love gone awry. The Kiss, referencing Paola’s and Francesca’s doomed fling, made its premiere in visual culture in The Gates of Hell.

Not long after he’d finished fiddling with The Gates of Hell, Rodin turned The Poet into a stand-alone figure, saying of him, “He is no longer dreamer, he is creator.” The sculpture was shown as The Thinker in 1889. Yes, it’s a tribute to Michelangelo and reimagines his religious fervor for a secular age. Intense cogitation is removed from divine inspiration. Adam, who lived naked in Eden, seems to be thinking outside the box.

The Thinker doesn’t deduce all day. He’s too ripped. I look at it as an icon of the individual’s power and authority, with the tension in how will becomes willfulness. I always think of Howard Roark from Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead when I see it. That’s a good thing. In high places are shouty nincompoops, men with overcooked linguine for spines, and animated meringues. We need more people who know how to think.

In any event, it’s gorgeous. Its provenance is fascinating. Howard Young (1878–1972) owned it. Young is the greatest art dealer no one knows. Out of his shop in the Pierre Hotel went El Greco’s Christ Healing the Blind, first to Charles and Jayne Wrightsman and then to the Met, and English aristocratic portraits to collections all over America. His nephew and business partner, Francis Taylor, was Elizabeth Taylor’s father. Young persuaded Dwight Eisenhower to run for president in 1952 and arranged his pivotal Scripps-media-empire endorsement. Young gave the Rodin to Ralph Harmon Booth, a Detroit grandee, and his fishing buddy, in 1926. Bowman got it from Booth’s descendants.

Bowman is asking €7.5 million ($8.2 million) for The Thinker. Forget about the Oscar, the Grammy, the Emmy, and the ugly thing called the Golden Globe. We need to make The Thinker the emblem for a new age.

I’d never heard of either Domenico Corvi (1721–1803) or Cesare Dandini (1597–1657), but there are a lot of Italians. I’m a scholar of American art and do indeed know that the New York dealer Nicholas Hall is famous for revelations. The Liberation of the Apostle Peter is a standard Old Master subject. An angel awakens the pope-to-be from a deep sleep to spirit him from prison. Goodness, we want good guys like Peter sprung. The bad guys need Soros-backed prosecutors for their get-out-of-jail-free cards.

Corvi’s picture from 1770 impresses for his pastel palette of lilac, lemon-yellow, and cotton-candy blue. It’s a nocturne with lighting from the angel’s halo. Even a gruesome Corvi, his Beheading of John the Baptist, also from 1770, shows the hateful Salome in a refreshing mint-green frock and a jaunty lilac cap with a teal bow. Both were Barberini-family commissions and have been in private collections since they were painted. They’re $120,000 each.

In Hall’s booth, the two Corvi paintings flank Dandini’s Still Life with Two Shelducks, from between 1637 and 1647. They’re dead ducks, to be sure, but in life must have relished their vivid, textured plumage, bright-red beaks, and handsome proportions, obviously toned even as they hang. Cardinal Gian Carlo di Medici commissioned the painting and liked it enough to move it wherever he went. The son of the grand duke of Tuscany, he enjoyed his military career before he was forced to occupy the Medicis’ traditional seat in the College of Cardinals. The American Charles Stuart Street bought it in Italy. From the early 1890s to the 1930s, Street was America’s eminent teacher and writer on the subject of bridge, knowing much about doubles. Hall wants $1,250,000 for it.

There’s size, and Dardini’s Shelduck painting is 32 by 17 inches, bigger than the two Corvis, but they have wall power, and then there’s weight, and there’s number. A. Aardewerk started more than a hundred years ago as a high-end antiques and jewelry shop in The Hague, but for the last 40 or so years has focused on antique Dutch silver as well as jewelry.

Whenever I can, I write about English, Irish, and French silver but rarely about Dutch silver, which has cleaner lines and, the Netherlands being a great naval power in its day, inspired by the shape of waves. No waves are involved, though, in Aardewerk’s extraordinary set of 16 candlesticks, with two sets of wings for two candelabras, from 1785 to 1787, all with an applied coat of arms. They’re elegant, with neoclassical decoration like beading, acanthus leaves, and garlands, and I’d describe them as Louis XVI style and similar to French and English candlesticks from the 1780s.

What’s amazing is that the set has stayed intact for nearly 240 years. Death and inheritances divide sets. In flat, little, prosperous Holland, invasion, conquest, pillage, and privation are not unknown. This family of 16, together weighing 13,836 grams, or 488 ounces, or more than 30 pounds, has stayed together. The set stays together for a mid hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Less is more, and good things come in small packages, but sometimes size matters, and the bigger the more astounding.

TEFAF in Maastricht is changing, alas, though I saw lots more art that, like these examples, make it unique. Another day, I’ll write about some of the new directions I saw. I’ll be ranty.

Robust bunches of Ten Kate-designed flowers lushly suspended from the ceiling, oysters brimming with savory aphrodisiac in each shuck, dramatic gazes of Renaissance martyrs ogling at collectors from hundreds of years-old canvases… Many ornate signs hinted at the return of art, design and antiques fair TEFAF (The European Fine Art Fair) to its birth city Maastricht this week. 

The sun-washed early March breeze welcomed collectors, dealers, and art world regulars to the northern Dutch city for a week-long marathon of aisle-stomping. Big hats, flamboyant tweeds, and 270 international galleries from twenty-two nations were the VIP days’ main draw (on 7 March 2024, with the fair continuing until 14 March).

Discover TEFAF 2024

Maastricht Exhibition & Conference Centre (MECC) has been home to the mega fair since its inception in 1988, and since, TEFAF has become a collectors’ annual destination to plunge into past treasures that date as far back as 7,000 years with the chance to stumble upon a Radical era Milanese furniture or a contemporary painting. A striking embodiment of this trans historical sweep in the fair experience is the inaugural Focus section, which lets dealers to weave revelatory ties between presumably disparate artists or eras. 

New York’s Sean Kelly gallery, for example, marries the paintings of their roster artist Callum Innes with British antique dealer Charles Ede’s selections of various 400-500BC era Greek vessels. Elevating the bulbous terracotta urns adorned with muscular male torsos and elegant goddesses are carved wood or white onyx pedestals created by Mexican designer Gloria Cortina—backing the multi-textural juxtaposition is a purple-heavy gently drawn watercolour by Innes, titled Red Violet / Red Orange (2022).

‘There are many studious presentations in this section,’ says Hidde van Seggelen, the president of TEFAF executive committee. Standing at his own eponymous gallery’s booth make his case clear: a set of photographs by Brassaï from the 1950s capture Parisian graffiti in black and white across from a suite of wood and wax abstract tower-esque sculptures by British contemporary artist Andy Holden who is currently the subject of a solo exhibition at Tate St. Ives. 

Another standout is Parisian gallery Ketabi Bourdet’s presentation of Paulo Pallucco’s ‘100 Chairs in One Night’ seats, with a few Philippe Starck pieces. The black-colored wooden chairs, which Pallucco designed in 1990s with minimalist but energetic silhouettes, are each inspired by a Rainer Maria Rilke verse and they alchemize a subdued aesthetic with joyful accents, such as wavy or completely stretched backs.

A frosty glass vase by Starck from the same era sits on a 1987-dated black lacquered steel table in which Pallucco partnered with his regular collaborator Mireille Rivier. Also Parisian, Templon gallery salutes art history with a life-size bronze Jim Dine sculpture of Three Graces, titled Primary Ladies (2008) and a Kehinde Wiley hand-painted stained glass light-box painting of two contemporary Black figures in the fashion of Mary and baby Jesus, titled The Virgin and Child Enthroned (2016). 

The gallery’s most playful homage to the pillar of western art however is Belgian artist Hans Op De Beeck’s twist on vanitas in the genre’s birthplace. Aptly titled Vanitas (Variation) 15 (2017), the plaster, wood, steel, and polyester shelf sculpture is a bounty of contemporary objects, such as an early generation smart phone, cigarette lighter, and high heels, alongside more typical still life icons of mortality such as fruits and candle holders, all dipped in the coldness of the artist’s choice of a steel grey hue.

Eras also mingle in Demisch Denant’s booth in an orchestration that echoes the living space of a design lover with a broadly eclectic taste: an anonymous mid-15th century wooden coffer sits not far from a 1835-dated Eugène Isabey seascape, Bataille Navale en Bord de Mer, and Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance’s Burnt Cork Console II, an untreated agglomerated Portuguese cork furniture only from last year. 

Bubbles take over the seminal Dutch light design gallery Brand van Egmond’s booth. Two bubble-inspired light fixtures assume the nostalgic whimsy of blowing kaleidoscopic bubbles and the fair-appropriate adult pleasure of sipping champagne with different compositions of circular iridescent glass forms. A kinetic energy is key in the swirling ceiling composition which holds biomorphic and surreal cues while beaming with a moody glare.

At Washington D.C.’s Geoffrey Diner Gallery, pop art meets Midcentury in a pairing of a 1984-dated sinuous Keith Haring painting that hovers above a George Nakashima table and chairs which the Japanese American wood master carved in walnut, rosewood and chicory. 

THE PAINTINGS are spotlighted, so you can see every brushstroke and crack. Next to each work is a placard, outlining its history and to whom it once belonged. Here is an elaborately framed painting, probably offered by the King of Naples to Pope Benedict XIV in the 18th century (pictured). Nearby is a 470-year-old portrait of a sibyl wearing ermine, once owned by Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, two American actors. The artwork on display in Maastricht is reminiscent of a museum exhibition, except for one catch. Here, everything is for sale.

Every March since 1988 the European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF) has put on a fair in the small Dutch city, best known as the birthplace of the modern-day European Union (the treaty that created it was signed here in 1992). Now this is where museums and art aficionados come to shop. “Maastricht”, as art-world insiders call it, is “the most important fair by a mile for classical paintings and works of art”, says Jonathan Green, a gallerist based in London. The eight-day fair opened on March 7th.

Maastricht is not the only fair where expensive art is sold, but it probably boasts the largest concentration of museum curators on the hunt for their next acquisition. Among this year’s 50,000 visitors were some 300 museum directors—including Laurence des Cars, who runs the Louvre in Paris—and 650 curators. It is the premier destination for old art, as opposed to the contemporary paintings that fairs like Art Basel in Switzerland and Miami favour. Maastricht is the “Met of art fairs, and Art Basel is MoMA”, says Eric Lee, director of the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.

What happens before the fair begins is also unusual. Dealers set up their stands, only to be forced to leave. For a day and a half 230 specialists come in to vet works’ authenticity, as well as their descriptions and stated provenance, bringing x-rays and other technical machines with them.

The specialists have the right to ask for descriptions to be changed. Objects can be removed if the experts believe they are inauthentic; they are locked in a cupboard until after the fair. “You come back in and hope to God that nothing has been thrown out,” says one dealer, who calls Maastricht “the best-vetted fair in the world”.

Each year “tens” of objects are removed, according to Will Korner of TEFAF. But the strict vetting process means dealers work especially hard to ensure their offerings can withstand scrutiny. This gives confidence to buyers, including museums, whose acquisition committees want to be confident they are buying the real deal.

As well as being a destination to ogle breathtaking art, Maastricht offers a window on the art world and current collecting trends. The fair is best known for Old Master paintings, but the number of contemporary dealers in attendance has been growing—because that is where most of the activity in the art market is. Last year European Old Masters (defined as work produced by artists born between 1250 and 1820) accounted for less than 4% of the value of sales at auction globally, according to a new report by Arts Economics, a research firm. In 2003 it was 16%.

Masterpieces by historically significant artists still do well. In 2021 a painting by Sandro Botticelli, the Italian artist of Venus-on-the-half-shell fame, sold for $92m, for example. But the middle has fallen out of the market, owing to changes in aesthetics and interior design. Many of today’s art collectors favour large, colourful canvases by living or recently living artists, to complement their minimalist furniture and large, white walls. (“Park Avenue” taste is how one dealer describes an old Dutch landscape he has for sale, which is now out of favour.)

Social media have changed what sells, says Christophe van de Weghe, a contemporary-art dealer. Old Masters do not photograph as well, and, given the paintings’ age, buyers need to check their condition in person. So dealers of Old Masters are trying to become more masterful at marketing. “We’re trying to sell more blood, sex and mythology,” says Patrick Williams of Adam Williams Fine Art, a gallerist based in New York. (However, images of bloody Christ on the cross are not in vogue: secular works are more popular among younger collectors and those from the Middle East and Asia.) People at Maastricht talk about “wall power”: images that can catch the eye and spark conversations.

Who painted the canvas matters, too. The “biggest trend in the current market is women,” says Alexander Bell, co-chairman of the Old Masters painting department at Sotheby’s, an auction house. Should anyone doubt it, one stand at Maastricht displayed three paintings by female artists adorned with a large sign: “Wall of Ladies”. Museums are avid buyers, as they seek to expand the works and backgrounds of the artists they exhibit. But there are not many to choose from. “It’s a bit of a frenzy” for female artists, says Mr Williams: “Any time we get them, we sell them immediately.”

The reality is that there is less and less for sale by both women and men from bygone centuries. Unlike contemporary art, more of which is created every day, the supply from dead artists is—for obvious reasons—limited. More is disappearing into museum collections or being given by donors to institutions. “The trade is becoming more challenging, because of a scarcity of high-quality paintings available to sell,” says Mr Green. To optimists this suggests that Old Masters as a category are undervalued. At least, that’s what buyers at Maastricht like to think. ■

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Once a year, The European Fine Art Fair turns Maastricht, a small Dutch university town on the border of Belgium, into an art market cyclotron where highly enriched particles of global wealth are discharged into a powerful magnetic field of refined and concentrated world culture in hopes of achieving fusion.

Perhaps a sign of straitened times, TEFAF’s 37th run this year has been condensed from 10 days to a week. Not that this matters much since the serious buying tends to be done on the VIP-only preview and opening days, and opening day was the busiest it’s ever been, according to the fair’s organisers.

Possibly another sign of difficult times, the VIP crowd seemed more homogeneous than has been the case in previous years – less Russian to be heard in the aisles, fewer Chinese buyers, and an apparently narrower age range. With older generations of private collectors increasingly withdrawing to the sidelines and the younger generations primarily focused on contemporary art, institutional curators – mid-life professionals — are sensing a buying opportunity for museum-grade fine art and antiquities, according to some TEFAF insiders.

With about 260 galleries from 20 countries showing the finest, most carefully sourced and strictly vetted gleanings from 7,000 years of global creativity, there’s plenty to attract their attention – and that’s leaving aside the other-worldly flower arrangements, the oysters and the free-flowing VIP-day champagne.

A few takeaways:

Kicking back against gender inequalities in the art world, a focus on female artists: To mention just a few star pieces, Artemisia Gentileschi’s Penitent Magdalene, c.1626, with a price tag of $ 7 million at Robilant +Voena; an Eileen Gray Japanese-inspired lacquer box for €500,000 at Galerie Chastel Maréchal; and a sculpture by Germaine Richier on the stand of Axel Vervoordt.

In keeping with the vogue for mix-n-match cross collecting, there is a growing presence of modern and contemporary, now close to 50-50, in what was once largely a reserve of the old masters and classical antiquities.

The old guard remains—think Landau Fine Art, Richard Green, Steinitz (with a show-stopping mise-en-scene starring two red lacquer and gilded bronze pagoda-decorated commodes, c. 1750, from the Paris mansion of the Dukes de la Rochefoucauld—Doudeauville). Among the gems are Vincent Van Gogh’s Tête de Paysanne à la coiffe blanche, sold by M.S.Rau for a reported $5 million, and a Van Dyck portrait of a Carmelite Monk at Dickinson.

But the contemporary and modern end of the market is now strongly represented, with the likes of White Cube, Galeria Continua, Kamel Mennour, Sean Kelly, and David Gill (a first-timer) hoping to attract a new clientele. Axel Vervoordt, a Tefaf veteran, this year is showing Anish Kapoor, Corbusier, and Ryuji Tanaka alongside Richier.

Alongside these established names, the fair makes space for new players from off the beaten track. Olszewski/Ciacek, focused on Central European avant-garde movements and mid-20th-century avant-garde Poland, is TEFAF’s first Polish exhibitor and winner of the fair’s new Showcase prize.

In hard times, Haute Joaillerie is still a girl’s best friend, but styles have turned more sober, with a preference for high-carat, high-quality gems over fancy settings. This trend plays to the strengths of Munich-based jewellery house Hemmerle, whose taste for coloured cabochons set in materials more mundane than Mondaine is on show in its latest collection.

Words/Top Photo: Tornabuoni Gallery By Claudia Barbieri

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TEFAF, TEFAF Maastricht 37 TEFAF Maastricht

Kunstkammer Geord Laue. Photo: Courtesy of TEFAF

For two weeks every March, the medieval Dutch city of Maastricht becomes the center of the art world as droves of the globe’s most prominent art collectors make the annual pilgrimage to The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF). At a tiny airport on the border of Germany and Belgium, around 200 private jets reportedly land each day over the course of the invite-only VIP opening, this year from March 7 to 8, as top collectors come in search of the rarest treasures and most exceptional museum-quality masterpieces.

Inside MECC, a sprawling convention center on the city’s outskirts, there is a staggering assortment of some 20,000 objects spanning 7,000 years of history. Entering the fair is akin to being transported into a life-size Wunderkammer or encyclopedic museum, where 270 dealers from 22 countries have set up, going to great lengths to create highly unique and immersive environments—some with rich mahogany floorboards and ornate carpets and others with sparse, elegant, design-centric spaces.

On the opening morning, as visitors took their selfies in front of the now signature flower wall—this year featuring illuminated white and pink poppies, roses, and tulips that gently cascaded up and down—the mood was palpably positive. Museum directors from top institutions, many with their board members and trustees in tow, were seen inquiring about the pieces on offer.

Maastricht — 11 March 2024: TEFAF’s exhibitor community unveiled an impressive array of artworks as the celebrated Maastricht fair commenced its proceedings on Thursday, 7 March. Maintaining its venerated status as the premier fair for museum-quality works of art, TEFAF treated collectors to two previews, attracting thousands eager to explore and acquire 7,000 years of art history. The event featured presentations by 272 exhibitors hailing from 22 countries.

TEFAF continues to uphold its reputation for fostering strong ties with museums, as evidenced by the attendance of esteemed guests during the opening days. Notable attendees included 300 museum directors, 650 curators, and 40 patron groups from renowned institutions such as the British Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Louvre. Representatives from institutions like the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art Washington also graced the occasion, reflecting TEFAF’s global appeal and influence in the art world.

Several exhibitors were reported to have sold the majority of their stands, including Pauline Pavec (stand 707), which was taking part in the new Focus section of the fair and sold to major European and American institutions; Ben Hunter (stand 495), which sold to British and American private collectors; and A Lighthouse called Kanata (476) which made 19 sales in the opening two days. The inaugural JP Morgan Private Bank Showcase Prize was presented to Olszewski | Ciacek Gallery (stand 908), which also had strong opening sales, including a work by Karol Hiller Heliographic Composition (XXVI) for €50,000. Reported sales from the preview days have so far included the following:

Modern & Contemporary Art and Design

A Lighthouse called Kanata (stand 476) sold The Path to Spring, 2024 by Satoru Ozaki for €150,000 to a private foundation.

First-time exhibitor Sarah Myerscough Gallery (stand 494) sold a remarkable grown willow tree chair by Full Grown to a US private collector for approximately £85,000.

St. Moritz’s Galerie Karsten Greve AG (stand 410) reported multiple sales on the opening day, including three pieces by artist Kathleen Jacobs, which were sold to European private collectors for between €30,000 and €500,000.

The Paris-based Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois (stand 450) sold its hyperrealistic sculpture titled Adam and Eve by John DeAndrea to a European Museum and Pink by Peter Stämpfli to a private collector for between €250,000 and €300,000.

David Tunick, Inc. (stand 436) sold six works in the opening days, including Edvard Munch’s Madonna lithograph for an upper six-figure sum, sold unseen at the opening bell to a Scandinavian buyer, and an etching by Jean Morin, after Philippe de Champaigne, Still life with a pocket watch, skull and vase of roses, sold to a dealer for his collection for a five-figure sum within the opening hour of the fair.

Ben Hunter (stand 495) sold a critique of drawings by Phoebe Boswell with an asking price of $100,000; a painting by Cedric Morris for around £195,000; Self-Portrait by Frank Auerbach; and a painting by Ithell Colquhoun for an undisclosed sum to British and American private collectors.

First-time TEFAF Maastricht exhibitor Geoffrey Diner Gallery (stand 459) sold two Tiffany Studio pieces and a set of modernist Scandinavian chairs to European private collectors.

Tina Kim Gallery (stand 462) saw some notable sales, including a Ha Chong Hyun for $200,000-$250,000, a Kwon Young-Woo for between $150,000 and $200,000, and a major Park Seo-Bo work.

Paintings

First-time exhibitor, New Orlean’s gallery MS Rau (stand 334), reported several significant early sales, including its highlight, Van Gogh’s Tête de Paysanne à la Coiffe Blanche, a private museum outside the EU.

Zebregs&Röell Fine Art (stand 140) sold the only signed painting by Gesina ter Borch, Portrait of Moses ter Borch as a Two-Year-Old, to the Rijksmuseum with the support of the ‘Women of the Rijksmuseum’ Fund.

Madrid’s Caylus Gallery (stand 364) reported selling several pieces ranging from low five figures to mid-six, including Christ on the Cross by Francesco Buoneri, known as Cecco da Caravaggio, acquired by a major American museum for €280,000.

Carlo Virgilio (stand 369) sold a painting by artist Carl Glotz to Luxemburg’s National Museum of Archeology, History and Art (MNAHA) along with Il Pescatoriello Marvasi (The Marvasi Fisherboy) to a major American museum.

Dutch Old Masters specialists, Bijl-Van Urk Masterpaintings (stand 370) sold Study of a Youth by Michaelina Wautier and A Calm with a Kaag and Smalschip Ashore by Willem van de Velde the Younger for in the region of €500,000.

Kunsthandel P. de Boer (stand 339) sold A Council of War on the Dutch fleet and The Gouda, Flagship of admiral Issäc Sweers at sea, before the fore days battle as a set for €3 million to a Dutch private collector.

Kunstgalerij Albricht (stand 326) sold View on Veere, Zeeland, by Jan Toorop for an asking price of €375,000 to a young Dutch collecting couple.

Van der Meij Fine Arts (stand 377) reported the sale of Forest Ferns by Bertha Wegmann to a Dutch Museum, thought to be the first Wegmann in a Dutch public collection.

The Beheading of the Baptist was sold to a Dutch private collector for around €100,000 at Caretto Occhinegro (stand 372) in the first 30 minutes of the fair’s opening.

Salomon Lilian (stand 308) sold a Still Life with a lute, globe, sash, sword and a portrait print of Ingo Jones, an Anglo-Dutch school oil on canvas, to a private collector, which had an asking price of around €350,000. Other sales include The Triumph of Phoebus Apollo and Prometheus’ Gift of the Arts of Humanity by Jacques Jordaens, Merry Company by Dirck Hals and Erysichthon Selling his Daughter Mestra by Jan Havicksz Steen to a private European collection.

Charles Beddington (stand 367) made ten sales over the preview days, including a work by Giovanni Battista Bertucci for €400,000 and The Piazza San Marco during the Feast of Saint Stephen by Francesco Guardi and Michele Marieschi for an asking price of €450,000.

Antiques

London-based Thomas Coulborn & Sons (stand 175) made several sales on the preview days, including a Chinese Export Carved Huang Huali Armchair and a pair of side chairs. The chairs originate from an important group of Huang Huali furniture made in China in the 18th century for export to England, based on designs produced in England in the late 1730s.

Runjeet Singh (stand 186) sold a significant piece to a US private collector and several more pieces to clients he met at TEFAF when he last exhibited in 2022.

Koopman Rare Art (stand 166) sold a set of eight salt cellars made for the Earl of Grosvenor by Rundell, Bridge & Rundell for £270,000 to a private collector.

Vanderven Oriental Art (stand 104) sold a pair of sizeable Buddhist lion figurines to a Swiss collector and a scarce porcelain figure of a Preening Goose to an Italian private collector for over €40,000.

Prahlad Bubbar (stand 180) sold A View of Shalimar Bagh, attributed to Mihr Chand and calligraphic by Hafiz Nur Ullah Lucknow, to an American Museum for a six-figure sum.

Dr Jörn Günther Rare Books (stand 114) reported sales of six manuscripts, including a Book of Hours illuminated by the Master of Philippa of Guelders, for between CHF 50,000 and CHF 400,000.

Debora Elvira (stand 243) had a strong start on the opening days, including selling a Capezzale depicting Mary Magdalene to the Wawel Royal Castle State Art Collections.

Arms and armoury specialist Peter Finer (stand 222) reported record sales, including a seven-figure purchase of a valuable gilded Augsburg helmet by the most prominent New York collector.

Works on Paper

Stéphane Clavreuil Rare Books (stand 600) sold Jazz, bon à tirer, a remarkable collection of plates by Henri Matisse to a private American collector.

Agnews Works of Paper (stand 609) sold multiple pieces during the preview days, including Tête et épaules de face avec range by Amedeo Modigliani and pieces by Alberto Martini, Mela Muter, and Georges Rouault to private collectors and museums.

William Weston (stand 606) sold The Virtues, Mercy, 2021 Damien Hirst for around €35,000, along with works by Miro, Chagall, and Haring.

Colnaghi Elliott Master Drawings (stand 613) made several sales to European buyers on the first day, including Visage, 8 June 1990, by Leonor Fini to a Greek collector based in the UK for €12,000.

Ancient Art

Within the first 10 minutes of the fair, Galerie Chenel (stand 503) sold a Roman marble sculpture from the 1st—2nd century AD, titled Head of Athena, to a private European collector.

London’s Kallos Gallery (stand 502) reported good sales, including a six-figure sum for a Roman Marble Torso of a God from the 1st century AD and a miniature portrait head of Emperor Lucius Verus for more than £50,000

Charles Ede (stand 501) sold several works over the opening days, including an Egyptian serpentine torso of Thutmose III, a Roman bronze figurine of a stag and a Roman marble head of Bacchus.

Returning to TEFAF after a six-year hiatus, Rupert Wace (stand 502) sold well on the opening days, including a basket and an elegant South Arabian head to a private collector and a Roman-Egyptian offering table acquired by a Japanese collector for a five-figure sum.

Sculpture

London-based gallery Stuart Lochhead Sculpture (stand 112) sold multiple pieces over the preview days, including Giustiniani’s Portrait Bust of Vincenzo Bellini to a private collector for the asking price of €76,000; Joseph Chinard’s Portrait of Alexis Guiffrey to the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, in the region of $90,000; and Giambologna’s Striding Mars, to a significant American museum for $4 million.

Parisian sculpture specialist Galerie Sismann (stand 177) sold Cristo Vivo by Alessandro Algardi to the SKD Museum in Dresden.

Xavier Eeckhout (stand 162) sold a pair of Rembrandt Bugatti figures, Chameau apprivoisé, to a Dutch private collection for €400,000.

Ben Houston of London-based Peter Harrington said of the gallery’s first year at TEFAF Maastricht, “Our experience has been positive. Seeing the level of visitors from museums and institutions has been exciting. We have made a lot of new connections during the opening days and have connected with current and former clients. We’re confident that TEFAF is a great platform to present our works to a diverse, international collecting audience.”

TEFAF President Hidde van Seggelen added, “It is gratifying to hear of such important sales made by our exhibitors in the opening days of TEFAF Maastricht 2024. This fair has been a barometer for the international art and antiques market since its inception in 1988, and we are proud to receive the world’s leading museums, institutions and private collectors who continue to see it as the most important global fair for acquiring the finest works of art, antiques and design.”TEFAF Maastricht runs until Thursday, 14 March, at the MECC, Maastricht. For information, visit tefaf.com

TEFAF is a not-for-profit foundation that champions expertise and diversity in the global art community. This is evidenced by the exhibitors selected for its two fairs, which take place annually in Maastricht and New York. TEFAF acts as an expert guide for both private and institutional collectors, inspiring lovers and buyers of art everywhere.

ABOUT TEFAF MAASTRICHT

TEFAF Maastricht is widely regarded as the world’s premier fair for fine art, antiques, and design. Featuring over 270 prestigious dealers from some 20 countries, TEFAF Maastricht is a showcase for the finest artworks currently on the market. Alongside the traditional areas of Old Master paintings, antiques, and classical antiquities that cover approximately half of the fair, you can also find modern and contemporary art, photography, jewellery, 20th-century design, and works on paper.

TEFAF Maastricht fair (March 9-14)

Top Photo credit: Maison Row

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Art Fair, TEFAF Maastricht Fair

Boasting 7,000 years of art history and requiring almost as many steps to traverse its aisles, The European Fine Art Fair (Tefaf) in Maastricht is far from downsizing. But with the fair’s 37th edition (until 14 March) shortened by three days compared with its predecessors, and featuring a new Focus section enabling galleries to delve deeper into single-artist presentations, the event looks to be building its future through consolidation and refinement.

The results early on seem to reinforce the wisdom of this approach. Despite the backdrop of unease created by macro-economic uncertainty, the ongoing war in Ukraine, an attempted armed robbery here in 2022 and pre-fair rumblings of Extinction Rebellion’s distaste at collectors travelling to Maastricht by air, a welcome sense of normality and joviality permeated the fair’s opening days.

“Our visitor numbers were significantly higher on the first preview day, and among the early visitors were numerous international private collectors, along with over 50 museum groups,” says Will Korner, the head of fairs for Tefaf, of the event’s invitation-only opening on 7 March.

“It’s good to see Tefaf buzzy again. We have seen many of the regular collectors, but also new faces,” said Bernard Shapero of Shapero Rare Books, which was offering an early Qu’ran folio from the mid-7th century on its stand for £850,000.

Prime examples

The 270 dealers from 22 countries exhibiting this year convincingly upheld Tefaf Maastricht’s reputation as the pre-eminent fair for pre-20th century art, objects and furniture. And even though the auction market for Old Masters may not be in its prime, prime examples of the category continue to be brought to the fair—and to find an eager audience here.

This year’s highlights include Anthony van Dyck’s Portrait of a Carmelite Monk (1618), showing at Dickinson gallery with a £4.5m asking price, and Giambologna’s Striding Mars (1580), which was sold by Stuart Lochhead Sculpture to “a major US museum” for $4m early on, according to a Tefaf spokesperson. (Lochhead placed a terra cotta work by Joseph Chinard, a French sculptor active before and after the turn of the 19th century, to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for $90,000, as well.)

Also attracting attention was a collection of works by Edvard Munch on display by David Tunick. A private collector had previously bought the pieces from Tunick over a 25-year period, but they were reunited on the gallery’s stand at Tefaf—until one of the group, a lithograph of Madonna (from a series printed between 1902 and 1912-14) sold “at the opening bell, for a six-figure sum”, Tunick says. Another crowd magnet was Vincent van Gogh’s Tête de paysanne à la coiffe blanche (head of a peasant woman with a white cap), painted around 1884 and being shown by the New Orleans-based gallery M.S. Rau with a price of €4.5m.

In keeping with a spate of strong auction results of late, works by female Old Masters drew serious interest, too. The Rijksmuseum promptly bought the 17th-century Dutch artist Gesina ter Borch’s Portrait of Moses ter Borch as a two-year-old (dated 1647, although it is believed to have been completed 20 years later, on the occasion of the death of the subject, her brother); the acquisition of the painting, which was on offer for €3m from Zebregs & Roell Fine Art and Antiques, was supported by the Women of the Rijksmuseum Fund. Robilant + Voena gallery is also featuring The Penitent Magdalene (around 1625-30) by Artemisia Gentileschi, priced at $7m.

Directions for the future

Stands throughout the premises finessed the presentation of multiple genres and categories together. For instance, the UK-based dealership Thomas Coulborn & Sons sold a Chinese export carved Huang Huali armchair (around 1740) for an undisclosed amount, after installing it convincingly alongside Regency and Baroque furniture.

The response to the new Focus section was generally warm, as well. A striking display of nine of the 100 sculptural black chairs created by Italian designer Paolo Pallucco in the 1990s demonstrated the value of concentrated curatorial space, and it also fortified the fair’s value to dealers who specialise in more contemporary works. “We’ve shown at design and contemporary art fairs before, but Tefaf has really introduced us to different collectors,” said Charlotte Ketabi-Lebard of the gallery. Eight of the chairs had sold by Friday, for prices between €10,000 and €20,000 each; the gallery confirmed one went to a “well-known Belgian collector of African art”.

The jury was still out, however, on the organiser’s decision to reduce the length of the fair. “There are mixed feelings, but personally I’m relieved it’s happening, as there does seem to be a tendency for people to just treat it like a museum [when running for longer]. This brings the focus back to trade,” said Shubha Taparia of London’s Prahlad Bubbar gallery, which placed two works with a “major” American museum for an undisclosed amount on the fair’s opening day: A view of Shalimar Bagh, attributed to Mihr Chand (around 1780), and a gelatin silver print of The Maharani of Indore (1930s).

Other dealers were more sceptical of the fair’s scaled-back duration. “Previously, we have made major sales on the second weekend of the fair, so it will be interesting to see how the shorter date span works out,” says Marc Fecker of Didier Aaron. Fecker says the gallery sold “several” pieces on the fair’s opening day, including a 16th-century oak carving of Saint Ursula attributed to the workshop of Jan II Borman.

There were also early signs that Tefaf’s efforts to welcome new generations of buyers were paying off. “There were young collectors at the preview days—not just the young curators but young private collectors. And they were engaging not only in the more contemporary art but in Old Masters, design, Asian art and antiquities, prints and works on paper,” says Megan Fox Kelly, the New York-based art adviser.

The question, then, is not whether changes will be made to the fair, but whether the pace of change will align well enough with that of the broader shifts in the market. So far, so good.

• Tefaf Maastricht, until 14 March, MECC Maastricht, The Netherlands